Play by Post ยท campaign one
The Hatch and Brood of Time
A grand strategy role-playing game, played by post, that opens at first light on 1 January 1200. Each player is a real person of that morning. The game is the writing: the GM's turn reports and the players' letters, proclamations, speeches and quarrels.
How a year is played
1. The turn report
A turn is one year. The GM posts what happened, in public and in private, and pings the players it concerns.
2. The world answers
Players react in character, in the thread: letters, proclamations, speeches and quarrels.
3. Your plans
Each player sends the GM private plans for the next year, about five hundred words. Each order names who acts, what they do, and with what.
4. The resolution
The GM weighs every plan against the others, against the people no player holds, and against what would have happened anyway.
Between reports come events that cannot wait for the year's end: a clash of armies, a death at a wedding, a sudden choice. They are played in their own thread, with a deadline.
How the world works
Lordship is rights, not lines
Power means rights over people, castles, tolls and courts. Holding a map colour means little on its own.
Unequal starts
Some players begin with far more than others, and the game keeps it that way.
Law has teeth
Homage, summons and forfeiture matter, and the Church can suspend a whole kingdom.
Wealth moves on roads
Fairs, cloth, wine, salt and tolls make money. Cutting a road can hurt more than taking a castle.
Frontiers are raiding belts
Borders are wide bands of raids, and the sea is the fast road.
Nothing is fixed
What happened after 1 January 1200 happens again only if nothing in play has changed it.
Questions
How do I join?
Read the sign-up thread on the Sufficient Velocity forum, where the rules and the open seats are posted, and join the Discord to talk with the players and the GM.
How long is a turn?
One game year. You send your plans for the next year to the GM in private, in about five hundred words.
Do I need to know the period?
No. Your private briefing tells you who your person is, who their family, allies and rivals are, what they hold and what threatens them, as that person would know it. The Atlas and the map are there for anything else.
How is money handled?
Your briefing gives your standing in one line: flush, stretched or in debt. Ask the GM what something costs before you order it.
Is this the same as Seeds of Empire?
No. Seeds of Empire is the quick strategy game you play alone in your browser. The Play by Post is slow, written, and played with other people over months.
Where is it played?
On the Sufficient Velocity forum, where the sign-up thread, the rules and the open seats are posted, with chat on the OMNIA Discord.