In describing his logistics-based army game Cataphracts, Sam Sorensen had an interesting problem. It's hard to fully describe a game in which some of the rules, the entire map, and details of the characters and factions are supposed to be hidden information from the players. Being on something of a Cataphracts kick recently, I wanted to try out the method for designing a Cataphracts setting Sorensen describes in one of his design diaries and share how it went. Unfortunately, it was so fun to work on that I like to imagine one day I might run it, so I actually fell into the exact same problem as Sorensen did. Therefore, I made a second Cataphracts setting with the precommitment to share it. I made it as ready as possible for actual play, so that you could theoretically run it right away, even though by publishing it I've introduced a major obstacle, that future players in your game may have read this very blogpost.
So, if you're considering running a Cataphracts game, just consider this a very in-depth example : )
Overview
Three hundred years ago, the empire established a colony on the coast of this rocky, wooded, rain-soaked land, naming it Testudis after the locals' term for the greater island. The people here taught the colony the way to cultivate maize, beans, and squash; methods of gentle forestry; and ways to appease and befriend the many spirits of the land. The empire taught them new ways of carpentry and architecture, brought horses, and made literacy wide-spread.
Though it did not resemble the extermination either group feared, contact was seldom all-peaceful or all-happy. After famines, disease, and several wars both in Testudis and broaching the heart of the empire, it was decided to abandon the furthest colonies to reform the empire into a nimble, sustainable whole. But not everyone wants to go.
Quastor Sabellius leads the abandoned colony, the organized and militant Reliquium towards a goal of self-sustainability, aided by the earth spirit Suibhard engineers they brought from across the sea, as well as their local allies. The agile Pine People, who have never accepted the empire's foreign hordes, calls its confederacy around it to push them into the sea, assisted by legendary humanoids and even demanding the assistance of long-time friends of the colony, the prosperous River People and the forest-dwelling Hound People.
The people who rise to the top in this struggle, and the confederacies they form, will radically shape the great island of Testudis and, when contact is one day re-established, the rest of the world.
Faction Sheets
Reliquium
- Client Relationships: when other factions forage, torch, recruit, or pillage in your lands, +1-in-6 chance of rebellion against them. Revolts caused by your enemies are more willing to be bought off by you.
- Lord of Embarkations: as long as the idol remains in the temple at Parentium, your armies get +1 Morale.
- Unique unit: Peltasts. Infantry. Can make battles take 2 extra days, during which the enemy can drive you back 1 hex (excluding assaults).
- Unique Unit: Clibanarii. As heavy cavalry, +2 to compared rolls after winning a battle.
Starting Commander: Quastor Aquina Sabellius (45. Honorable, Stubborn) The daughter of a River man and an equite of the Reliquium, you have risen through careful politics and officious merit. After the governor received orders to abandon the colony, you were the highest-ranking official to choose to remain. Knowing that your lifelong enemy, the Pine People, will use this chance to rile up the other nations of the Testudis, it's that there is no one left but you who can turn the colony into an independent and dominant state, even if it must be cut off from the empire. Your goals are to:
- Capture at least two strongholds and two towns on the Great River.
- Ensure that you and your allies retain control of the four colonial cities: Basti, Falerii Novi, Reimse, and Tir Gael.
- Ensure Mologa is torched to keep the River People more dependent on you than on outsiders.
Pine People
- Inherited Hunting Paths: Pine People forces have +1 detection distance in forests and can move wagons off-road.
- Dispersed Bands: upon losing a battle, Pine People scatter in all directions and reform unpredictably (including in rout), making it difficult for a pursuing army to locate and immediately attack them.
- Unique Unit: Thunders, golden-haired half-bird men. As skirmishers, but count double in an assault and ignore penalties from weather.
- Unique Unit: Stone Giants, the remnants of a great hero's destruction. As heavy cavalry, immune to disease.
- Torch the cities of Basti and Falerii Novi
- Marry an important commander from the River People or the Hound People into your confederation.
- Reclaim the White Eagle Pipe from Reimse. As an ancestral artifact of your people, it cannot be allowed to remain in their hands.
- Stone Spirits: Suibhards cannot ford rivers except in ships. They can build fortifications, bridges, roads, and other infrastructure.
