I am thinking of starting a civilization game, where each player is a separate civilization (just like the Sid Meier game). It'll be based on a random map I generate from www.donjon.bin.sh (check that out, it's  quite cool). Each player will start as a group of humans who have built their first city, and the players will be in control of the politics and culture of their Civ. All the civilizations will be fictional and made up by the players, but will still be realistic. I want quite a few players so that there are quite a few different factions.

The only problem is that I don't know what to do for aspects and rules of the game. I have the idea of splitting up the game into "Ages", where each age lasts like a week or two, and in the ages I as the GM dictate natural and NPC events that happen to each Civ (bandit raids, rebellions, epidemics, natural disasters etc). Each age signifies the technological advancement of each civilization, but I don't really know what the players would do.

I just need help coming up with a set of game rules and things for each player to do which is capable of being done on RPOL.

Thanks

In reply to hubsland (msg # 1):

Houses of the Blooded is almost exactly this, although it does focus on a more personal level at least some of the time. It does have seasons (which can represent ages), world-building systems, and it's a pretty simple, straightforward system. Very narrative. Extremely beautiful. And easily adapted to your purposes ;D

I know there are other systems out there already built for things like this, but I figured I'd suggest the one I know of and like best.

If you're familiar with the board game: History of the World (can be found on Board Game Geek.)  You might have a good basis for dividing up turns, effects, and 'advancement.'

The first questions I would ask myself are:

1)  What's the time-scale of the game?  Are we representing full advancement from ancient times to modern times just like CIV?  Or are we staying in one particular age?  Are we dealing with just the rise-and-fall of a particular city? (a super truncated approach), or the rise-and-fall of entire cultures (a much longer approach.)

2) How gritty and detailed?  Do you have to research sub-sets of technology, or are overall technological levels attained as a whole as the age advances? (time or deliberate advancement.)

Once you answer those questions: you'll have a MUCH better direction for your game.

I'm interested. Depends how far you go with this.
I think breaking it down to historical Ages each requiring research would  make it interesting.

In reply to GamerHandle (msg # 3):

1) The time scale slowly decreases (just like CIV). I'm basically going for a more realistic representation of how civilizations come to rise and fall (or not fall) than CIV offers, and I may even go for even beyond our current technology level (space exploration and the like). Basically the game may skip 300 years between each set of player posts at the very start, and may skip only 5 years when at modern technology levels.

2) Technology levels are mostly automatic, but big things like discovering alloys or gunpowder will have some form of player input (not sure what).

In reply to Rothos1 (msg # 4):

Yeah, that's what I was going for, but how would research work?

In reply to Rothos1 (msg # 4):

Yeah, that's what I was going for, but how would research work?

That answer would probably be appropriate for another forum or even our own game.

In reply to hubsland (msg # 6):

Okay - sounds like you're going for the hybrid answer between civ and a gritty game.

1) Work out your 'ages' internally, for example Ages I - V.  Call them what you will.

2) Decide upon the effects of 'automatic' technology improvements.

3) Come up with a list of techs that require deliberate player-involvement.

4) You can develop a resource-point-based system for tech advancement.  You get X points per turn (or based upon some sort of economic factor), you can assign up to Y amount to research per turn, it takes Z points to gain each tech.  Once you succeed in learning it - it takes effect the next turn.

I'd be interested, if you Rmail me I can even help you out :D

A pity you can't do the Civilization Board game(Avalon Hill games, I believe) as a PbP. Might actually work as a PbP.