Winning the Game - Edit 1
Before modification by Isaac at 30/01/2011 04:20:20 AM
Winning the Game
Victory Points, VP, are the measure of success a player has had in the maneuvering for power in the Imperium. The player with the most VP at the end of the game wins first place, everyone else is listed in descending order and titles are bestowed.
The Game ends when the Landsdraad stops having to deal with Crises. There are two ways this can happen. A single player can achieve a majority of Player Votes, and thus effectively controls the Landsdraad, ending play immediately at any point after Round 5. The second occurs once Severe Crises enter play, as many of these end the game if the Landsdraad votes for the game ending option, and change the worth of certain victory conditions, see Appendix G: Crisis Events (link) for details.
How are Victory points awarded?
The game begins with 1000 VP in the Victory Pot, “The Pot”, and each player adds 200 VP to it when they join, after all, coming in first or second place is more impressive if there are more players. The victory pot is divided at the end of the game in two fashions: Proportional and Singular. In addition each player brings 100 additional VP into play, a total of 80 VP they and only they can get by achieving their Factions Goals, and 20 more that the Moderator controls to be awarded for prestigious actions during or after the game or auctioned off. These Victory Categories are Proportional, Singular, Goal, and Prestige.
Note: What follows are the details of how the Pot is divided, a player need not actually understand it to play, as each round a “Forecast” will be posted telling people how many VP everything is worth if the game were to end right that moment, and they could simply add up their VP from that or ask the Mod via NB. A player should definitely familiarize themselves with it before Severe Crises begin occurring though, and should scan the Singular Victory Category, since they may want to aim for some of those and sooner is better.
Example Forecast
Forecast Taken: Start of Round 6
Current Victory Pot: 3000
Votes – 3 VP per vote controlled
Income – 1 VP per 400 MS per round
Assets – 2 VP per Asset owned
Military – 2 VP per Legion
Planets – 10 VP per Planet owned
Stock – 1 VP per Share
Wealth – 1 VP for every 1000 MS of Wealth
It bares mentioning that these will usually not be whole numbers, players get a round number (rounded down) for each of those 7 categories but military might be ‘1.8 per Legion’ and planets might be 7.9, a player can backtrack to figure out how much of something there is, if Military makes up 300 VP of the Pot and is worth 2 VP per Legion, then there are 150 Legions running around in the game, this is explained below.
.
Proportional VP – This make up the largest category, about 75% of the Pot, and are distributed evenly for each piece. For example, Income, 10%, means all the players incomes are added up and each player receives a portion of the Income VP equal to the portion of the total Income that was theirs. Victory Points are always awarded as whole numbers and are rounded down.
John is in a game of 10 people, so the Pot is at 10x200+1000 or 3000 VP. Income (10) is worth 10% of the Pot or 300 VP. John has an income of 12,000 MS each round and the total Income of all players is 100,000 MS each round. Players each receive a portion of the 300 VP akin to their portion of the income, in John’s case he has 12% so he receive 12% of the 300, or 36 VP. On the Forecast it would show “Income: 1 VP = 333 MS”.
The large Proportional Category is essentially spread amongst Might, Matter, and Money, and the individual values (as a percentage of the pot) can change on the outcome of a Severe Crisis. They are Votes (15), Military (10), Planets (10), Assets (10), Income (10), Stock (10), and Wealth (10). As mentioned, these can change from a game-ending Crisis, if the player’s vote to dissolve the Empire into a hundred kingdoms the final result might see CHOAM stock worth nothing and Military and Planets each worth 15% of the Pot instead. Player’s will see that on the Crisis Report and players with lots of Legions and Planets would presumably favor this outcome and vote for it, player’s with lots of CHOAM stock clearly wouldn’t.