- Morbid Humor: your people have befriended the Puk-Sukok, a clan of magic pranksters and saboteurs with cruel natures, who can make themselves invisible to anyone they point at. At the start of the game, you have the use of ten Puk-Sukok you can assign to serve as spies or send on operations, and they get +1 to related rolls.
- Unique Unit: Fomors. Heavy infantry, counts quadruple in defensive sieges. One unit can build or disassemble a bridge in two weeks, fortify a camp in two (+2 to defenders), lay out a hex of road in three, or thwart a hex of road in five.
- Attain a dominant position over the humans of the Reliquium (your nominal allies), either diplomatically or by seizing Basti or Falerii Novi while retaining both of your cities.
- Feed 10,000 bodies to the Fomors.
- Capture two or more waterside strongholds.
- Arrow of Peace: While your confederation is unified, -1-in-6 chance of revolt from overforaging or recruiting in regions you control.
- Looking Back the Long Path: Dead Hound People elders and officers can communicate and make reports, when within 1 hex.
- Unique Unit: Other People, as infantry, count double in forests. Can't be seen from more than 1 hex away.
- Possess, or be granted total right of travel by, the four forts on the road to Tir Gael.
- Prevent the Reliquium from losing any coastal territory and hold on to all of yours.
- Regain the Bow of Hoennag from Khetottug. Stolen long ago by the Southern Pine People, it is one of few of the original possessions of the first Hound Person.
- Trade Privileges: your settlements and strongholds start with caches loot that you can use at will. 500 for strongholds, 1000 for cities, and 1500 for cities.
- Burn and Slash: gain half a hex's forage value when you torch it.
- Unique Unit: Neeshauog. Infantry, count double on coastline or along river.
- Unique Unit: Katawam Archers: cavalry, count quadruple in advantageous position or chosen battlefield.
- Pay your warriors 20,000 loot over the course of the war to set them up to dominate trade when peace comes.
- Seize two Suibhard strongholds
- Regain the Pipe of Nikkohup from Reimse. As a divine item of your people's long history, it belongs with none other than you.
Army Sheets
Rules
- Canoes: Canoes, like ships, can carry people upon water. Ten canoes can carry one empty wagon or as much as one ship, but can themselves be portaged overland. If attacked within a day of having been portaging, you are out of formation. Canoes move 18 miles a day upriver, or 24 miles a day downriver or on the coast. A "forced march" of rowing increases this by 6 miles.
- Operations: Each faction has a stable of five spies, relatively irreplaceable agents willing to do the very risky and disdained work of covert operations. Commanders can always send soldiers, noncombatants, or other officers to do this work, but as for professionals they have five.
- An operation costs at least 100 Loot, in which a spy can be sent to a location or attach themselves to a camp, and begin working towards their goal They move at the rate of infantry. An operation is resolved with an opposed 2d6 roll like a battle or assault, but with the following modifiers:
- The spy gets +1 for another spy's aid, or +2 as a cell of four or more spies. They get +1 if their goal is easy, like spreading rumors or keeping an ear out. They get -3 or more for a hard goal like assassination (which they only attempt against a commander if there's a special opening).
- The target gets +1 for each spy dedicated to counter-intelligence at the location. They get the location's fortification bonus, but the spy can spend weeks of preparation to reduce this bonus. If the populace has been mistreated by the occupying force, it's reduced twice as fast
- A location can't be infiltrated from outside while actively preparing against siege.
- Weather: Every two weeks, roll 1d6 to defermine which region (or none) is affected by rain, snow, erc. This lasts for a month, so it's possible that weather will afflict the same place twice, in which case make the weather more severe and dangerous. Improvise based on the season.
- Disease: Wherever there are lots of dead bodies, or people who can't get clean, there's a 50% chance per month of disease spreading. Roll a d6-1 for each force present, and assign penalties as though they've just lost a battle by that much. Extraordinary measures can give an army a morale test to avoid the worst of it.
- Battles of Three or More Sides: Have each side make its opposed roll against every other side, then take the worst result. For each battle lost beyond the first, just add 2 to the severity of the worst battle outcome.
