Вы находитесь на странице: 1из 17

1

Acts of History
A pen and paper civilization building game
Second Draft

By Caleb Powell

Table of Contents:
Introduction:
Required Materials:

2
2

Part One: Basics

Civilizations:

Eras:

Turns:

History Rolls:

Part Two: Starting the Game:

World Traits:

Exploration:

10

End Game and Victory Conditions:

10

Part Three: NPCs

11

Creatures:

11

Individuals:

12

Factions:

12

Civilizations:

12

Agendas:

14

Part Four: Examples

14

Introduction:
Acts of History is a civilization building role-playing game. In the game players take on the role of
overseeing a small band of people, and attempting to grow them into a mighty civilization. Acts of
History may be played either solo or with as many players as desired.
During the course of the game, players have their civilizations perform actions to grow and shape their
civilizations, as well as to interact with the wider world. As your civilization acts, events occur as a
result of those actions, and at random.
The actions taken by your civilization affect its attributes and characteristics, evolving your
civilizations identity. These characteristics, or traits, influence how your civ acts and how well it
succeeds at tasks it undertakes.
In addition to interacting with your civilization, there is also the rest of the world. While exploring the
world, or through the result of events, you will encounter other groups, civilizations, and factions, each
with their own identities, traits, and agendas for you to interact with.
Above both the civilizations and the worlds they inhabit, is the story. Acts of History is first and
foremost a story driven game, a story of the journey your civilization takes from its birth to its death.
When taking actions, exploring, or generating events players should keep in mind the idea they are
telling an interactive narrative. The game is designed so that there are enough rules to make
civilization building interesting, but also rules-lite enough to allow for the development of an intriguing
narrative.
Required Materials:
In order to play Acts of History players should have the following:
Paper, or a notebook for recording keeping, graph paper with large squares may also be useful.
Pens and Pencils.
At least a d6, d10, d20, and d100 dice. Multiple d6s will be used frequently. Players may also
find these kinds of dice from a dice rolling app.

Record Keeping:
Throughout the course of the game players will gather a significant amount of information about
their civilization, and the world around them. Players are recommended to have a dedicated sheet of
paper for: your civilization, the world, the map, as well as an additional sheet of paper for
miscellaneous notes.
On the Civilization Sheet players will need to track:

The Civilizations Attributes, Traits, Technological Era, Unrest, Significant Events and Turn Number.
On the World Sheet, players should track: World Traits, NPC Individuals, Factions, and Civilizations,
and Significant World events.

Part One: Basics


Here are all the basics of how Acts of History works.
Civilizations:
Civilizations take a up a large portion of the game, and tend to drive many of the major events that
occur in the world. All civilizations have a basic set of attributes that measure their competency in
several the major areas of activity involved in civilization: Population, Culture, Economy, Technology,
Military, Politics. Each of these attributes represents several areas of your civilization:
Population: represents the people who inhabit, and make up your civilization, such as settlements,
bands of wanderers, your species, and renowned figures, such as Kings, Prophets, Scientists,
Scholars, etc.
Culture: represents the ideas, beliefs, languages, and customs that make up the identity of your
civilization, and how it acts as a society.
Economy: represents your civilizations capacity to build structures, trade, access to natural
resources, and industries.
Technology: is your civilization's development in ideas, resources, and technologies that make your
civilization more complex and potent.
Military: represents your civilizations strength and martial prowess.
Politics: is your civilizations government, the factions and leaders within your influence and power,
diplomacy, treaties, and the espionage that occurs in it.

Traits:

Each civilization is also made up of traits. Granting them an identity and characteristics beyond a set
of attributes. At the beginning of the game, each player civilization begins with one point in every
attribute, this means that a civilization also begins with six traits, one for each attribute.
Traits are earned by performing actions, actions change and influence your civilization. Traits can also
be added, removed, and modified due to events, where your civilization begins, actions taken by other
civilizations etc. How an action adds, removes, changes a trait is determined by the context of an
action and events taken place.
Traits serves as characteristics that differentiates between different elements of the world. It also
assists in the determining the outcome of History Rolls.
Traits are categorized into one of the attributes listed above, and raises that attribute by one.

