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Game Redesign Plans

Because Midgard is being converted for web use and many areas are becoming more automated to match, a number of adjustments are being made to the game system. The flavor of the game should be much the same as previous players are used to, but a number of the details are being changed. These changes began being discussed some time ago in an earlier incarnation of the Midgard area of the PlayByMail.dev forums, but they have not been active for some time. New discussions should be initiated there (or somewhere on the PBM Discord channel) and all experienced players are encouraged to participate in these further discussions. The descriptions and documents on this page have been partially arrived at based on those discussions as they were made (and the seeds for new discussions) and are available for public review and commentary on the above-mentioned area(s). New comments that you wish to keep private may also be made directly to the GMs via the Contact Us channels.

This page was last updated on July 23, 2024.

History

There were several versions of Midgard that used to be running from various countries around the world, and none of them used the same set of rules, had the same cities developed in the same way, or had common factions, clans, or players playing in them. Therefore, starting with any one existing history and proceeding forward seems to be impossible. In addition, in some of the games certain factions, cities, players, or clans were given benefits that were out of proportion to the rest of them. Therefore, to provide a common ground for restarting the game and giving all the new players a relatively even footing on which to begin play, the history of Midgard is being rewound back to the time of the previously-encountered asteroid strike. This time, the asteroid will do much more damage than it originally did and the continent of Midgard will be reduced to more primitive conditions. City populations will see a considerable reduction to a more even and manageable number of citizens and city defenses will be reduced to rubble and only rebuilt to limited levels in the time since the strike. Factions will take on somewhat new appearances (see below) to fit with this new historical viewpoint and will own few cities or resources to begin with.

Geography

The new game world will include only the continent of Midgard for the foreseeable future. Kalmar is a disaster area with barely a living thing on it and a crater covering most of the continent. It will be some time before it is even marginally habitable.

Minor changes will be made to random places on the map, effectively invalidating any details from previous games though the overall geography will be the same.

For beta-testing, life will be restricted to a tiny island off the mainland. By the end of beta-testing, transportation will be available to the mainland or new clans will be available to be started there if desired.

Factions

Most of the old Midgard factions that previous players are used to will be around, but some adjustments will be made to them. For one thing, certain factions (most notably the Imperials) had massive game advantages over other factions. These will be evened out so no one faction is inherently stronger than any of the others, just different. The game history (above) reflects these changes and their origins. Also, the factions will be recategorized into "organized" and "disorganized" groups. The organized factions are the ones that most previous players are used to and are populated with player clans. These factions have structure, with ranks and goals and seniors to manage them. Disorganized factions have no common structure or leadership (although they operate similarly anywhere in the faction) and are currently being reserved for NPC opponents or game support. Creation of new factions will require considerably less time, membership and similar prerequisites than in previous versions of Midgard, but each must be functionally distinct from all the others in play and the creator will need to produce a full written design for approval by the GM. For good balance, each faction should have both friendly and enemy (organized) factions, one to a few of each. Below is a list of factions that are currently expected and their structural definitions.

At the moment, these factional descriptions have not been filled in with details. This is being deferred in order to allow for more programming time to get the game running again. However, in order to save time, it is requested from anyone that is interested in any of these factions, to please make contributions to their descriptions. Please email any text you have or construct to the GM and it will be copied into these descriptions. We should probably begin with how they have been defined in the past and then changes to that definition may be suggested. Once the descriptions are reasonably well filled out, discussions can then begin on any new features such as those that support game balance.

Independents (Playable)

Everyone will enter the game as an Independent clan and may remain so as long as they wish, or declare for a particular faction immediately. Independents have no particular factional affiliation themselves and thus may do whatever they please. There is no rank structure or factional benefits, but they can gain influence (in organized factions) and other resources in play.

Any Independent clan wishing to play as one of the disorganized factions (as a Bandit, for instance) is welcome to behave in that manner themselves (such as setting up roadblocks or stealing from the populace) or simply play in ways that support such groups as desired. But such clans will officially remain as Independent clans and will not be part of any official factional organization.

