Paper Empires: Stability

The Roman Empire fell because of internal squabbling and invaders from the outside. The British Empire, once spanning the whole globe in some capacity, was hugely diminished as their colonies rose up against them. The stability of your own empire is of critical importance in Paper Empires. Each province, from the start, begins to generate Unrest, and you must also keep building your Dynasty's strength up.

What is Unrest?
Unrest is a dice pool assigned to every province, and it varies from province to province. Unrest is cultivated in a province when you roll 1s on an action in that province, or when an opposing player takes a Diplomatic action to increase Unrest. The more dice are in your Unrest pool, the more likely it is that the province will either refuse to go along with your Dynasty's orders, or else leave your Dynasty's dominion.

At the end of every round (when every player has chosen an Action, and all actions have been executed), every player makes an Unrest roll for each Province. They also roll their Dynasty pool, once. They take the two highest results from each Unrest pool and add them; this is the amount of Unrest that each province has generated. This could represent rebellion, divisive political maneuvering, or protest. Pick two dice from your Dynasty pool to use as the result for your Dynasty; this is the strength of the empire, used to handle the Unrest. All provinces with an Unrest total that beats the Dynasty total are unavailable for an action in the next round. All provinces which beat the Dynasty total by 5 or more secede, no longer under your control, creating a Military Asset equal to the Power of the Unrest roll.

The Dynasty Pool
Each player starts with a 3d6 Dynasty Pool. You can spend a d6 from the Dynasty Pool to roll it along with any action, and you can also give d6s from your Dynasty Pool to other players for some effect. If they roll any 1s in an Action roll, you can give their Dynasty Pool a d6 from yours in order to activate the 1 (called an Opportunity), adding Unrest equal to that die to the province's Unrest pool.

Your Dynasty Pool is also how you attempt to keep your provinces under your control. You'll roll it against Unrest, and you'll sometimes have the opportunity to add it to your main roll. Finally, the Dynasty Pool is a measure of your Dynasty's Health. When it's depleted completely, your Dynasty has been defeated. Note that you must always lose a Dynasty die every time you lose a province.

Next Time
Well...I suppose it's time to take another look at that tech tree...