Rulers of Pegolia 2023 - Week 3 Update

 The map hasn't really changed since last time, so no updated image for that.

King Jayden of The North Sea on Land:

The king ignored his researchers trapped by the giant Lobsters (I said crabs before, but I was wrong, I had given him the news that it were lobsters). They ask for help again. They sound desperate. (And secretly their trust in their ruler is plummeting rapidly)

Meanwhile he divides his armies and sends 1/8th of his army to the Empire of Bradj and 1/8th to the Empire of Israël. The ones traveling to Bradj do well and turn out to devise para-gliding vehicles to be able to traverse the mountains easily. They send message of their arrival and ask what to do, because their king asked to send the army there, but not what for. Is he bolstering their troops? Attacking them? What is expected? 

The ones traveling to Israel have less fortune. The stumble on a giant that causes them losses and then try another way, over the holy ground in C4, where they end up in a strange mist and ... disappear. Not that the king knows any of that. He just knows that they haven't sent word of their safe arrival... weird.

After all this, these are the hidden stats:

• Tags: Extra Food, Plummeting Trust in the Research Team, The Lost Army Troop
• Project: Expansion to A4 (ongoing?)
• Discovering (2)
• Army (2) - Speedy Troops (3) - Airborne Soldiers (4)
• XP: 0

Empress Chlor of Messias:

She had ignored her subjects letting her know they were scared. This results in protests.

She ignored the message that there were not enough workers for her wall. They carried on none the less, getting even better at their job but getting angry for not receiving help.

Her spies found out that Emperor Alex is sick, small armies are moving from The North Sea on Land towards Israel and Bradj. The captured spies in Bradj and Israel escape and ask wether to return or keep spying. The spie she sent to the Dark Wood return with a weird message that the Prince is fine with playing hide and seek. It's his turn now! spies are found in her own empire as well as they tried to sneak in. One from Sliefingtime and one from the Dark Woods (A mouse with a silver cape, kind of a dead giveaway). But also a spy from Bradj carrying a bomb! While this is concerning, she now gets a free bomb!

She asked for help, but did not write down who she asked it from, so I had her counsel give her different suggestions (negotiate a peace treaty, focus on your own population because they are freaking out, or war because they can't trust us anymore due to our spies being discovered). I think she's freaking out a bit that it's going bad, but she does not see how bad the others are messing up too.

After all this, these are the hidden stats:

• Tags: Tension with Israel, Subjects are Scared, Not Enough Workers, Angry Workers, Protests (Against the Military), Bomb (from Bradj)
• Spying (2) - Discovering Secrets (3)
• Working (2) - Building (3)
• Spies safe in The North Sea on Land and Signapour.
• XP: 0

Emperor Alex of Signapour:

The player was sick this weak, so the emperor is as well. He cannot make decisions, but ongoing projects continue.

The Vibranium Walls are built around more of his cities, making them safer.

A Para-gliding army has been spotted in D1, heading for the Empire of Bradj it seems. The spotters couldn't determine whose army it was.

The council was actually very good in taking over for him while sick. They discovered their talent for this.

After all this, these are the hidden stats:

• Tags: Rumbling Volcano
• Building (2)
• Councelors (2)
• Project: Vibranium Walls (2/4).
• XP: 1

Berticobella, the Small Lover of Sliefingtime:

The Small Lover has some projects going, and spends most of her time reacting to them.

The building of the tunnel under the holy site is approved and the builders try to finish it but OH NO! Disaster! They dig into an underground cavern and fall way way down into an underground sea. One guy managed to stay from falling and went to report. She's gonna save these guys? Right?

The magical fence is being worked on as well. She instructed the people to go to a place she's heard of that has a magical flower. If you find that flower, it will show you the way to a source of magical power. They could not find it this week, but are willing to keep looking.

She also realized that if she's got the only key to the city, her spies, or anyone else for that matter, would have a hard time going in and out of the cities. She asks for face scanners, and her researchers find that, not only can they do this, they are pretty good at inventing as well!

The workers for the project on the walls ask if any Vibranium has been obtained yet (it has not).

