Hello, rpol denizens!  I'm casting this net in the water to see what I catch.

I'm advertising for Sweet Green Country, an Adult-rated game- not really because I plan to load it down with naughty stuff, but more because I intend it to be a mature game, dealing with life, death, and all the in-between- which does, in fact, involve naughty stuff sometimes, so thus, Adult.

1. First off, this isn’t a dungeon crawler, but it also isn’t pure non-combat.

Sweet Green Country is seeking a blend of traits- violence judiciously applied, along with roleplaying, so you get both sides of the coin.  Tired of talky campaigns where nobody does anything exciting, but also tired of hack 'n slash adventures that would have been more fun as a video game?  Come here, and let your worries float away!

2. Second, it’s a city-building sim!

After initial solo adventures detailing how your characters got to level 2, which I plan to make kinda short, each character will come together to run a kingdom; decide all kinds of qualities of your kingdom, from its races and inhabitants to its general shape!  Then pitch that kingdom against its neighbors or with them, however you so decide- the story is up to ya’ll, to a huge extent.  There's a metaplot, but only so I can see how you interact with it.  You'll even get a chance to decide current weather patterns!

3. Third, it’s a reality building sim, too! 

Stealing an idea from a good friend of mine, with their permission, every player will get to decide certain aspects of the setting.  Want to make a world where orcs are unheard of and wererats are members in fine standing with the church?  Sure!  That sounds amazing!  Decide what gods exist, or if gods exist, as well as the backstory of non-human races!

Pick gods!  Pick societies! Make longswords the symbol of ultimate evil, or give guisarmes their day in the sun by blessing them as holy weapons!

4. Realism!

A word which, for the first time in gaming history, or damn near it, doesn’t mean “grimdark”!  People react to violence like, well, people do.  Some people freak out, some freeze, some get stuck in fast to get it over with, some fall in love with it, and nearly everybody would rather avoid violence if they can.

Diplomacy is a huge chunk of the game; while there are monsters to fight, they tend towards non-sentience.  Any battle with anything with an INT score of 8 or more is a person, and can be dealt with as such.  Moreover, diplomacy, intimidate, and barter checks will rely on a lot more than your dice rolls- there’s a mechanic I’m introducing called Social Capital, which you’ll spend to get things done, and must build up slowly through successful checks.  The Intrigue system will help as well!

Play with your brain, and your real-world knowledge of how people act, and you'll go far, kid!


Tired of every party being the same?  Well, that won't happen here!  A huge number of classes are straight up BANNED; primarily, all ARCANE classes except bards are banned, all DIVINE classes except oracles are banned, all OCCULT ADVENTURES classes are allowed EVEN IF THEY VIOLATE THE FIRST TWO RULES, Path of War is in, and gunslingers are banned.  Archetypes that allow for Divine or Arcane magic are banned unless they belong to one of the excepted classes.

Arcane magic is difficult, the gods keep spotty contact at best with their followers with blessings and curses at once, and only the strangest things- tiny folk magics, hedge wizards- are reliable for the majority of the populace.  In distant lands, Wizards read in mighty towers and Clerics pray to attentive gods; but those are things for other nations.  In the Scatter Kingdoms, ghosts and historical memories are more likely to grant spells than distant gods, and a song can call up fiercer spells than any grimoire.

Given all the classes I’ve already banned, it’s unlikely you’ll see a normal party at all, so go hog-wild!  Make weird characters!  A half-orc medium?  Splendid!  A gnoll monk?  Brilliant!  An elven warlord?  Delightful! And if you want, make that the main thing that race is known for in the game- maybe all gnolls are monks?  Why not?  The Way of the Hyena Fist might be perfectly respectable!

6. Non-medieval setting!

Castles are a thing of the past and fancy hats dominate the setting.  There’s a level of luxury most haven’t even heard of, ice cream’s recently been invented, and there’s even a fairly stable mail system in place.  Guns may not exist, but feudal levies are starting to fall apart in the face of professional armies- the Golden Empire's Imperial Packs haven't been beaten by a Scatter Kingdoms army in years, and the Temple Triat's Faithful have a track record as good.  The world is changing.