Trait Types by Attribute:


Certain kinds of traits are grouped into certain attributes:
Population: Settlements, Ethnic Groups, Species,
Culture: Dominant Culture, Practices, Traditions, Beliefs, Recreation, Organization of Society,
Non-political organizations
Economy: Natural Resources, Manufactured Goods, Structures, Industries, Roads, Trade,
Professions
Technology: Methods of learning, Ideas, Specializations, Learned technologies,
Military: Military Units, Tactics, Organizations, Fortifications, Armies, Navies, Elite Units,
Politics: Form of Government, Government policies, political organizations, factions, political
leaders,
Eras:
In addition to attributes, and traits, civilizations also has a technological era associated with it. At the
beginning of the game, by default, a civilization is Ancient era. Here is a full list of the areas, as well
as the number of technology traits a player must have to advance to the next era:

Neolithic 3
Ancient 4
Medieval 5
Renaissance 6
Age of Enlightenment 7
Industrial 8
Modern 9
Atomic 10
Early Space Age 11
Space colonization 12
Intergalactic 13
Futuristic 14

Not every single technology your civilization has developed should be listed, rather, the traits are
listed should be viewed as a technology your empire has specialized into over time and excels at.
(such as dwarves in a Tolkien universe excelling at Tunneling, Mining, Smithing, etc.)
Technological eras serve as a guide to the player of generally how technological advance your society
is. When a civilization advances to another technological era, they are assumed to have all the
trappings that come with that technological era.
Turns:
Each turn, players declare the actions that their civilization makes, determines how those actions
affect and drive the narrative of the games world. And how they change any relevant traits. Finally, at
the end of the turn, the player generates an act of history. Players can take a number of actions based
on their Population attribute.

In addition to taking actions and generating events, players also have a set of civic needs, that if not
met, increase the amount of unrest within your civilization.
There are five basic needs required for every one of your civilizations settlements (villages, cities,
etc.).
1. Food: 1 economy trait devoted to sustaining population (agriculture, hunting, etc.)
2. Work: 1 economy devoted to work, employment for population (Structure, Industry, etc.)
3. Society: 1 culture devoted to Traditions, beliefs, structure of society

4. Protection: 1 military devoted to protection of settlements (police, city watch, guards, etc.)
5. Government: 1 politics devoted to government structure or policies.

Each need not met by the player increases the amount of unrest by 1. At the end of each turn the
player makes a Act of History roll for every 5 unrest that their civilization has. if the player rolls more
success than failures, no events resulting from unrest occur. If more failures are rolled, an act of
history is generated, with a pre-determined political theme, and a negative result for the player.

History Rolls:
Some actions taken by the civilizations, traits, etc. success isnt always guaranteed, and many
different outcomes can occur based on the situation. Many actions that require the efforts of a large
portion of the civilization, such as towns, armies, require a history roll. In addition, actions that are
particularly random, or have high risk/reward also require a history roll.
To determine the outcome of an action the players follows these steps to set and resolve the history
roll:
1. Determine the action and its goal/intent
2. Determine the traits and attribute relevant to the result/outcome.
3. For each trait involved a die is rolled. The player also rolls half the total dice of a relevant
attribute.

Roll

Result

1-2

Failure

3-4

Act of History

5-6

Success

One success and one failure each cancel each other out
If more successes, than failures are rolled the action succeeds and has one of the Success
Affects if the History roll fails, one of the Failure effects is chosen.
If any events are rolled, in addition to the outcome of the action, an act of history is generated,
and if possible, resolved this turn.

Success Effects:

Add one trait to your civilization


Modify one trait already existent in your civilization
Remove a pre-existing negative trait from your civilization
Restore an incapacitated trait
Temporally raise one attribute by one for your next turn.