Then she also joins the spy game: Her spies get in safe to The North Sea on Land, Signapour and The Dark Woods (impressively enough). They get found out in Israel, Messias and Bradj. She learns about the troop movements of King Jayden, the illness of Emperor Alex (and that his project is halfway done), and that Prince The Wild Child is reinforcing his domain with traps. Their spies learned a lot from this.

Troop movement is spotted on the river as Israel's army is trying to pass. They are unwilling to pay the tax so they take their ships to land and carry them inside the forest.

After all this, these are the hidden stats:

• Tags: Holy Ground, Subterranean Sea, Lost Workers.
• Researching (2) - Inventing (3)
• Building (2)
• Spies (2) - Infiltrating (3)
• Project: Road (0/3)
• Project: Research Magical-Electric Fence (1/3)
• XP: 2 

Prince Wild Child of the Dark Woods:

I returned the Spy from Messias thinking it a game. I send my own spy which immediately gets caught.

I realized I was unfair last time, making others have entire projects for reinforcing their domains with walls, while I just one-turn reinforced with traps. So I made it a project, in which I advanced.

After all this, these are the hidden stats:

• Project: Trapped Forest (2/4)
• Hunting (2)
• XP: 1

Empress Lauris of Israel:

She ignored a caught spy and it escaped.

She caught a spy from the country of Sliefingtime. What will she do with it?

She ignored the protests. They keep going on and even become violent!

She sends her army to the empire of Bradj. They refuse to pay taxes so decide to carry the boats into the woods where they get lost. (They discover they are pretty good as an army though!). She does not know any of this. She only knows she does not receive any word from them. Weird...

After all this, these are the hidden stats:

• Tags: Tension with Messias, Scared of Messias, Violent Protests (Scared of Messias), Lost Army.
• Army (2)
• XP: 2

Emperor Shibi Js of Bradj:

He ignored the captured spy, which escaped.

He caught a new spy, this time one from Sliefingtime. What will he do? (I forgot to put that in his overview. I will need to fix this.)

He wants to 'discover new eyes' but fails. I tell him that if gives more details of how he tries to do this, he has a higher chance of success.

He wants to send spies into Messias to plant a bomb but fails. The spies, and the bomb are captured. His troops learn from this experience for the next time.

An army not only arrives. It paraglides over the mountains and stands to wait. They are from The North Sea on Land. What do you do?

After all this, these are the hidden stats:

• Dragon's Egg
• Spies (2)
• XP: 1

Rulers of Pegolia 2023 - Week 2 Update.

 

The current state of the game world

The result of the second week of gameplay are in and parsed (as I had some time for it today). As it stands I need some 2 hours each week for this, which is too much to sell it to other teachers, especially those not familiar with roleplaying. But I'm having fun at least! That counts for something.

Let's see, starting at row A, and moving down from left to right we have King Jayden first, followed by Empress Lauris and Empress Chlor, then Emperor Alex, Berticobella, Emperor Shibi Js and finally The Wild Child. I didn't specifically tackle them in that order, which makes me think that I might have to make a rule about who goes first, since that can have influence on what happens. Just a little side-note to think about.

King Jayden of The North Sea on Land

King Jayden, the poor guy, sent out this cheery letter introducing himself and the name of his country (Oh, I see I have to edit that on the map!) to everyone, only to get a letter that says "Hi king Jayden, so what's the name of your country?" and another confusing one asking him to join a war. Luckily I was already planning on having my character being glad with just a friendly greeting (he might be feral, but he's just a kid living in the wild. Having friends is fun!). 

Also, he's the only kid that has no others in religion class, being the only Protestant in his year, so unlike the other classes, he doesn't have this same idea of others moving around in the world, actively thinking, as the other groups do. So yeah, my character was like, what the heck, let's send him a gift of our surplus food (delivered on a cart pulled by stags, while a fox wearing a silver cape delivered a letter saying "Hey Jayden! Me Wildekind! Enjoy Food!"

He also took an action, deciding to try and expand his kingdom to A4, but his scouts are accosted and cornered by giant crabs (the size of horses!) and ask for help. In this, his scouts also learned some valuable lessons about preventing this type of thing in the first place, gaining Exploration (2) as a skill, (though none of the kids know any of the skills).