Votes – The votes used for this are the number of votes players control
Military – The number of non-militia Legions you control (Max CCC+5)
Planet – The number of Planets, including Homeworld, that you control
Assets – The Number of Primary Assets you control, these are: Weapons Factory, Agricultural Fief, Manufacturing Facility, Space Port, Gem Mine, Ore Mine, Luxury Good
Income – You income every round, specifically your income at the end of play
Stock – How many CHOAM Stock Shares you own
Wealth – How much money you have at the end of play
This is probably where the strongest end game dynamic comes into play, not only are people going to want to maneuver on a vote, but a player may realize that a Crisis of the type above is practically guaranteed to have the bad outcome for them, and they may want to consider selling their votes to someone who already has a lot instead, to end the game before the Crisis happens. Realistically in a larger game it is nearly impossible for a player to get a majority of votes otherwise, and it is anticipated that most games would end on a Crisis outcome, not on a majority.
Singular
While Proportional gives points out as percent people control, singular awards go to a single player, they are far smaller, since they only make up 25% of the Pot and are more numerous than Proportional Categories but typically only one person gets them, if anyone gets them at all. For Instance, is worth 1% of the Pot, or 30 VP keeping to our 10 player example. If two players both own the same number, they share the award evenly, in this case 15 VP each. Alternatively (1) Easily Distracted: Own all Luxury Good: Soostone in play is only awarded if someone actually owns all the Soostones at the end of play. As a reminder, each of the 4 luxury goods has only 5 Locations it comes from, but not all 5 may come into play during a same, particularly a shorter one. So this would be rewarded if all 5 were in play or if only 3 were, but to get it a player would have to have them all. Otherwise the 1% of the Pot it awards, 30 VP for our example, would disappear into the ether unrewarded. The more players in the game, the bigger the impact of Singular awards will be, diversification will tend to protect a player from getting hit too badly by a Crisis, but specializing gives one a good shot at a Singular Award, and in a smaller game a player should be able to acquire multiple related awards. Unless otherwise stated Singular awards are based on the status at the end of the game.
(3) Unopposed Chancellor: Control a Majority of the Votes
(2) First Among Equals: Control the most votes
(1) Weathervane: Player who voted with the winning side of the most Crises
(1) Spice Baron: Own more Luxury Good: Spice than any other player
(1) He Who Controls the Spice: Own all Luxury Good: Spice in play
(1) Bright Shiny: Own all Luxury Good: Soostone in play
(1) Stained Lips: Own all Luxury Good: Sapho Juice in play
(1) Very Soothing Music: Own all Luxury Good: Semuta in play
(1) CHOAM Director: Own more Stock than any other player
(1) Feudal Overlord: Own more Planets than any other player
(1) Cannon Fodder: Own more Legions (including militia) than any other player
(1) Shock Troops: Own more Upgraded and Elite Legions than any other player
(1) Industrial Titan: Own more W. Factories and M. Facilities than any other player
(1) Grain Barge: Own more Agri Fiefs and Space Ports than any other player
(1) Mountain King: Own more Gem and Ore Mines than any other player
(1) Justice League: Own more Heroes than any other player
(1) All Your Base Are Belong To Us: Launch the most successful Seizure attacks
(1) Jolly Roger: Launch the most successful Raid attacks
(1) Uninvited Guest: Launch the most successful House Raid attacks
(1) Master of Assassins: Launch the most successful Assassination (Hero and Elector combined)
(1) Master of Corruption: Bribe the most Electors
(1) Spymaster: Uncover the most Troop Movements
Goals
Goals are discussed extensively in both Appendix A and Appendix I (links). Each Player begins with goals totaling 80 VP, some specific to the Faction, some random, and achieving these grants Fixed VP, they are not proportional to the Pot, and the bigger the game the more important achieving them is since that 80 VP is fixed, whereas the Pot drops in average value with more players, 2000 with 5 players, average of 400 VP, 3000 with 10, average of 300, 5000 with 20, average of 250.