Failure Effects:

Remove a trait from your civilization


Modify one trait negatively
Add a negative trait to your civilization
Incapacite a pre-existing trait

Quick note on Positive and Negative Traits


Throughout the course of the game, your civilization will acquire many traits. Many traits are
positive, and function normally as described above. Negative Traits usually result from tragedies,
disasters, civil unrest, etc. A negative trait is reroll on a success result, and if the second roll is
also successful, then it stays that way.
Acts of History:
Each turn, while completing actions and at the end of the turn, players generate an event, called an
Act of History. Events are what help drive the narrative that develops throughout the course of the
game, it shakes up the status-quo that civilizations come to and forces the player to strategize and
adjust their plans to adapt to changing circumstances. Events are generated by rolling on four
separate tables that result in a set of words, from these words a player weaves them together into a
coherent event that occurs.
To generate an event the player rolls on the tables below in the order given below, and constructs a
sentence stating what event has occurred, keeping in mind recent events, and actions the player has
taken, as well as the state of the world.
1. Theme Table
2. Subject
3. Action

4. Direct Object
Theme:
1 Populous
2 Cultural
3 Economic
4 Technological
5 Military
6 Political
Subject:
1 Historical Figures
2 Locations
3 Groups
4 Resources
5 Relationships
6 Structures
7 Industries
8 Traditions
9 Beliefs
10 Affinities/Talents
Direct Object

11 Ideas
12 Armies/Navies
13 Factions
14 Government
15 Policies
16 Objects
17 Wildlife
18 Terrain
19 Past Events
20 Supernatural

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.

Population
Culture
Technology
Land
Resources
Economy
Politics
Government
Military
Infrastructure
Ancients
Ruins
The Wilderness
Magic/Mysticism
Prototype
Secrets
Tribe/Clan/Family
Order
Envoys
Diplomacy
Raiders
Lower Class
Leadership
Tools
Weapons

26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
32.
33.
34.
35.
36.
37.
38.
39.
40.
41.
42.
43.
44.
45.
46.
47.
48.
49.
50.

Armor
Vehicles
Artifact
Road
City
Wanderers
Camp
Scouts
Settlement
Animals
Religion
Manufactured
Goods
Civilization
Organization
Merchants
Mercenaries
Sickness
Harsh Weather
Relationships
Enemies
Rivals
Colonists
Languages
Practices
Values

51.
52.
53.
54.
55.
56.
57.
58.
59.
60.
61.
62.
63.
64.
65.
66.
67.
68.
69.
70.
71.
72.
73.
74.
75.

Morals
Education
War
Peace
Knowledge
Crime
Society
Sciences
Philosophy
Social Elites
Stories
Rumors
Energy
Industry
Environmental
Mistreatment
Tradition
Authority
Faraway Lands
Immigration
Accident
Mysteries
Trade
Allies
Negotiations
Interests

Action Table:
Roll 1d20/ Event Action
1. Gather
2. Study
3. Establish
4. Construct/Design
5. Attack
6. Destroy
7. Steal
8. Occupy
9. Negotiate
10. Offer

11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.

Accept
Organize
Outlaw
Scatter
Decay
Refuse
Allow
Encourage
Protect
Share

76.
77.
78.
79.
80.
81.
82.
83.
84.
85.
86.
87.
88.
89.
90.
91.
92.
93.
94.
95.
96.
97.
98.
99.
100

Instructions
Chaos
History
Legends
Monsters
Plans
Strategies
Tactics
Games
Entertainment
Luxuries
Tragedy
Death
Life
Corruption
Rebellion
Forgotten Things
Horrors
Unrest
The Supernatural
Words
Images
Sounds
Smells
Choose your own

10

Part Two: Starting the Game:


At the beginning of the game, each player performs these steps to generate their starting region, and
civilization, as well as the opening Act of History. Each civilization begins the game with one point in
each attribute , and thus six traits at the beginning of the game.
1.
1.
2.
3.

Determine world traits


Generate starting region
Create civilization
Generate starting act of history to begin the first turn of the game

World Traits:
In addition to civilizations having traits, the world itself can also have traits. This allows players to
customize the theme of the game they are playing, better focus what shape the story will take, and
provide more variety.
A standard game of Acts of History takes place on a earthlike planet, based on our real history as
human beings. Adding traits to the world can allows player to have for example, a fantasy themed
game, with magic, dwarves, elves, dragons, etc. or a post-apocalyptic game with fallout, abandoned
cities, mutations, giant bugs, etc.
Regions:
Regions are sections of the world usually denoted by the kind of terrain and climate that exists there,
as well as the presence of animals, settlements, etc.
to generate a region, the player rolls a six-sided die:
On an even result, the region is inland, the player rolls on the Terrain, Climate tables
On an odd result, the region is on the coast, or a body of water, rolls are made on the Terrain,
Climate, and Water tables.