- Death and Dismemberment: When you're deathed and dismembered, roll 1d6:
- 1-2 simply knocked out
- 3 bad scar and a week of recovery
- 4 lose a hand, eye, or etc. and spend three weeks in recovery
- 5 dying, 50% of being revived if tended to
- 6 stone dead
Maps
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Main overland map. Dark green is forests, brown steep hills. Dark brown is typically impassible. Rivers can be forded, unless it has been raining. |
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Settlement score. Deep red 100, red-pink 80, pink 60, purple 40, blue 20. Surpassing the master, the blue is not the same blue as my water features. |
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No place names labeled |
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Diagetic map. The design diary suggests the creation of such a thing above and beyond what you give each faction, but I'm not really sure why. |
Region Details
- Muster: 1,300 troops. 800 heavy infantry, 500 Peltasts, 325 Clibanarii, 60 wagons, 5 ships.
- Feature: Overdeveloped. The empire's firstfall and symbol of tenacity, the city of Basti features a sewer system that can fill the surrounding floodplain with sewage (1-in-6 chance per week of disease among besiegers, advantageous position). A hostile Reliquite or Suibhard can lead a force up through the sewer, trading the fortification bonus for rough terrain penalty.
- Feature: Quastor Sabellius has an inheritance of 1,000 loot stored here.
- Muster: 600 troops. 640 heavy infantry, 200 Peltasts, 150 Clibanarii, 30 wagons, 5 ships (four in Matrica, one in Gandava)
- Feature: Scorpion Nest. Matrica stronghold has four siege engines loaded on to four ships. Operating these ships within two hexes of Matrica is free (covered by the virtuoso genius of the local adjunct).
- Muster: 1,200 troops. 800 heavy infantry, 400 Peltasts, 300 Clibanarii, 60 wagons, 2 ships.
- Feature: Lair of Anit— a cavern in the mountain descends into the den of an icy cannibal giant, effective strength 400, inflicts 5% greater casualties. Generally wicked but always repays good deeds. If fully redeemed, spits up his icy heart and turns back into a man.
- In the cave are strange etchings, which a wizard can study for three days to learn the spell Cold Snap, which freezes rivers and, from October to February, increases precipitation by one step. Lasts a week. Takes a week of study to recharge
- Muster: 1,800 troops. 1,200 heavy infantry, 400 Peltasts, 450 Clibanarii, 80 wagons.
- Feature: Idol of Epibaterius. As long as it is still in the stronghold's temple, the Requilium gets +1 morale for all its soldiers. News of its destruction removes the bonus.
- The prophet Numeria Pictor resides here, and can be convinced to join an army (67, wizard) if she thinks it will protect the Idol. She has scrolls of the spell Augury, which lets you know what an army's 2d6 roll will be if they battle tomorrow. Takes three weeks to recharge.
- Muster: 1,000 troops. 600 heavy infantry, 400 Peltasts, 250 Clibanarii, 1 ship.
- Feature: When it rains and for a week after, battle and passage is effectively impossible along the river. Even without this, the stronghold and town have an advantageous position (+1).
- Muster: 1,400 troops. 800 heavy infantry, 400 Peltasts, 200 skirmishers, 340 Clibanarii, 70 wagons, 3 ships.
- Feature: Marshlands. Travel through the woods here has a 1-in-6 chance of causing disease. The city itself has impeccable baths that have a 50% chance of healing someone suffering from illness.
- Muster: 800 troops. 400 heavy infantry, 200 Peltasts, 200 skirmishers.
- Feature: Secret tunnel. Garrison can emerge from a secret backway a hex northwest.
- Muster: 3600 troops. 2,500 infantry, 500 heavy infantry, 600 Thunders, 500 Stone Giants, 400 canoes, 180 wagons.
- Feature: Good wood. Forage here can also create canoes.
- Feature: The ancient Nisquan fortress Potowahoset built into the side of a cliff. Difficult terrain (-1 for attackers) and advantageous position (+1 for defenders).
- Muster: 1500 troops. 1,000 infantry, 500 Thunders, 180 canoes, 30 wagons.
- Feature: The Great Wood People. If the river is followed west, you come to a great dam operated by a tribe historically hostile both to the Pine People and the Reliquium. Their chief, Tummockquauog, could be bribed to join in the war. He has 3,500 infantry and 500 skirmishers, all with their own canoes.
- Muster: 1,500 troops. 1,000 infantry, 500 Thunders, 300 Stone Giants, 100 canoes, 30 wagons.
