RulingNations@aol.com wrote: >Working through the process for my society has brought back the nature >of Aria in full force; wonderful ideas that are very difficult to >implement and use. Particularly when merged with Fudge, I feel >societies could be designed much more easily and distinctively, but I >don't want to clutter up the list with my comments if it's not >something people want to discuss. At least I would be very interested in hearing your thoughts. You could, though, mark such discussions with e.g. [Rules] tag on the subject line. OK, here goes. The basic problem with the Aria Interactive History system is that too many of the things that are defined are simply descriptive and no (or few) actual game effects. The descriptions are good, but understanding how they are used is extremely difficult. Using Fudge's Attributes / Skills / Gifts / Faults system, here's what I would do. DESCRIPTION: Much of what Aria uses statistics for are simply descriptive. A society's description should include its basic nature (government, family, religion, business), its location, and how its organized. 12 TRAITS: SCOPE is the size and population of the society and its components RESOURCES is the wealth and knowledge available to a society DEVELOPMENT is what a society is capable of, its economy CONTROL is the measure of how much a society dominates its members AGGRESSION is the amount of violence in a society COMMUNALISM is the amount a society de-emphasizes individuality INNOVATION is the amount a society accepts changes and new ideas PRAGMATISM is the amount the practical is emphasized over the mystical PROVIDENCE is the amount of long-term thinking in a society TOLERATION is the amount a society accepts those outside itself TRACTABILITY measures how willing the population is to be ruled UNIFORMITY measures how much a society isn't divided internally If a player (or GM) wishes these traits can be subdefined. For example, Control might be divided into Bureaucracy, Law Enforcement, and Social Stratification. Military forces would be based on scope, and Resources could be divided into Food, Gold, Iron and the like. 6 SKILLS: A Society's skills are it's ability to _do_ things (as opposed to traits which are it's ability to _be_ things). Using the Crafts model: ARTS deals with non-practical, but often morale-building, matters BIOLOGY deals with living things (agronomy, medicine, etc.) MILITARY deals with combat and espionage PARANATURALISM deals with magic and mysticism MANUFACTURE deals with physical items (weapons, transportation, etc.) PSYCHOLOGY deals with people's minds (advertising, diplomacy, trade, etc.) As with traits, these can be subdivided. GIFTS AND FAULTS work essentially the same as in Fudge, except they affect the society as a whole. (Note that unlike traits and skills gifts and faults are not ranked.) An example gift might be to give a society a navy in addition to its army. An example fault might be that a society does not have a technology that's considered standard. Gifts and faults aren't subdivided, but they may have prerequisites. For example a society might want to get the Accounting technology to improve it's trade, but in order to do so it must first pick up Primitive Accounting. Jefferson (Exquaestio) http://www.picotech.net/~jeff_wilson63/rpg/ PS I'd also change the terminology a bit. Traits become Capacities. Skills become Crafts. Gifts become Glories. Faults become Burdens. If it looks familiar, much of the system above is based on _GURPS Traveller: First In_ by Jon F. Zeigler (who I happen to know plays FUDGE). ---------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, send mail to celandra-off@phoenyx.net.
