Overview

This system has had one Alpha, and is now in Beta. Expect bugs and occasionally clunky user interface issues. Additionally, this manual was written for the alpha when there was no UO integration. I will continue to update this manual as I review and use the system, check back often.

Q&A

Regions: The names on the RPCSS map are regions, they are used to give notifications of actions. Things like "An army has been sighted in Tarafeyn" means any one of the hexes defined as that region. Regions are loosely divided along roads. This is not intended to be precise, it is intended to give you a general area of the map to explore. Regions have nothing to do with political borders and are not used for anything other then indicating an area of the map something may have happened in.

Release

Pending Actions

We are in set up and testing, no further actions are in the pipeline.

Known Issues

The map is a little touchy, go slowly with it.

Trouble Shooting

Make sure the issue is not a known issue by looking above.
Make sure you are using the right URL, using the wrong URL will definitely cause things to go wonky.
Try logging out and logging in.
Try force refreshing the page, the command for this varies by browser, you'll need to check for how your browser does it.
Ask in Discords RPCSS-topic channel, you can also search thru the channel for previous discussions that relate to your issue.
Finally, if its an issue that is stopping you from playing, post it on the RPCSS Board.

Related PodCasts

Noble House Scope - Understanding the fictional size of your house and the realistic player base.

Registration

Pending Updated Instructions

~~All Players~~
Go to https://rpcss.azurewebsites.net/ and click the Register option.

Enter: Username, email, display name and password twice.
Email verification is not yet required but maybe when you read this.

SL verification may also be implemented but is not at the time of writing this.
Campaign: Request to join the Comraich Campain, this should be automatically approved.

Faction: Request to join your faction. Do NOT request a second faction! Only the last one approved will be applied.
~~Faction Leader~~
You should all be set up as leaders of your factions by now, and all new factions created should be set up as part of the process, if you have any problems please review troubleshooting above.
It is at this point that you may lose your faction. If you can not or do not play the game and defend your hexes, your faction may be overrun by other factions. If this happens, your faction will be disconnected from your hex and you will be landless. I will update your faction page with these details, and you'll need to request new lands from the King/Queen or find allies to give you land.
~~Your Actions as Faction Leader~~
Set other players to roles

Other actions still in development, no ETA.

End of Turn

On Sunday Night at Midnight SLT the end of turn cycle begins. (There may be reasons why we change that time, including the first few weeks.) The end of turn takes less than 30 mins and does the following things:

Initiative is Rolled for all Factions
All Raid Orders resolved in Initiative Order
All Marching Orders and thus Combat resolved in Initiative Order (Combat Resolution detailed below)
All Consolidate Power Orders resolved in Initiative Order
All other actions resolved in Initiative Order
Tax Income is paid
Mercenaries are paid

If the End of Turn happens as the first end of turn in the month, i.e. after the first of the month

Upkeep of castles and stronghold is deducted. (3 for Strongholds and 5 for castles)
Payment to military units is paid (1 gold per unit)

Close of Turn each week

Muster Points and all other counters are rest
Notifications and Rumors are sent out

Notifications and Rumors

Immediately

Small Council players will always receive back responses to the actions they submitted. Only they can see them, responses do not go out to anyone else except the one who submitted them.
Small Council players will usually receive notification of actions done against them. However, not all actions done against a faction are known to the faction. Some are only known if another action has been made to reveal them. In most cases, actions that involve armies moving in your territory or attacking your armies are always revealed to the General.

Two Days after End of Turn

Faction members have a random chance of receiving a rumor from home that involves action that affected their faction. At this stage you only hear about your faction. Not everyone will get a rumor, and not everyone will get the same information. You are encouraged to go role-play finding out.

Four Days after End of Turn

Everyone has a random chance of receiving a rumor from a friend that involves actions going on in the world. Not everyone will get a rumor, and not everyone will get the same information. You are encouraged to go role-play finding out.

Actions

The actions listed here are the only ones implemented.

General

Armies

The more hexes you control the more armies you can have, and the larger the army can be.
An army can never have more than 4 units in it.
A unit can be infantry, knights or siege equipment.

Some Examples: At one hex you can have 1 army with up to 3 units; At three hexes you can have 3 armies -- 1 with 3 units and 2 with 2 units; At six hexes you can 4 armies -- 1 with 4 units, 1 with 3 units and 2 with 2 units; At nine hexes you can have 5 armies -- 2 with 4 units, 1 with 3 units, and 2 with 2 units; At 10 hexes you are maxed out and can have 6 armies -- 3 with 4 units, 1 with 3 units, 2 with 2 units

Muster

The RP of it: Just because you have men at arms at home with their families, knights off in the tourney circuit, or siege weapons in storage, dinna mean you can start a war right away. Ya gots to put the call out to them, so they know tis time to get their arses back to work. But mind me now, you can only muster at a castle, a stronghold or your homelands, ya can't go mustering men in the middle of a farm field, roight?! Next, yew better have one of your army officers waiting around to get them men settled or they may just wander off."