- Feature: House of Father Fox, a medicine man of renown. Hater of the Reliquium and the River People, he would assent to battle either. (49, wizard). He has a scroll of the spell Animal Speech, which lets him ask questions of local wildlife as though they were guides. Recharges in two weeks.
- Muster: 1,100 troops. 800 infantry, 300 Thunders, 50 wagons.
- Feature: Hill of Heads. Flint arrowheads harvested here, and the hill provides advantageous terrain against attackers (+1).
- Muster: 3,700 troops. 3,000 infantry, 700 Thunders, 500 Stone Giants, 500 canoes, 185 wagons.
- Feature: Hidden rapids. 3-in-6 chance of sinking non-Pine People canoes and ships, killing 50% of all occupants.
- Muster: 4,800 troops. 4,000 infantry, 800 Thunders, 480 canoes.
- Feature: The True Men. A tribe due south on a great peninsula. Historical pacifists, their chief Blaknik could be convinced to lend support in supply, canoes, or noncombatants. If battle comes to them, they have an effective fighting force of about 1,000 infantry.
- Muster: 2,400 troops. 2,000 infantry, 400 Thunders, 240 canoes.
- Feature: Golden Walls. The ruins of a city built long ago, before any who live here first came. It affords advantageous ground (+1), and contains etchings of an ancient spell a wizard could copy down in a week, Water from Stone. It allows the caster to squeeze and manipulate stone or wood as though it were soft white cheese for a day. Takes a week to recharge.
- Muster: 2,800 troops. 2,200 infantry, 600 Thunders, 400 Stone Giants, 300 canoes, 140 wagons
- Feature: Good wood. Forage here can also create canoes.
- Feature: Bow of Hoennag— an artifact of a local hero from the golden age, the Bow never fails to find quarry. Great for a hunter, and means a commander with the bow is never surprised by an oncoming army. The Bow is jealously guarded by the southern Pine People, who will not allow a commander from any other group to carry it.
- Muster: 500 troops. 500 infantry, 50 canoes.
- Feature: Waters guarded by a horned serpent. Intelligent, hungry, venal, she is the equivalent of 2,000 infantry or 10 ships for naval battles if recruited.
- Muster: 1,200 troops. 700 heavy infantry, 500 Fomors, 60 wagons.
- Feature: Fomor nest— Both stronghold and city get +2 extra fortification bonus.
- Feature: Hidden Ways— road is underground and can only be accessed at a town or city. If an army approaches Reimse by the Hidden Ways, its fortification bonus is halved.
- Muster: 1,200 troops. 800 heavy infantry, 400 Fomors, 60 wagons.
- Feature: Hidden Ways— road is underground and can only be accessed at a town or city.
- Muster: 1,300 troops. 800 heavy infantry, 500 Fomors, 65 wagons.
- Feature: Hidden Ways— road is underground and can only be accessed at a town or city.
- The road intersects with Coboldine Archive, where among records and myths can be found a spell inscribed on a stone globe— Retching Plague. It sends a wave of disease in a straight line for two days, moving at forced march pace. Recharges in four weeks.
- Muster: 1,300 troops. 800 infantry, 500 Fomors, 65 wagons.
- Feature: Bandit nomads. Messages that pass through here only have a 4-in-6 chance of safe delivery. If an army recruits here, they get more skirmishers than normal.
- Muster: 1,500 troops. 1,000 infantry, 500 Fomors, 75 wagons, 5 ships.
- Feature: Residence of Tuspaquin, an explorer and spirit-friend who has lived long among the Suibhard. For pay, can be hired to join an expedition. (36, wizard, moves as skirmisher). He has a scroll of the spell Change Size, which makes a heavy unit standard or a standard unit heavy for a week. Takes four weeks to recharge.
- Muster: 1,400 troops. 800 infantry, 200 skirmishers, 400 Fomors, 70 wagons, 8 ships. Military stockpile of 500 loot.
- Feature: Oil of Mór-Ríoghain— stockpiled flammable fluid. Can coat a six-mile stretch of water in it and ignite it. Those slain do not fully die, but become half-dead. What is not known is that this essentially converts them into deadly draugr, witless (-3 tactics) but never routing and never needing food and never losing nerve (+2) and slowly deteriorating (5% casualties per week March-September)
- Muster: 2,100 troops. 1,400 infantry, 700 Fomors, 100 wagons, 4 ships.