Prestige
Every player who comes in adds 20 VP to the Prestige category, this category is totally up to the mod’s discretion, and generally is distributed for noteworthy (prestigious) stuff. Some will be auctioned off as prestigious titles (Master of Ceremonies: +4 VP) some will be awarded for really epic behavior “Most brutal backstab of a fellow player”, “Bloodiest Ambush”, etc. Points can also be awarded for acting like your faction generally would or generally keeping the game going at an exciting tempo, “acted like House Atreides would” or “Most posts in game” and so on. You might get VP for finding a flaw in the rules and letting the Mod know about it or making a valuable suggestion for improving game play or mechanics. These are small awards generally, they are not evenly divided and they are fairly arbitrary, and may be considered the equivalent of “Roleplaying Awards”. A player who stays fairly active in the game can expect to receive some points for good sportsmanship. Some of these may appear as random Auctioned Goals as well ‘The Farmers Guild of Deneb will bestow the Title Guildmaster on anyone who owns 4 Agri Fiefs, the chair of the group is accepting bids’ and the winner would get “Goal: Own 4 Agri Fiefs, +5 VP), which is pretty nice if they already have that goal since they can double up.
Victory Titles
There is really no set winner to the game, players are merely ranked by their final score. “Chancellor of the Landsdraad” is reserved for a player who actually achieves a majority victory and otherwise indicates the moderator. Titles are bestowed on players based on score though, and people are welcome to add these to their signature lines, particularly if the game gets serialized. Titles are player gender and faction appropriate, so if someone gets Duke while playing the House Vernius of Ix they would be the Duchess of Ix, or someone could get Prince of Junction if they really cleaned up playing the Guild.
Titles by Points -10 Players
Prince - 600
Archduke - 550
Duke - 500
Marquis - 450
Count - 400
Viscount - 350
Baron – 300
Just as an example, if someone manages to achieve their goals and sweep up 20% of the pot in a 10 player game they’ll have nearly 700 points, and will likely have won or come in very high. In a 5 player game, with a pot of 2000, players should average nearly 500 and 20% is merely average. So the actual scale for a game is that points for Baron are merely the Pot divided by the players, and the Prince merely twice that. Since players also have their own goals and prestige points, a relatively average result can obtain a Barony. Any number of players can get the same rank.
Victory Points, VP, are the measure of success a player has had in the maneuvering for power in the Imperium. The player with the most VP at the end of the game wins first place, everyone else is listed in descending order and titles are bestowed.
The Game ends when the Landsdraad stops having to deal with Crises. There are two ways this can happen. A single player can achieve a majority of Player Votes, and thus effectively controls the Landsdraad, ending play immediately at any point after Round 5. The second occurs once Severe Crises enter play, as many of these end the game if the Landsdraad votes for the game ending option, and change the worth of certain victory conditions, see Appendix G: Crisis Events (link) for details.
How are Victory points awarded?
The game begins with 1000 VP in the Victory Pot, “The Pot”, and each player adds 200 VP to it when they join, after all, coming in first or second place is more impressive if there are more players. The victory pot is divided at the end of the game in two fashions: Proportional and Singular. In addition each player brings 100 additional VP into play, a total of 80 VP they and only they can get by achieving their Factions Goals, and 20 more that the Moderator controls to be awarded for prestigious actions during or after the game or auctioned off. These Victory Categories are Proportional, Singular, Goal, and Prestige.
Note: What follows are the details of how the Pot is divided, a player need not actually understand it to play, as each round a “Forecast” will be posted telling people how many VP everything is worth if the game were to end right that moment, and they could simply add up their VP from that or ask the Mod via NB. A player should definitely familiarize themselves with it before Severe Crises begin occurring though, and should scan the Singular Victory Category, since they may want to aim for some of those and sooner is better.
Example Forecast
Forecast Taken: Start of Round 6
Current Victory Pot: 3000
Votes – 3 VP per vote controlled
Income – 1 VP per 400 MS per round
Assets – 2 VP per Asset owned
Military – 2 VP per Legion
Planets – 10 VP per Planet owned
Stock – 1 VP per Share
Wealth – 1 VP for every 1000 MS of Wealth
It bares mentioning that these will usually not be whole numbers, players get a round number (rounded down) for each of those 7 categories but military might be ‘1.8 per Legion’ and planets might be 7.9, a player can backtrack to figure out how much of something there is, if Military makes up 300 VP of the Pot and is worth 2 VP per Legion, then there are 150 Legions running around in the game, this is explained below.
