So, the Mere Anarchy Kingdoms rules are undergoing some extensive testing as everything gets finalized and balanced. I have included a playthrough of the Beginning Era of a kingdom below but first I want to sort of explain what the rules do and how they work.
Essentially, MA Kingdoms is a group narrative building game where players take turns creating and narrating events in a kingdom. The end goal is to create a history of a kingdom from start to finish (or even to simply establish a bit of backstory and history for a kingdom).
A kingdom is divided into three eras: beginning, middle, and decline. In each era players take turns determining the year, the event, the scale of the event, and persons and things involved in the event. These event attributes are then used as keywords to create a narrative for the kingdom. After each event is created and narrated, the Era Die Pool is rolled to determine if the kingdom has graduated to the next era in its lifetime. Once a kingdom exists the Era of Decline, it collapses. This event is narrated as well.
Play can consist of players all narrating events in the same kingdom or each player narrating events in their own kingdoms. The book contains...
- Overview of MA Kingdoms and how to play
- Event generator
- Event scale
- Historical Figure generator
- Historical Thing generator
- Kingdom Name generator
- Kingdom Attributes (for details on things like population, attitudes, etc.)
- Kingdom Collapse rules
Here is a sample test where I ran through events in the beginning era of the kingdom called Dragonkeep (yeah, that's actually the name that I generated). Don't pay attention to spelling/grammar as these were rough notes.
Just some quick notes: all names were randomly generated. The keywords generated as event attributes were used as the basis to build a story that made sense.
The Kingdom of Dragonkeep
Symbol: A green dragon above a keep.
Beginning Era
Year 30. Event: Collapse, Figure: Charlatan, Thing: Failed Idea, Scale: Major
The Charlatan known as Gresikmere pretended to be an engineer from a far off kingdom. Gresikmere proposed the creation of a dam to provide a natural reservoir for the kingdom. In the year 27 of the kingdom dam construction began. Three years later and halfway through construction, the dam collapsed and led to the deaths of 50 people.
Year 90. Event: Ancient Evil, Figure: Trader, Thing: Guild, Scale: Minor
A Trader named Davis Hollowshadow from the Guild of the Swapping Hand, delved into the ruins upon which Dragonkeep had been built and discovered a tomb under Castle Dragonkeep. Hastily the tomb was opened and the demon Glassopheles was released. Upon being released Glassopheles murdered Davis Hollowshadow and made its way to the surface where it fed on several infants and young maidens before escaping Dragonkeep and heading into the wilderness. The people of the kingdom, although disturbed, thought little about this event and blamed greed. The ruins under the castle were sealed off without further investigation.
Year 110: Event: Explosion, Figure: Villain, Thing: Technology, Scale: Major
The Villain known as Flint Distantwind constructed a massive bomb using blackpowder and the dried entrails of fire breathing dragons. The bomb components were placed inside a carriage. Flint detonated the bomb (along with himself) at the gate of Castle Dragonkeep. The explosion was massive and caused great damage to the castle walls. Some 60 people were killed in the blast and a great crater was left that in the subsequent year was converted into a moat around the castle.
Year 140: Event: Trade Route Shifts, Figure: Prisoner, Thing: Structure, Scale: Minor
An escaped Prisoner known only as The Wolf gathered a group of marauders and footpads and took up residence in an old tower outside the kingdom. For the next two years The Wolf and his men robbed and murdered a great many people on the north road that led into Dragonkeep. As news of this grew merchants from neighboring kingdoms stopped sending shipments via the North Road. Eventually the exploits of The Wolf reached the ears of Dragonkeep’s King and soldiers were sent to dispatch the ne'er do wells. The Wolf and his men were quickly defeated but it was years before trade on the North Road from Dragonkeep resumed.
It was at this point the Beginning Era came to an end and the Middle Era began...
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