- Feature: The Ready People. Upriver off the map can be found a tribe of hunters and raiders. They traditionally view the Suibhard as evil spirits, but could be convinced to join in the fighting for loot or promises of land. They have 2,000 infantry, 1,000 heavy infantry, and 200 cavalry, as well as enough ships to carry them.
- Muster: 3,300. 1,800 infantry, 1,000 Other People, 500 skirmishers, 800 cavalry, 160 wagons.
- Feature: Holy site. The city starts with +5 siege morale, and the stronghold is on a high hill, giving an advantageous position (+1).
- Muster: 800 troops. 400 infantry, 200 skirmishers, 200 Other People. 200 cavalry, 40 wagons, 80 canoes.
- Feature: Ancient Totem. A revered landmark, the totem also encodes a spell which a wizard can copy down in a week. Walking Tree: allow a city, town, or stronghold to move up to one hex, as its occupants desire. Takes three weeks to recharge.
- Muster: 2,000 troops. 1,200 infantry, 400 Other People, 400 skirmishers, 500 cavalry, 100 wagons, 200 canoes.
- Feature: River Spirits— 1-in-6 chance of encountering mischievous miniature humanoids that can upset canoes (delay by 1 day) or multiply supply in their magic pot (double, then run off), based on whether the commander is upstanding and/or sporting.
- Muster: 800 troops. 300 infantry, 400 Other People, 300 skirmishers, 80 canoes.
- Feature: Good wood. Forage here can also create canoes.
- Muster: 600 troops. 400 infantry, 200 skirmishers.
- Feature: Imprisoned in a deep hole is Akkompoin, a surprisingly knowledgable raider from the Ready People of the north. If freed, will offer his services, though he is shifty and untrustworthy. (20, wizard) Knows the spell Cursed Land, which poisons the forage of a particular hex. Recharges in two weeks.
- Muster: 900 troops. 600 infantry, 300 heavy infantry.
- Feature: Cedar Groves. Pleasant and well-cultivated forests, no impediment to travel. Counts as road.
- Muster: 5,000 troops. 4,500 Neeshauog, 500 skirmishers, 1,250 Katawam Archers, 250 wagons.
- Feature: The People of Sunken Pools. To the north, scattered bands of people have always had occasional dealings with the River People, trading furs and grain. If appealed to, 800 skirmishers can be roused, with more available in time.
- Muster: 1,400 troops. 1,000 Neeshauog, 400 skirmishers, 350 Katawam Archers, 70 wagons, 180 canoes.
- Feature: Wood Slat Bridge— panels can be slid out from under the bridge to cut off travel along the river, requiring a force to take the town or stronghold, or a wide portage, to proceed.
- Muster: 3,100 troops. 2,500 Neeshauog, 600 skirmishers, 700 Katawam Archers, 140 wagons, 310 canoes.
- Feature: At the northern tip of the grove of trees in the south of the region, there is a cave containing a magic scroll of the spell Golden Paddle. A wizard casting the spell sends a fleet of any number of ships or canoes airborn, allowing them to fly over land and sea both for a day. This can be used to leap over walls, but only in disarray. Takes three weeks to recharge.
- Muster: 2,200 troops. 1,800 Neeshauog, 400 skirmishers, 500 Katawam Archers, 120 wagons, 240 canoes.
- Feature: Bog— spirits in the woods will give off poisonous marsh gas if there is a large number of improperly buried or unburied dead in the region, creating disease.
- Muster: 1,700 troops. 1,300 Neeshauog, 400 skirmishers.
- Feature: Lair of Eataubana— the woods by the stronghold are home to a massive insect spirit (effective strength 500, +1 from chosen battlefield) that will attack if not placated. Can potentially be recruited (700 [10 for dueling], wizard) and knows the spell Counterspell, which cancels magic. Recharges in four weeks.
- Muster: 800 troops. 600 Infantry, 200 skirmishers.
- Feature: Hidden Tunnel— connects the town and stronghold.
- Muster: 1,300 troops. 900 Infantry, 400 skirmishers.
- Feature: Thief Ghost— the spirit of death hangs out in the woods on the road to Pakwaaki. Plays macabre tricks on people who linger here, like twisting their feet so they are lamed or must walk backwards, or replacing medicine with poison.
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