.
Proportional VP – This make up the largest category, about 75% of the Pot, and are distributed evenly for each piece. For example, Income, 10%, means all the players incomes are added up and each player receives a portion of the Income VP equal to the portion of the total Income that was theirs. Victory Points are always awarded as whole numbers and are rounded down.
John is in a game of 10 people, so the Pot is at 10x200+1000 or 3000 VP. Income (10) is worth 10% of the Pot or 300 VP. John has an income of 12,000 MS each round and the total Income of all players is 100,000 MS each round. Players each receive a portion of the 300 VP akin to their portion of the income, in John’s case he has 12% so he receive 12% of the 300, or 36 VP. On the Forecast it would show “Income: 1 VP = 333 MS”.
The large Proportional Category is essentially spread amongst Might, Matter, and Money, and the individual values (as a percentage of the pot) can change on the outcome of a Severe Crisis. They are Votes (15), Military (10), Planets (10), Assets (10), Income (10), Stock (10), and Wealth (10). As mentioned, these can change from a game-ending Crisis, if the player’s vote to dissolve the Empire into a hundred kingdoms the final result might see CHOAM stock worth nothing and Military and Planets each worth 15% of the Pot instead. Player’s will see that on the Crisis Report and players with lots of Legions and Planets would presumably favor this outcome and vote for it, player’s with lots of CHOAM stock clearly wouldn’t.
Votes – The votes used for this are the number of votes players control
Military – The number of non-militia Legions you control (Max CCC+5)
Planet – The number of Planets, including Homeworld, that you control
Assets – The Number of Primary Assets you control, these are: Weapons Factory, Agricultural Fief, Manufacturing Facility, Space Port, Gem Mine, Ore Mine, Luxury Good
Income – You income every round, specifically your income at the end of play
Stock – How many CHOAM Stock Shares you own
Wealth – How much money you have at the end of play
This is probably where the strongest end game dynamic comes into play, not only are people going to want to maneuver on a vote, but a player may realize that a Crisis of the type above is practically guaranteed to have the bad outcome for them, and they may want to consider selling their votes to someone who already has a lot instead, to end the game before the Crisis happens. Realistically in a larger game it is nearly impossible for a player to get a majority of votes otherwise, and it is anticipated that most games would end on a Crisis outcome, not on a majority.
Singular
While Proportional gives points out as percent people control, singular awards go to a single player, they are far smaller, since they only make up 25% of the Pot and are more numerous than Proportional Categories but typically only one person gets them, if anyone gets them at all. For Instance, is worth 1% of the Pot, or 30 VP keeping to our 10 player example. If two players both own the same number, they share the award evenly, in this case 15 VP each. Alternatively (1) Easily Distracted: Own all Luxury Good: Soostone in play is only awarded if someone actually owns all the Soostones at the end of play. As a reminder, each of the 4 luxury goods has only 5 Locations it comes from, but not all 5 may come into play during a same, particularly a shorter one. So this would be rewarded if all 5 were in play or if only 3 were, but to get it a player would have to have them all. Otherwise the 1% of the Pot it awards, 30 VP for our example, would disappear into the ether unrewarded. The more players in the game, the bigger the impact of Singular awards will be, diversification will tend to protect a player from getting hit too badly by a Crisis, but specializing gives one a good shot at a Singular Award, and in a smaller game a player should be able to acquire multiple related awards. Unless otherwise stated Singular awards are based on the status at the end of the game.