Organized Factions (Playable)

(Additional factions may be added to or removed from this list)

Disorganized Factions (NPC)

(Additional factions may be added to or removed from this list)

Factions expecting to be dropped

(Additional factions may be added to or removed from this list)

Clans

Followers

Three followers is plenty for a small clan (perhaps even too many, so we might start with only one or two). But as clans grow in size their command structure and logistics would be expected to be more and more difficult to manage with at most three followers. Therefore, we are planning to be able to allow the number of followers to increase slowly as the size of the clan grows. A chart of how many followers will be allowed at what size of clan is to be determined. Special procedures may also be required to acquire such new followers as well, such as waiting until one of your retainers gains enough experience, loyalty, and personal trust to be promoted or a long-lost friend is found by chance.

Skills

A skill system is very popular and will probably be implemented in the vicinity of running the beta test. However, it will be a little different than the previous systems and will need a good bit of design time to plan out what skills will be available and how they interoperate.

Cities

Settlement nomenclature

Cities will get some new nomenclature without changing functionality. Cities will have different settlement types based strictly on population. These are expected to be:

  1. Hamlet (less than 100; sparse and loosely organized, without a formal leader or factional alignment)
  2. Village (100 to 1,000; grouped together, with a leader)
  3. Town (1,000 to 10,000)
  4. City (10,000 to 100,000)
  5. Metropolis (100,000 to 1,000,000, if we ever reach that size)
  6. Megalopolis (1,000,000 and up, if we ever reach that size; might even extend across multiple map squares)

All these will be called (and will work like) a generic "city". The type is only used for convenient naming purposes (i.e. "The Town of Hillguard") and to allow for size-dependent mapping icons. The given name of a settlement remains the same, even if its type changes due to population growth, so "The Town of Hillguard" may grow into "The City of Hillguard".

Defenses

City defenses will be handled independently of its size and settlement type. Walls and other such defenses will not be fixed by the type (size) of settlement but will vary by the desires of its leader and citizens. Of course, building expensive structures require a given amount of resources (money, material, and manpower) that small settlements would not typically have available. But there's no technical reason why any settlement may not have any type of defense that they can afford. Walls and Outworks will have variable costs based on the size of the population protected. Gates will be built only into specific walls (see the detailed description) and will be priced as additional costs to the walls. Here's how I'm envisioning some of these to be organized:

Annexes

In the past, city populations were constrained by their ability to be housed within fixed-size walls of a city. Any further population expansion was housed outside the protected area until they became large enough to form a fixed-size annex to the city. This tied the number of annexes directly to the city's population. The new game programming need not be restricted in this way. The plan is for a city to build their primary surrounding wall to protect a specific number of inhabitants, but this can be any desired number (and will change the cost to build the wall). Further improvement to the wall will increase its effectiveness but will not change the population protected.

To protect more people than that, an annex may be created. This annex can protect any desired number of additional inhabitants (which again affects its cost) and may be built up to any level of protection (not necessarily the same as the city's primary walls). For defensive purposes, these annexes may be treated similarly to independent cities and may be defended or breached separately (providing they have a defensive gate between them). Annexes are usually constructed to adjoin and share one of the other city walls, but if desired the city may be surrounded in its entirety (giving much-improved concentric layers of protection but requiring a greater perimeter and cost). Annexes will have a total of eight walls, just like a city, except for the wall shared between the city an annex (which counts as one of the eight walls for each one).

If an annex is constructed to adjoin the city walls then it protects an additional number of inhabitants as requested. But if the annex is concentric with the city's wall then the annex wall must be built large enough to contain both the additional population as well as the existing city wall's capacity, and will cost commensurately more.

When an adjoining annex is created, one of the city's walls is declared as the point of conjunction and the city and annex both share that wall (dividing the combined city). If a defensive gate is already present in that wall, it will remain and be managed along with the wall of which it is a part. If the shared wall has no gate in it at all, then an opening (such as a simple archway) will be constructed through it to link the two areas of the city so that traffic may flow easily between them. If a defensive gate exists (or is added later) then the two sides are defended separately. If the annex is breached by an attacker, this dividing gate may be closed and used as if it were an exterior defensive gate for the city proper.

Outworks will need major refitting or replacement done when adding an annex.

Ports/shipyards

Although not entirely designed yet, the plan is for coastal cities to be able to support ports and shipyards as part of their operation. However, they will not be within the city proper but will instead be outside any city walls and thus will not provide a direct sea-entry into the city for either attacking troops or ship's passengers. Passengers can debark at a port into the area around the city without entering (or even being allowed to enter) the city proper, thus cities can't "close off" their ports to particular ships/clans.