Terrain
1 Plains
2 Hills
3 Mountains
4 Valley
5 Canyon
6 Plateau

Climate
1 Tundra
2 Taiga
3 Rainforest
4 Temperate Forest
5 Grasslands
6 Desert

Water
1 Pond/Small Stream
2 Wetlands
3 River
4 Lake
5 Sea
6 Ocean

11

To determine where a players civilization begins, the player drops a die over a sheet of paper, this
paper will serve as the map throughout the course of the game.

Maps:
Maps play an important role in Acts of History, as your civilization explores the lands around them,
establish settlements, fight wars, and have encounters in the wild, know where everything is is
important to know.
Whenever a civilization explores a new region, players should draw in the region on the map.
When using maps, players should be sure to update it from turn to turn, especially when they
explore new lands, encounter other civilizations, creatures, interesting landmarks, etc.

Exploration:
Throughout the course of the game, the player is likely to send scouts into the wilderness to
determine the layout of the surrounding lands. When moving to an unexplored part of the map, the
player rolls a die to determine if the new region remains similar to the adjacent one they came from or
changes in one or more ways.
1-3 Terrain, Climate, and Water remain unchanged
4 Terrain Type Changes
5 Climate Type Changes
6 Water Type Changes
A change is determined by rolling on the appropriate Region generation tables.
Players can also roll to see if they encounter anything of interest within the new region by rolling a die,
on an odd result, they player generates an Act of History, and if they have any actions left may resolve
the encounter that turn.

End Game and Victory Conditions:


Acts of History has no set end game conditions, nor set victory conditions. Players can choose to play
as long as they wish, go for a much shorter focused game, or somewhere in between. If players
choose, they can set up certain victory conditions for them to work towards.

12

Part Three: NPCs


Throughout the course of the game, players will encounter individuals, groups, creatures, and other
civilizations outside of the direct control of the player. In order to determine the shape and behaviour
of these NPCs, players can generate agendas (or goals) so that when players are interacting with
them, they are able to determine what actions that take for the purpose of the storytelling of the
game.
NPCs are categorized into four different groups: Creatures, Individuals, Factions, Civilizations.

Creatures:

Creatures are NPC that perform actions based on instinct (hunting when hungry, defending their
young, etc.) nor sentient intelligence. Creature NPCs have a single behaviour type. Players can also
randomly roll for which behaviour an NPC has:

Creature Behaviour Type:


1 Passive
2 Defensive
3 Aggressive
4 Predator
5 Trained
6 Territorial
Passive: generally peaceful, often doesnt attack, prefers to run away if in danger. Can be trained.
Defensive: generally peaceful, will defend itself and young if attacked. More difficult to train.
Aggressive: will often attack if approached, very difficult to train.
Predator: actively seeks out prey, near impossible to train.
Trained: Creature has been tamed for a specific purpose
Territorial: Creature will attack when other creatures, civilizations, individuals, etc. enter the region it
resides in.

13

Individuals:

After Creatures comes individuals. Individuals in Acts of History are just that, individuals, often times
they are influential, great figures from a society, such as heroes, generals, diplomats, agents, artists,
etc. Individuals are usually generated from an Act of History, or through the player's actions in the
civilization.
Players can also randomly generate one as necessary. Roll on the tables in the order given below:
1. Theme Table: this establishes what section of society this individual comes from and what
they might do for a living.
2. Subject Table: this gives the player a better idea of what the individual does as an occupation.
3. Direct Object Table: provides further details about the individual, such as what they look like,
where they are from, etc.
From each of this results the players interprets what the individual is.

Factions:

Factions are a mixture of elements of a civilization and individuals. They can exist in multiple
civilizations and control portions of them. These includes things like Guilds, Political parties, spy
agencies, rebels, terrorists, secret societies, etc. Like individuals, factions can be generate either
from Acts of History, or from the actions taken by the player. To generate a faction roll on the tables
below:
1. Theme Table: this determines the general part of society the faction comes from or has
interest in.
2. Trait Type Table: sets the general form of the faction, or what they consist of.
3. Direct Object Table: provides more details about the faction, such as particular practices they
might, where they operate, etc. Players may choose to roll on this a couple of times to get
more details about the faction.
In addition to the faction themselves, every faction also has an agenda, or a set of goals they follow
that will determine how they behave in the world and towards the player.