(3) Unopposed Chancellor: Control a Majority of the Votes
(2) First Among Equals: Control the most votes
(1) Weathervane: Player who voted with the winning side of the most Crises
(1) Spice Baron: Own more Luxury Good: Spice than any other player
(1) He Who Controls the Spice: Own all Luxury Good: Spice in play
(1) Bright Shiny: Own all Luxury Good: Soostone in play
(1) Stained Lips: Own all Luxury Good: Sapho Juice in play
(1) Very Soothing Music: Own all Luxury Good: Semuta in play
(1) CHOAM Director: Own more Stock than any other player
(1) Feudal Overlord: Own more Planets than any other player
(1) Cannon Fodder: Own more Legions (including militia) than any other player
(1) Shock Troops: Own more Upgraded and Elite Legions than any other player
(1) Industrial Titan: Own more W. Factories and M. Facilities than any other player
(1) Grain Barge: Own more Agri Fiefs and Space Ports than any other player
(1) Mountain King: Own more Gem and Ore Mines than any other player
(1) Justice League: Own more Heroes than any other player
(1) All Your Base Are Belong To Us: Launch the most successful Seizure attacks
(1) Jolly Roger: Launch the most successful Raid attacks
(1) Uninvited Guest: Launch the most successful House Raid attacks
(1) Master of Assassins: Launch the most successful Assassination (Hero and Elector combined)
(1) Master of Corruption: Bribe the most Electors
(1) Spymaster: Uncover the most Troop Movements
Goals
Goals are discussed extensively in both Appendix A and Appendix I (links). Each Player begins with goals totaling 80 VP, some specific to the Faction, some random, and achieving these grants Fixed VP, they are not proportional to the Pot, and the bigger the game the more important achieving them is since that 80 VP is fixed, whereas the Pot drops in average value with more players, 2000 with 5 players, average of 400 VP, 3000 with 10, average of 300, 5000 with 20, average of 250.
Prestige
Every player who comes in adds 20 VP to the Prestige category, this category is totally up to the mod’s discretion, and generally is distributed for noteworthy (prestigious) stuff. Some will be auctioned off as prestigious titles (Master of Ceremonies: +4 VP) some will be awarded for really epic behavior “Most brutal backstab of a fellow player”, “Bloodiest Ambush”, etc. Points can also be awarded for acting like your faction generally would or generally keeping the game going at an exciting tempo, “acted like House Atreides would” or “Most posts in game” and so on. You might get VP for finding a flaw in the rules and letting the Mod know about it or making a valuable suggestion for improving game play or mechanics. These are small awards generally, they are not evenly divided and they are fairly arbitrary, and may be considered the equivalent of “Roleplaying Awards”. A player who stays fairly active in the game can expect to receive some points for good sportsmanship. Some of these may appear as random Auctioned Goals as well ‘The Farmers Guild of Deneb will bestow the Title Guildmaster on anyone who owns 4 Agri Fiefs, the chair of the group is accepting bids’ and the winner would get “Goal: Own 4 Agri Fiefs, +5 VP), which is pretty nice if they already have that goal since they can double up.
Victory Titles
There is really no set winner to the game, players are merely ranked by their final score. “Chancellor of the Landsdraad” is reserved for a player who actually achieves a majority victory and otherwise indicates the moderator. Titles are bestowed on players based on score though, and people are welcome to add these to their signature lines, particularly if the game gets serialized. Titles are player gender and faction appropriate, so if someone gets Duke while playing the House Vernius of Ix they would be the Duchess of Ix, or someone could get Prince of Junction if they really cleaned up playing the Guild.
Titles by Points -10 Players
Prince - 600
Archduke - 550
Duke - 500
Marquis - 450
Count - 400
Viscount - 350
Baron – 300
Just as an example, if someone manages to achieve their goals and sweep up 20% of the pot in a 10 player game they’ll have nearly 700 points, and will likely have won or come in very high. In a 5 player game, with a pot of 2000, players should average nearly 500 and 20% is merely average. So the actual scale for a game is that points for Baron are merely the Pot divided by the players, and the Prince merely twice that. Since players also have their own goals and prestige points, a relatively average result can obtain a Barony. Any number of players can get the same rank.