Ports and shipyards will be run by NPC guilds and will not be under direct control of the city or its leader. They will be impartial providers of service to any and all who can pay. They provide their own operational maintenance from their income, but the city must pay for new construction to build or improve them as desired. In return the city coffers get a portion of their profits, and better facilities benefit the city indirectly as well.

Buildings

Cities that are large enough may host public buildings for the use of their residents. Some types are factional buildings (built and controlled by the faction), some are guild-controlled, and some are constructed and used by the city itself (under the City Leader's direction). Each type of building provides its own sort of benefits, some of which simply provide overall improvement to the general well-being of the city.

City buildings provide various benefits to the inhabitants and visitors to the city, but the usefulness of buildings is limited by the size (population) of the city. For instance, a small town cannot effectively make use of a dozen hippodromes.

Banks

Cities often have banks to serve both the populace and visiting clans. If one does not already exist, the city leader must ask the banking guild for one to be constructed and must provide the resources for them to do so. Once constructed, banks support their own operations by charging minimal fees. Clans and cities may keep their excess funds in a bank account and this is free for small deposits. But those keeping more than a few hundred crowns in the bank will be charged a fee each cycle of 1 crown for each 500 crowns on deposit (rounded down). This fee system provides the banking guild enough income to support its ongoing operations. Making a cash withdrawl from your bank account requires balance verification by heliograph (once per cycle at that bank) and this will take a significant number of action points to accomplish.

Banks are also in charge of converting raw gold and gems (produced by the city's mines) into spendable crowns, so the city must have a local bank available to take care of this processing for them each cycle. Raw gold and gems may not be stored, transported, or used in any other way. Banks are also used to hold in escrow any funds needed for payment of completed tasks.

Warehouses

Warehouses have traditionally been very abstract in usage and I propose to improve upon this a little. One idea is to have the maximum number of warehouses be variable and based on the population (i.e. size) of the city. But I would like to have the City Leader construct warehouses (up to that maximum) as he desires, and with a construction cost TBD. So some cities might not have warehouses at all.

The cost of renting warehouses will be set by the City Leader, but when a warehouse is rented the price will be locked in for the duration of that rental. Payment for that rental term will be made in advance and will be non-refundable. Additional time may be obtained by re-renting the warehouse at the end of the term for the then-current rate.

If the goods are not removed by the renter by the end of the rental term or a new rental initiated by that time, then the goods will remain locked in the warehouse for up to six additional cycles at a cost per cycle of 150% of the original rental rate representing a late fee. If this additional cost is not paid by the end of this time and the contents collected, then all the contents are subject to immediate confiscation by the City Leader.

It may be necessary for the City Leader to otherwise confiscate the contents of a warehouse in times of an extreme emergency, but must pay the owner 150% of the current market value of those contents in addition to refunding the remainder of their rental cost. This should be done only with a great deal of caution in desperate circumstances as it may also involve substantial and ongoing political ramifications.

Health and Healing

Healing of injuries and maintenance of general health is an important part of any population and shouldn't be limited to just a few special groups. Therefore it will be made widely available (although not free) and integrated into city economies and markets. Positions that are not usually involved in combats will not need much support of this sort, but illness and accidents still happen.

Truly magical healing will not be provided but there will be "medicinal" capabilities for accelerated healing rates, primarily by the use of herbalism and skilled practitioners. This will not be limited to any particular faction but will be available to everyone. However, one or more factions may specialize in providing herbal remedies, places with staff for improved recuperation, and/or skilled healing specialists of various types as their doctrine dictates, and these will be associated with appropriate bonuses. In more colloquial terms, this amounts to Medieval-era versions of drugstores, hospitals, rehab centers, pharmacists, nurses, doctors, and surgeons. These can support both city populations and clans, hopefully with impartiality.

Magic

Magic is certainly powerful and advantageous, but I have not been able to figure out a way to make it balanced within the world of Midgard. If it is permitted to certain factions, for instance, then it will overbalance those factions in relation to the others. Perhaps I could give every faction a single magical benefit (of similar power) then that could possibly be balanced enough to work. Coming up with such a game-wide structure would not be easy, however. Does anyone have any suggestions on allowing magic into Midgard in a balanced way?