Now, admittedly, a lot of the best advancements haven’t happened where the game takes place, but these inventions both technological and sociological are filtering in, and this is not a land where a duke’s right to fight over succession is taken as a given; republican movements have dominated several areas, democracies are past their birth pangs, and other, stranger methods of governance are beginning to grow.  A duke who wants to take land needs to be able to justify it to others, or be acclaimed as a tyrant.

Of course, if he can keep those lands, then a tyrant he might well be, and live to a ripe old age...

It sounds as though you might benefit a lot from throwing a short Microscope session in at the beginning.  Is that the level of player involvement in worldcrafting you want?

Yes... and no.  Not quite a Microscope session, more of a... Big Picture session.  Not quite granular enough for a Microscope description. :D


What we're gonna do beforehand is determine what the main country looks like through four choices that the party will decide on, in order:

What is its ENVIRONMENT (from the choices of Desert, Forest, Highlands, Savannah, and Swamp)

What is its populace's DISTRIBUTION (from the choices of City State, Scattered Villages, Small Hamlets, City and Countryside, and Two Cities)

What is its TRADITION (from the choices of Martial, Magical, Fashionable, Monster Hunting, and Mercantile)

What is its RELIGION (from the choices of Atheistic, Local Religion, State Church, Holy City, and Foreign Faith)

What is its NAME (the players can make this one themselves, lol).


These five choices dictate the final country's outlook.  They mean more than they seem, too.  A Fashionable Tradition, for example, means that your country was, in the recent past, a dominant local power- we find what is fashionable to be whatever powerful people are wearing, in the real world, and the same goes for this one- but it's faded in strength, and is trading off past glories.  A Martial Tradition, however, indicates an up and coming nation, one with strong, very violent interests in its neighbors.  An Atheistic Kingdom will be looked at askance by its neighbors, but at the same time lacks an organized church to oppose the player's rule, while a Holy City has a huge influx of resources from outside pilgrimages and faithful, but has a powerful church leader who might buck on the player's decisions.

Obviously there'll be room to go in further detail as well, but that's up to the players.

The country has some things set in stone despite the players.  It is always on an inlet, and at the very end of that inlet.  The capital is always located at the end of that inlet- so the main capital has a port.  It always has four neighbors; two surrounding it to the east, west, and south, and two at the other end of the inlet, farther away but easily reachable by boat.  Those four countries will end up with the Traditions and Religions not picked, at random, because that will best please me.

The country will always have a single major dungeon, the Tomb of the Exiles, located within it, though it may not have any others depending on their choices above (for example, a Desert nation with the Mercantile Tradition has more "dungeons", those being sunken ships and merchant money pits, but a Desert Nation with a Monster Hunting tradition does not).

Humans have a specific beginning- they are from the Shield Continent, where the game takes place, so the Empire and Triat are 90% humans.  Non-human races don't exist unless a player wants to be one, and then, we'll have a quick session about their race's place in the world- they'll have originated from the Drowned Continent, but what else is going on there?  What is their race's place in the world, now?

Beyond that, the players will also answer a few other very important questions:

1.) Why is divine magic seemingly only Oracles, with the exception of the Triat (who have managed semi-stable communication with whatever powers grant divine magic)?

2.) What gods exist, and are they gods at all?  Maybe it's powerful spirits or strong ghosts.  Or maybe there are gods and they just have trouble communicating.

3.) Why is arcane magic so rare?  A +1 sword is quite a treasure, a +3 sword a legendary artifact.

And perhaps the answer is "we don't know".  That's a fun all to itself.


EDIT: I'm afraid this game is no longer seeking new players, but I thank one and all for their interest!
This message was last edited by the user at 00:59, Fri 29 July 2016.

I really want to join this game, but I'm a new user and can't verify my status as an adult for a week and a half or so. Will it be closed by then?