Mustering costs muster points: Infantry is 1, Knights are 2 and Seige Equipment is 2.
You get 1 muster point for your homelands, plus 1 muster point for every stronghold you control, plus 2 points for every ducal estate/castle you control -- in the game.
However, you can only muster ONE unit of Infantry, Knights or Seige Equipment PER hex that has a stronghold, castle or is your homeland.
You can not muster into a hex that is only arable land or wilderness.
You must have an army with available unit openings in the hex you wish to muster into. (This will require you to move an army into a homeland, stronghold or castle hex before you muster.)

The First of the Month Turn Ends: Turns end on Sunday Night, the first turn which ends after the first of the month will automatically pay your units

Understand from your coin master how much gold you earn each turn from taxes and other methods.
All Units cost 1 gold bar per month.
All units active at the payment turn are paid, nothing is prorated.
Payment to units happens automatically after taxes are collected.
Loan interest is calculated and added to your loan balence.

In the beginning: You don't have any armies, so when you muster for the first time it will "create" that army for you in the hex you muster in. This is true for the royals who start with more then one army, thus they can create one army in their home hex and one at the capital.

This option also works if you gain a new army slot and its empty. Mustering into an "empty army" will create the army.

Marching Orders

Marching Orders is used to move one army up to seven hexes away, which is a speed of 20 miles a day across a single hex. One order can only move one army. However the general/warlord can issue additional marching orders to other armies, but subsequent marching orders function at a -1 penalty on combat for the first additional order, then -2, then -3 and so on. {March Order Modifier}

To move an army, go to your Warlord Tab and select the action Marching Order. A map of the world will pop up showing where your armies are with a blue marker shaped like a guitar pick. Select a path of up to 7 adjacent hexes heading in the direction you wish to go. You must select the hexes in order if you select them out of order, it won't validate. You can not travel over water or impassable hexes -- obviously.

Once you have the path click the validate path button and RPCSS will check the path to make sure it's valid. You can reset this path before you submit if you change your mind by clicking the reset path button. Once you have a valid path click submit. At the end of the turn, you will be informed of what happened. Possible outcomes include:

No problems at all, the path was clear and you arrive at your destination with no difficulties.
Your path collides with another factions territory. However, there is no army in that hex, you may pass through, but the other faction is (100%) informed of you crossing their borders.
Your path collides with another army.

Marching orders are resolved by initiative and the entire order is performed. Therefore, if you collide with another army that army was already there, or beat you to that hex with a better initiative. Armies in motion do not collide because armies are never "in motion" at the same time as far as the end of turn goes and the rules for the initiative.

As other actions such as alliance, support order and defend order go in, there will be ways to pass through another's territory without causing an uproar.

Combat Resolution

At the end of turn, RPCSS will determine the results of any combat that ensues.

Step 1 - Determine Combat Strength of both sides

Add up Unit Strengths (Infantry 1, Knights 2, Seige see below) for each Army.
~~Add the combat strength of any friendly armies in adjacent hexes that have a support order~~ Not yet implemented
~~Add the Combat Strength of any defending order in the hex (defender only)~~ Not yet implemented
Add or subtract the {March Order Modifier} of the attacker.
Add the strength of any Fortifications in the hex such as a castle or stronghold for the defender. (Strongholds 1, Castles 2)

Strength of a Seige Engine

If you are the attacker moving into a fortified hex (stronghold or castle) your siege engines count as a unit strength of 4. However, if you are the defender or not attacking a fortified hex, they count as 0 but are the last to be destroyed.

Step 2 - Determine the winner of the battle

Compare Combat Strength of each faction, the faction with the higher strength wins. We do not use random rolls as it opens itself up to accusations of cheating. The stronger side wins.
In case of tie, compare Faction Influence each faction
If still tie, compare Court Level of each faction
If still tied, compare the number of hexes owned by each faction

Step 3 - Determine casualties

The loser begins by taking 2 casualties. Casualties are in units.
If the loser is the defender, subtract any fortification value (stronghold 1, castle 2).
Destroyed units are determined by the following progression:

Infantry first,
Knights second,
Siege third

Step 4 - Retreats and Routing

If attacker loses, he retreats back to the starting point of the marching order and the units are marked as routed.
If defender loses, he retreats to an adjacent empty or friendly hex. If one is not available, the army is destroyed.
Routed units move at a rate of 5 hexes per turn instead of 7 until they reach a hex with a friendly stronghold or castle. Friendly means their own as well.

Additional actions will provide additional bonuses or subtractions to the combat strength when they are released.  Until alliances, support and defend orders can be added to the game, two armies cannot help each other by attacking the same hex.  However, they could surround the targetted hex to keep the defeated army from escaping.  Make sure you leave a hex for your buddy to get thru.