Naval Operations

Naval equipment and operations are planned, but programming for them will be deferred until after the basic areas of the game are running.

Regiments

Regiments will be available from factional leadership, as before, but their use will be noticeably more restricted. Regiments will be more difficult to muster and thus will become more valuable and less available in general. They should not be used as "cannon fodder" in combat - each clan should be sharing the risk in any dangerous activities to which the regiments are assigned. If regiments are left to perform risky duties by themselves then their Loyalty and Morale will suffer, possibly to the point of refusing to take on such duties.

Play Styles

Different players will wish to play Midgard in different ways, and most of these ways will be supported by the game system as best we can. For instance, some players may be "builders" and there will be plenty of opportunity for construction and other kinds of development across the land. Other players may wish to be more of a "merchant" and spend their time buying, selling, trading, and earning money. Some may want to be administrators and just govern cities efficiently while others may prefer to be combat-centered and spend their time fighting (for themselves or others) and gaining glory on the combat field. Still others might like to be explorers, or help other people, or just make a name for themselves. Of course, Independent clans may take any or all of these directions, as well as taking on game support roles or acting as villians of various sorts. All such possibilities should be available in some form or another.

Actions

Many new types of actions (commands) will be available for fine-tuning the control of your positions. City Leaders and Factional Seniors will have their own sets of actions available, separate from Clans and EFs. Each of these positions will enter their actions independently of the others, even those controlled by the same player. Formal actions will be used to perform many operations that used to require Special Actions to perform in the old systems, but Special Actions will still be available on a limited basis for anything they don't cover (for an additional Special Action fee).

For instance, construction projects can be initiated and managed through standard actions. Tasks may be offered, accepted, and otherwise managed with standard actions. Event "triggers" have been defined to specify many simultaneous kinds and combinations of situations to invoke various kinds of automatic responses. Seeking rumors circulating in a city is another action-invoked option. Hopefully most common behaviors will be accommodated directly.

However, remaining types of special actions will be very limited as Midgard will no longer be an ad-hoc RPG like before. Special actions will be available for minor adjustments to game play but no new major plot lines or concepts will be handled for particular positions. The GMs are open to discussing general game expansion concepts and new formalized action types as time permits, but all such suggestions should be practical and desired for general use throughout the game.

Turns

Turns are going to be handled a little differently than before, but hopefully this will be an improvement over the classic style. Turns are going to be submitted on the web site, of course, but the processing of those turns will not wait until the end of the cycle. Instead, they will be processed right away (nominally the next day) and the results of processing those turns will be available immediately thereafter as a "turn report". This processing and reporting only deals with activities that can be handled immediately - any other activities will be prepared but will not actually be effective until cycle processing at the end of the cycle. This allows you to get back some kinds of feedback on what has been done so far, before the full cycle update and reporting.

One thing that this method provides is the ability to submit "partial cycle" turns. You will be allowed to submit a portion of your turn, see how it goes, and then submit additional actions based on those results! You will be able to submit as many different turns as desired until you use up all your time for the entire cycle. One of the primary things that can be handled during these partial turns is simple movement, so your cycle can be composed of step-wise progress to your desired destination.

In addition, in the old game you had action points, movement points, and other ways of tracking how much you could accomplish during a cycle. This needs simplifying, particularly when a cycle can be broken up into multiple independent turns. For this reason, all your activity restraints have all been converted into a single unit which we're calling action points. Your clan's mode (for instance) determines how many action points you have available to spend, and when you've spent all those action points then that is the end of your turn and you must wait for cycle processing to complete for more action points to be available.

Reports

All reports will be available on your browser. These may be printed or saved locally if desired, but they will be available semi-permanently on the web site and can be recalled at any time upon request. Cycle reports, turn reports, maps, CVRs, and senior reports will all be available separately. (See the sample reports page to see how they'll appear, if desired.)

Preview old Midgard manual

NOTES

This is one of the OLD Migard play manuals, in zipped MS Word format. It has not yet been revised for the new web version. In addition, it covers several subjects that were never part of production games, or were only partially implemented, or were available in some versions of Midgard but won't be available in our first re-release (such as Skills). In addition, the formatting has been messed up in several places making it more difficult to read. But you should be able to use it to get the basic concepts and procedures of the game.