Company Rules Dae Empire CRD

From Reign

Company Qualities

Think of them as your ability scores.

Scored from 0 to 6. Each increase represents a doubling in power/size.

  • Might: How much your group can accomplish through the application of violence.
  • Treasure: Your group’s fiscal wherewithal and fiduciary infrastructure. Also, cash.
  • Influence: Soft influence. Persuasion. The stuff of eavesdropping and smear campaigns.
  • Territory: Land, property and people who do what you say.
  • Sovereignty: The loyalty of your followers and their initiative in pursuing your will.

Might

  1. Well-meaning but poorly trained spearmen, possibly with leather caps.
  2. A thin rank of untrained soldiers with adequate weapons, or adequate soldiers with poor weapons.
  3. The typical large city guard, a small corps of elite soldiers, or a huge gaggle of undisciplined scrappers.
  4. Good troops with excellent leadership, or vice versa.
  5. A well-honed, confident, experienced, superbly balanced fighting force.
  6. Tough, experienced veterans, well organized and commanded, with plenty of magic backup.

Treasure

  1. Every level of the operation is visibly pitiful—worn out tools, ragged clothing, scurvy livestock, bad haircuts, and so on.
  2. A struggling Company working very close to the margin with little in the way of a fiscal safety net.
  3. Perhaps a small but tightly run enterprise, or a large and shabby one, or a settlement with some areas of poverty and some prosperity.
  4. A prosperous organization, well-managed and profitable.
  5. With deep reserves and a strong record of success, the Company can take greater risks without the chance of being utterly wiped out.
  6. The Company radiates casual opulence. It possesses such significant reserves that it cannot count them and also an evolved fiscal system for exchanging (say) quarried stone for milled wheat, pig iron, cut timber, or the services of an expert builder. On top of that, there’s plenty of potential for lending to and borrowing from other companies of equivalent stature.

Influence

  1. Self-absorbed and unknown, your Company has negligible pull.
  2. A group like this might stumble on a fact now and then or change the mind of someone noteworthy through sheer luck.
  3. Your Company can make its opinions known directly and can learn of major events in a timely fashion.
  4. Well-informed of current events for a decent sized area, your group understands the intangible connections between people and groups and social trends. Your knowledge lets you choose arguments most calculated to persuade.
  5. An array of sources can be checked against one another for maximum accuracy, while your legions of advisors (or blackmailers) can make your will felt throughout a nation.
  6. For your Company, the walls have ears and the hills have eyes. When you whisper, generals shout and soldiers scream.

Territory

  1. A village and the surrounding farms, a small town, or a neighborhood within a city. It could also be a small church, a minor organization of tradespeople, or a single large ship with crew.
  2. A town, a modest duchy, legitimate authority over a large part of a big city. Alternately, a caravan of decent size or a broad-but-shallow national conspiracy.
  3. A very small country, a fair sized region, or a very large independent city. If not physical land, this could stand for a prominent regional religion, or a national merchant empire, or a very large mercenary troupe.
  4. A large region within a large nation, or a nation of medium size in its entirety, or a huge independent city and its surrounding area.
  5. A large country.
  6. A vast and varied nation with a proud history and a highly-developed culture.

Sovereignty

  1. Barely-suppressed hatred and rage.
  2. Grudging obedience with more resentment than initiative.
  3. Typical loyalty. The followers gripe about the leaders to one another but band together and demonstrate patriotism when an outsider makes remarks.
  4. Unusual dedication, due perhaps to personal charisma, positive events, or the abject terror of those under a tyrant.
  5. The commoners take actual pleasure in promoting the nation and feel pride when they do their civic duty. If there’s rule by fear, it’s backed with equal amounts of glorious rhetoric, probably something about having a manifest destiny.
  6. Total cultural cohesion to the point of xenophobia (or at least condescending snobbery). Profound devotion to the ruling clique.

Temporary Raises

Qualities can be raised temporarly by PCs performing actions (e.g. an adventure, quest).

Some example methods:

  • Might: Surprise, entrenchments, assassination, scare tactics, hire muscle
  • Treasure: Get a loan, debase your currency, shake down a neighbor
  • Influence: Overwhelming charm, bluffs, threats, bribes, blackmail
  • Territory: Work your people mercilessly, like a tyrant.
  • Sovereignty: Holidays, just decisions, benign neglect with high Territory

The success/failure of the actions determine the modifier.

  • Bonuses & Penalties
  • Catastrophic bungle -3d
  • Humiliating failure -2d
  • Error -1d
  • Washout +0d
  • Minor success +1d
  • Significant success +ED
  • Outstanding success +2d
  • Major success +MD
  • Spectacular coup! +3d
  • Epic Triumph! +1+MD
  • Duuuuude! +2+MD

Company downtime actions

During a downtime, a company can take as many company actions as they'd like. Each time a quality is used it is -1 until the next downtime. You can decide to not use a quality but you cannot roll it's dice.

When an action against a named company is declared, the Defender can choose to use Defensive action to try to weaken or counter your action. These counters act as gobble dice (their pairs will gobble a single dice of yourself that is equal to or lower).

