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.

Paper Empires: Actions

There's one last little detail before the basic framework of Paper Empires is complete, and that's Actions. After that, I'm going to start delving into the nuances of the game, fleshing out details and explaining how things work. Theoretically, with the details you have here, you could almost hack together a very basic game. I'm about to add more game elements, though, including an explanation of how the tech tree actually works. Oh, and a concept of a world map.

Paper Empires: Assets

Assets are the last thing which floats around in Paper Empires 2.0, being a little less powerful and a little less tied down than Provinces. Although they're not quite a core of your empire, they're the tools which you use to take various actions. Every action works through an appropriate Asset, and you'll gain a great advantage by having the right Asset.

Paper Empires: Provinces

The second main part of my revitalized Paper Empires project is the provinces, those little bits of territory that make up your empire. Dynasties are defined by characteristics, and by the knowledge possessed by the Dynasty. Provinces, in contrast, are primarily defined by the resources and goods they produce. They can be invaded, infiltrated, built up, and settled. Your Dynasty may be your empire's heart and soul, but your Provinces are its hands and feet.

Paper Empires: Building a Dynasty

Okay! This is the first post in my rebuild of Paper Empires, and I'm going to do two things. First, I'm going to explain (to the newcomers) exactly how Cortex+ works. Then, I'm going to outline how the concept of Dynasties will apply to this game, because Dynasties are a core component of this new edition, which I'm still trying to figure out a good name for. At the moment, Paper Empires+, Paper Empires 2E, and some totally unrelated title are my best options. Any input there?

Paper Empires: the Revival!

Here it is, folks! Like I mentioned last week, I've had a bit of an RPG-tinkering idea. This time, I'm revisiting the game Paper Empires, a sort of "Civilization meets RPGs" combo that, while an interesting concept, had some real problems. I'd sort of left it by the wayside, but now I think I've stumbled across the perfect way to reboot it. It's a system that's flexible, has a lot of moving parts to tinker with, and it's a system with a strong narrative focus...

Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you to Cortex+, the game powering the Smallville, Leverage, and (most recently) Marvel Heroic roleplaying games.