Character Creation Challenge, Day 5: Statecraft

Day 5 and I haven’t done a single PDF-format game yet. Very well, then. Let’s take a look at Statecraft. 

Statecraft (which as far as I can tell never went beyond the public-beta stage) attempts to bridge the gap between tabletop RPGs as we know them and grand-strategy boardgames such as Diplomacy or Empires in Arms. Players represent a dynasty of rulers—playing one monarch at a time—jockeying for status and power on the world stage. The game focuses on European powers during the early modern age of empire, though I suspect a lot of the colonial awfulness is going to be left offstage. 

 

Because we’ll be playing the sovereigns of historical states, it might not be a bad idea to find out which one we’re ruling before we start tackling character generation. This beta version offers only an “Age of Exploration”* scenario beginning in 1492, with four major and two minor powers converted into game statistics. The recommended four are England, France, Spain and Portugal—what will become the major imperial powers of the Atlantic, in other words (though to be accurate England’s kind of a latecomer on that scene).  The two secondary powers are Austria and Venice, focused on eastern Europe and the Mediterranean respectively.**  As tempting as Austria is (the Habsburg Monarchy was my primary focus during my days as a grad student in history), I’m going to opt for France, which at this early date is doing most of its meddling on the Continent and has not made much if any investment in colonial enterprises. In 1492, the King of France is 22-year-old Charles VIII, who historically took the throne at the age of thirteen.

 

Let’s take a look at what France has to offer. Its treasury (Gold) and recruitment pool (Manpower) start at 85 and 52 respectively, solidly in the upper half of the pack on both counts. (Actually their Manpower rating is the highest of the six powers listed.) These statistics are two of the game’s six Measures, which will fluctuate over the course of the game, and about which I will say more later since the other four pertain more closely to the person of the monarch. France has two Armies, one based at Paris (with a strength of 15) and one in Gascony (with a strength of 8); likewise two Navies, a small one at Brest (strength 3) and a larger one at Marseilles (strength 12). Military commanders are unnamed and unrated until the first time they are called into action, at which time the GM determines Strategy and Vigilance scores for them (see below under Attributes), and the player (presumably) gives them a name. (Alternately, if you have enough players, another player can take the role of General or Admiral and roll up a full set of Attributes for them.)

 

Each power also has a set of 8 Conditions, seven of which have numerical ratings. The first is the Capital, which is simply the location of the seat of government and does not have a rating. But it is the one piece of territory that you can’t cede in war or diplomacy. Lose your capital, lose your state. The rated Conditions are Centralization, Decay, Investment, Readiness, Recruitment, Stability, and Tax Income. The Capital of France, as you may already know, is Paris, and the territories immediately surrounding it are our home base.  Its Centralization rating is 1, which is poor even by the standards of its peers. We’ve a long road to travel before we reach the absolutism of Louis XIV. Decay is 0, which is true for all the other states as well; these are all rising powers.  Investment tells us how much of the nation’s tax money goes toward internal improvement; in France it’s 40%, which is also pretty low. Its Readiness for war is rated at 2 out of a possible 3, which puts France on a par with everyone except ill-prepared England. Its Recruitment rating is 34, which is the value that the French population will add to the Manpower level every year.*** . French Stability is rated at 5, which is one of the lowest among the powers.****  Finally the French tax system, as poorly centralized as it might be, is able to wring 60 units of Tax Income out of the land per annum. 40% of that is going to be earmarked for Investment, which will still leave us 36 Gold a year to pay the interest on all our war-making, diplomacy, and conspicuous consumption.

 

Charles will also inherit France’s current diplomatic commitments, which include a royal marriage with the house of Savoy, defense pacts with Scotland (England’s enemy is France’s natural ally) and Venice, and a protectorate over Brittany, which is nominally subject to the French crown but not nearly as subject as the kings of France would like it to be. In a conventional strategic board game, the scenario would also tell us which territories belong to France at the start; I suppose if we really want to know we can consult a historical atlas or perhaps Wikipedia.

 

All right, that’s our realm in a nutshell. Now to give it a King. Our version of Charles VIII will have seven Attributes, randomly rolled on the classic 3d6 bell curve. Most of a monarch’s thing-doing will involve Tests of one Attribute or another, rolling less than the Attribute’s value on a d20.***** The Attributes are:

 

Charles VIII, courtesy Wikipedia

Acumen, the ability to manage affairs wisely:  8

Authority, the ability to inspire loyalty and obedience: 13

Fertility, the ability to sire healthy heirs: 6

Fortune, the favor of Lady Luck: 12

Grace, the ability to charm others: 11

Guile, the ability to fool and manipulate others: 13

Strategy, the ability to make war: 12

Vigilance, the ability to see trouble and opportunities coming: 10

 

That set of scores is…not great. Not bad, but not great. Young Charles is not gifted with much managerial ability, and he is quite likely to die without an undisputed heir. People are pretty loyal to him, fortunately, and he’s rather good (but not exceptional) at playing them, but he is either average or just above average in most respects. The House of Valois could be in better hands, and it may have to undergo a civil war before it gets them.

 

Now it is the time to consider our other Measures. We have already seen Gold and Manpower; they are joined by Honor, Prestige, Religion, and Vitality. 

 

Honor measures others’ opinion of your dignity and trustworthiness. As a starting monarch, Charles will begin with a rating of 10, although given his Guile rating it seems likely to be a charitable assessment. 

 

Prestige, which measures others’ estimation of your power and achievements, also begins at 10 for all monarchs; Charles will probably need a little extra good luck to build on that. 

 

Religion is not measured by a quantity, merely a record of your monarch’s current faith. Converting to a different sect will cause a loss of Stability. Charles, like his peers in this pre-Reformation world, begins play as a Roman Catholic. 

 

Vitality is a measure of the king’s physical health, and is randomly determined on a d8. Charles begins at 3, which should be cause for concern. Each year we’ll make a Fortune test on his health, and each failure will cost him a point of Vitality. When he runs out, it’s time for a royal funeral and a new Sovereign, with the exciting additional possibility of multiple armed claimants.****** 

 

And that’s everything the rules give me to build a starting Sovereign. Here’s the stat block:

 

State: France

Sovereign: Charles VIII

Attributes:

Acumen 8, Authority 13, Fertility 6, Fortune 12, Grace 11, Guile 13, Strategy 12, Vigilance 10

Starting Measures:

Gold 85, Manpower 52, Honor 10, Prestige 10, Vitality 3, Religion Roman Catholic

Starting Conditions:

Capital Paris, Centralization 1, Decay 0, Investment 40%, Readiness 2, Recruitment 34, Stability 5, Tax Income 60

Commitments: Protectorate over Brittany, Royal Marriage with Savoy, Defense Pacts with Scotland and Venice

*Which might be better termed “Age When the Rampant Plundering Begins,” though to be fair there was already a goodly amount of plundering going on before 1492 as well. 

**Eurocentrism alert: why leave the Ottomans out of this? They’re the big up-and-comer in the eastern Med. It leaves you out of European marriage politics, sure, but so does Venice since it doesn’t even have a dynasty.

***Expect a lot of this Manpower to get killed in the name of gloire, however.

****Historically, you’ve got a young king in 22-year-old Charles VIII and a lot of powerful provincial nobles who don’t like royal authority, including some who also hold non-French territories.

*****I feel pretty certain this would have been nudged to “less than or equal to” in a final version.

******The historical Charles VIII died at the age of 27, so that tracks. Also, he died without a direct heir and his second cousin the Duke of Orléans succeeded him, so that tracks as well. (No civil war, though. That comes later on.) Who knew my D&D Beyond online die roller would be so historically sensitive?