Offensive Actions Attacker Defender Impact
Attack / Raid Might+Treasure Might+Territory Defender: Treasure-1. Attacker: if equal or lower Treasure, Treasure+1
Attack / Annexation Might+Treasure Might+Territory Defender: Territory-1. Attacker: if equal or lower Territory, Territory+1
Attack / Symbolic Might+Treasure Might+Territory Attacker: Temp Influence+1 or Temp Sovereignty+1
Attack / Pre-emptive defense Might+Treasure Might+Territory Defender: Might-1
Being Informed vs Company Influence+Sovereignty Influence+Treasure Attacker: learn what company is doing (based on height)
Being Informed vs general info Influence+Sovereignty vs DC Attacker: learn details (based on height)
Espionage / Find information Influence+Treasure Influence+Territory Attacker: learns what they are asking about (details based on height)
Espionage / Establish spy Influence+Treasure any success Attacker: gain +1D on next Espionage / Find information roll (max +2D)
Espionage / Change minds Influence+Treasure Influence+Territory Attacker: changes public opinion subtlety, might give temporary raise
Unconventional Warfare Influence+Might Might+Sovereignty Attacker: reduces the quality attacked
Defensive Actions Defender Attacker Impact
Counter-Espionage Influence+Territory Influence+Territory counters Espionage and unveils the spies
Defend Might+Territory Might+Territory counters Attack
Policing Might+Sovereignty Influence+Might counter Unconventional Warfare
Improvement Actions Company VS Impact
Improve the Culture / Temporary Territory+Treasure Any success +1 Sovereignty for next month
Improve the Culture / Permanently Territory+Treasure Equal or higher than current Sovereignty +1 Sovereignty (max 5, max once/downtime)
Rise in Stature / Temporary Sovereignty+Treasure Any success +1 Influence for next month
Rise in Stature / Permanently Sovereignty+Treasure Equal or higher than current Influence +1 Influence (max 5, max once/downtime)
Train and Levy Troops / Permanently Sovereignty+Territory Equal or higher than current Might +1 Might (max 5, max once/downtime)

1. Attack

Might + Treasure: This is a direct, physical attack. It’s resisted with Might + Territory.

Inverse of Defend

p87

2. Being Informed

Influence + Sovereignty: Gather information. It’s against a Difficulty, or against Influence + Treasure if you’re trying to expose hidden enemies.

Inverse of Policing

p88

3. Counter-Espionage

Influence + Territory: Counter-Espionage. Rolled against Influence + Treasure in order to protect your secrets.

Inverse of Espionage

p89

4. Defend

Might + Territory: Defends against direct physical assault. Attacker rolls Might + Treasure.

Inverse of Attack

p89

5. Espionage

Treasure + Influence: Espionage. As opposed to merely gathering information, this is the active pursuit of secrets desperately concealed. It’s rolled against Influence + Territory. It can also be used to plant ideas and influence opinions.

Inverse of Counter-Espionage

p89

6. Improve the Culture

Treasure + Territory: Cultural improvement. Rolled against no Difficulty, any success gives a temporary +1 to Sovereignty for the next month. Rolled against Difficulty = current Sovereignty can give a permanent +1. You can only do this once a month and it can’t raise Sovereignty above 5.

p90

7. Policing

Might + Sovereignty: Policing your territory, protecting your citizens, serving and protecting. If you have a concerted gang against you, they resist with Influence + Might.

Inverse of Unconventional Warfare

p90

8. Rise in Sature

Treasure + Sovereignty: Improves your reputation. Rolled against no Difficulty, any success gives a temporary +1 to Influence the next month. Rolled against Difficulty = current Influence can give a permanent +1. You can only do it once per month and it can’t raise Influence above 5.

p90

9. Train and levy troops

Territory + Sovereignty: Rally people to your banner who are willing to fight for your cause. It’s made against a Difficulty = Might and it gives a permanent +1 increase to Might.

p91

10. Unconventional warfare

Might + Influence: Unconventional warfare or, if you prefer, terrorism. It’s resisted with Might + Sovereignty.

Inverse of Policing p91

Improving Qualities

Combining Companies

When two companies are combined:

  • If a Quality is equal, the new company's quality will be +1
  • If a Quality is different, the higher of the two will be used
  • Exception: Sovereignty. If the two companies can combine harmoniously, the above rules are used. If they are grudgungly, the high score -1 is used.

Attacking

Attack/Raid can increase your Treasure by 1 if you attack someone with greater Treasure than you.

Attack/Annexation can increase your Territory by 1 if you attack someone with greater Territory than you.

Total Conquest

Happens when two of a Company's Qualities reach zero and one is either Territory or Sovereignty.

  • If the Company was half your size or smaller, you gain nothing.
  • If it was smaller, but more than half your size, you can improve one Quality by +1 if that makes sense.
  • If it was equal size or larger, you can increase any two Qualities by +1 or one Quality by +2 if the GM agrees.

Experience

You can spend your characters XP to level up a Company's Quality.

  • You must justify the fiction. e.g. improve Might by training with army
  • XP must be spent at 1,000x the new Quality level
To reach XP
1 5,000
2 10,000
3 25,000
4 60,000
5 150,000
6 500,000

Assets

Assets give specialized bonuses in specific circumstances.

They can be bought for 5,000 XP times the number of assets you already have (the first costs 2,500 XP).