Civilizations:

Finally the last type of NPCs are other civilizations the players can encounter. Civilizations, just like
every other previous type of NPC can exist as a result of Acts of History, or player actions (civil war,
rebellions, exiling populations, settlements demanding independence, etc. )
To generate, or get more details about a civilization, the players can use all or part of the process of
generate a civilization when trying to get more of an idea of what this civilization is like. Often times

14

players will encounter only a small portion of the civilizations (scouts, settlements, armies on the
march, diplomats, etc.) and in order to learn more about it, players will need to take actions to gather
information about it (espionage, sending envoys, establishing embassies, etc.)
Civilization generation is made up of four parts: Civilization Power, Attributes, Traits, and Agenda.
Civilization Power:
The total number of traits a civilization has is its civilization power, thus at the beginning of the game
each civilization starts with 6 Civilization Power. The Amount of civilization power an NPC has
determines how many traits it has, as well as its relative strength compared to your own civilization.
Roll on the table below to determine the relative strength of the NPC Civilization:
1-2 Weaker: Civilization has 50% of your Civilizations Power, or is one technological era behind yours.
3-4 Equivalent: Civilization has an equal amount of power to your civilization, and the same
technological era as yours.
5-6 Stronger: Civilization has 50% more Power than your civilization, or is one technological era ahead
of yours.
Attributes:
After determining Power, the total number of points are distributed as evenly as possible. Then, with
the access number of points, the player roll on the Theme Table, and assigns the points to the
appropriate attribute:
Theme Table
1 Population
2 Culture
3 Economy
4 Technology
5 Military
6 Politics
Traits:
Next come traits, players do not need to generate every single trait a civilization has for every one
point that they have in those attributes. Just the ones relevant at the time, and only generating more
of them when you learn more about the civilization. To randomly generate a trait roll on the table
below:
1. Theme Table: (optional) determines which attribute the trait comes from.
2. Trait Type Table: determines the general nature of the trait, such as whether its a building,
idea, army, etc.

15

3. Direct Object Table: (roll twice) adds greater detail to what the trait is.
Finally an agenda is made for the civilization, if it is not already clear what it is. Players will need to
use the means described earlier to find out what it is. Agenda generation is described below:

Agendas:

In addition to who or what an individual is, they also have goals and plans called agendas. Players may
already have an idea of what the agenda for an individual or they may randomly generate one.
To generate an agenda the player rolls on the following tables in order and interpret the results into
what the plans or goals of what the individual, faction, or civilization is.
1. Theme Type: this establishes the general area of interest for the agenda.
2. Action Table: this determines what course of action the individual, faction, civilization will
pursue their goal.
3. Direct Object Table: this is the specific goal of the agenda.

Part Four: Examples


Example Civilization:
The Kingdom of Savania
Population 2 The Capital, Stoneton Village,
Culture 3
Sun Worship, Nobility, Monarchy
Economy 3 Fishing, Ship building, Harbor (in the Capital),
Technology 2 Sailing, Military Organization,
Military 3
Royal Guard, City Watch, Royal Navy
Politics 2
King Saven, Sun priest advisors.

16

Example History Roll:

Determining the Effects:


Whether an action has succeeded or failed the effects of the result must be determined. One way to
do this, is for each relevant trait involved in the roll, determine something that can go well, and
something that can go wrong. For example:

If an action succeeds, then usually the desired effect occurs. If the action fails, the player logically
determines what happens based on the traits involved.

Adding, Removing, Changing Traits:


Performing tasks and making history rolls will change the look of our civilization, and others
civilizations. Usually traits that grow, advance, increase complexity or expand your civilization add a
new trait or expand a pre existing one. For example:

Actions that damage, weaken, or divide your empire usually remove traits. For example:

17

Some traits are neither removed nor added. Pre-existing ones can be changed to mean something else.

Example Act of History:

Contact the Author or Community:


Email: cjp133@gmail.com
Subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/ActsofHistoryGame/

Вам также может понравиться