Subjegate Hex

Subjegate works much like Occupy except it is done on a hex that belongs to another faction but is occupied by one of your armies. Please note, you can have up to 10 arable hexes max. There is currently no limit on wilderness hexes.

Can only be performed on a hex that is adjacent to your other hexes.
The hex must be owned by another faction at the time the action is given. (If the hex is not owned, then the coin master should do an occupy order.)
You must have an army in the hex.
This can only be done once per turn

Coin Master

MAKE SURE YOU HAVE ENOUGH GOLD FOR FIRST OF MONTH!!
We will not bail you out if you go into the red.

Collect Taxes

This is not an action, it happens automatically at the end of turn cycle.

You collect 1 gold bar per court level automatically per turn

Borrow Gold

The RP of it: Ain't nobody who has sense put themselves into debt to the Iron Bank. Ask for some or ask for much, in the end if you don't pay them back roight quick, they will own you, your lands, your cattle and your pretty gentry cats."

You can only borrow gold once per turn.
Borrowing gold is dangerous, much like a pay day loan. If you can't manage a pay day loan in your real life, don't do it here!
You can borrow (gold bars) up to 2x your court level in a turn.
And a maximum (gold bars) up to 10x your court level.
Interest at a rate of 30% (rounded up) is accrued immediately and then again at every First of the Mount account.
You must pay 1 gold bar per turn to avoid nasty nasty evil consequences that involve things like Bank Armies invading and such.
To pay back the bank you will use a "Pay Load" action.
Your current total debt is only displayed on the coin master page, and not visible by any other role.

Raise Court Level

The RP of it: You gots to spend money to make money. It takes gold to hire on tax collectors, bribe court officials, administrative staff, build overseers, engineers, tradesmen and so on. But you can only grow so big afore everyone is stepping all over themselves, so make sure you got the land to grow."

Raising your court level costs your current court level in gold bars. It costs 1 gold bar to increase your court level to 2, then 2 to 3, 3 to 4, and so on.
You can only raise your court level once per turn.
Your court level cannot exceed the number of hexes you control. Wilderness hexes do not count.

Occupy Land

To raise your court level you must gain more hexes. There are two ways to gain hexes, one of them is to Occupy unoccupied land. To perform this action in RPCSS is very simple. The coin master chooses "Occupy Land" from his list of actions and a screen with currently controlled hexes show in blue, and available hexes to occupy in a contrasting color. Please note, you can have up to 10 arable hexes max. There is currently no limit on wilderness hexes.

Note: You cannot occupy a hex that has an army in it that is not your own. This even applies to allied armies. If an army moves into that hex before you occupy it, and the army is not your own, the occupy will fail.

Select the land you wish to occupy.
The cost of the action is:

0 gold for wilderness hex (red dot)
1 gold for arable land (green dot)
2 gold for a strong hold (tower icon)
3 gold for a castle (castle icon)

Spy Master

The Spy Master role in RPCSS acts as the spymaster, scout leader, guerrilla warfare tactician, information broker, etc for the faction team. This can be role-played a variety of ways, as there is a variety of things that the spymaster can do in the game. Many of the actions are influenced by the Influence track.

Recruit Spy

Costs 1 gold and increases your influence by 1.
You can only have 1 spy per influence level, to a maximum of 10.

Scout Order

You can order one of your agents to scout a hex and its immediate surrounding hexes. This is an area of 7 hex total. At the end of turn, if there are enemy armies in any of the 7 hexes, their location will be revealed to the spymaster for 1 turn.

To perform this action go to your spymaster actions and select "Scout Order" from New Action. Choose a hex on the map to scout. If you select a valid hex you will be able to then submit action.

You can perform this action once in a turn.

Special Circumstances

Relocate

If you wish to relocate your home hex for role-play reasons this is how we have determined such a thing can be done.

Advise Branwyn that you are doing this as soon as possible, so she's prepared and on page. Expect her to ask for role-play to support it.
The general needs to issue marching orders.
After end of turn when marching orders are resolved contact Branwyn.
Branwyn will go into the game and move your home hex from its original location to where you end up after end of turn.

Please Note:

If you have adjoined hexes to your home hex and you move your home hex to a distant hex, you lose those that were connected to it, this may further reduce your court level, which will in turn reduce your taxes.
As of 3.30.18 if you move into a hex that does not have a stronghold or a castle you can not muster. So don't do that.
If you meet resistance as part of your marching orders, it is possible that you may not end up where you think so make sure you read the details of how conflict is resolved.
At this time, you can not have a faction in the game that does not have a hex. The system has NOT been tested for that and it will cause the game to break.

Give Hex

If you wish to give a hex owned by your faction to another faction you can record the request on Discord in the #RPCSS-todo channel and tell Branwyn. Please include screen shot of the hex to give.

Manual (RPCSS)

From Sanctuary Shard

Contents