Empress Lauris of the Empire of Israel

Empress Lauris mainly sent out some letters. One letter to King Jayden, about which I wonder if she means to act as if she didn't receive his previous letter or if she was not paying attention. Chances are 50/50. But the other letter was sent to Emperor Alex, agreeing that help might be nice, as well as trade. She didn't specifically say she was after his Vibranium, but he's the only one currently holding that resource. 

She didn't really take any other action, no building or scouting or researching or anything. So I rolled for an event. Her people got more upset with their proximity to Messias that they were holding protest marches, especially since they could see soldiers moving throughout the Empire of Messias.

To make things even more interesting a spy from the Empire of Messias was caught sneaking into the Empire and is now in prison. She will have to decide what to do with them.

Not doing things is not gaining her any skills. If she doesn't pick it up she's gonna lag behind quickly.

Empress Chlor of the Empire of Messias

Empress Chlor, oh boy. Being unsure of wether or not her allies were lying to her or being true friends, she went hard into the spy game (failing enough to level up twice in a single turn!). The only one she seems to be really trusting is Berticobella, to whom she entrusted her entire plan. But yeah, she's acting from a feeling of being cornered.

Her actions were deploying soldiers (which frightened the general population), trying to build walls around her kingdom, (but it turned out a lot of the workers were drafted into said army) and sending out spies to everyone (except, I'm assuming, Berticobella, to which she wrote her entire plan in a message). 

The Kingdom of Bradj immediately discovers her, as was the case in the Empire of Israel and the Dark Woods. In The North Sea on Land she discovered the plans for expansion and the current trouble with the enormous crabs and in Signapour she discovered the Vibranium Walls being built to deal with possible volcanic disaster.

Through all this she learned Spying (2), Discovering Secrets (3) and Building (2) throughout this one action. The spy game seems to be scary in this type of game. In a previous iteration someone also burned all her bridges by having spies uncovered. What will the fallout be now?

Emperor Alex of the Empire of Signapour

Emperor Alex mainly tries to deal with the volcano. He had expressed concerns, asking me in class if he needed to move his entire country. I said that's definitely one option, but there are probably other things he could do, especially with that Vibranium he has. He decided to build walls around his cities using the material. Their builders did great and discovered their talent with building. I set the project at a four week project.

Other than that he got the reply from Empress Lauris, which we've already handled there.

Berticobella the Small Love-Haver
of Sliefingtime

Berticobella mainly focused on answering mail, forgetting that she needed to make decisions for the projects she has running. She messaged both Lauris and Chlor that she is joining them in their war against Bradj. 

She is receiving Chlor's plans this week.

Project wise, I had the project mangers roll for decisions. The Foreman leading the roadworks had a stroke of genius and decided to make a tunnel, digging deep enough so that it would not desecrate the holy site. It will take longer, but they can keep following orders without having to desecrate a holy space. 

The research on the Magical Lightning Fence with Magical Key didn't receive instruction on what to do, so they decided to go with the easiest first. They found a way to conduct magical energy and turn it into electricity. Guess what special material they need for it though? Vibranium. She will have to obtain some Vibranium somehow to be able to make her entire wall. How will she do this?

Emperor Shibi Js of the empire of Bradj

Emperor Shibi Js keeps sending out letters to try and recruit, even though the once he resends them to haven't even had the chance to reply (that is what they do in this action). He resends his offer to Wildekind and ups the ante, offering five of his best eyes for help in the war. He also invites King Jayden to the war with a very confusingly written message.

He gets a message back from The Wild Child this turn. (so he will read this with the other results) which is a boar with a silver cape carrying a satchel containing a broken spear and a letter saying "Hi Shibi! Me Wild Child! No Faight!" and a muddy handprint as a signature.

He also discovers the spy from Messias and will have to decide what to do with them.

Also, again without actually acting he's gonna lag behind in skills pretty soon.

The Wild Child, Prince of the Animals
Ruler of the Dark Woods.

The Wild Child tries to make friends with King Jayden by sending him food. He tells Emperor Shibi Js that he's not willing to fight. With all this talk of war he decides to reinforce his woods with some traps, at which he succeeds.

Then he catches a spy from Messias. He will have to decide what to do with this next turn.