The Iron Oath Update #23

The Iron Oath, the recently crowdfunded gritty turn-based RPG by Curious Panda, has received a new post-funding update that goes over the game’s overworld simulation. From the adversarial dynamics of multiple Royal Houses and their Vassals, to plagues and political assassinations – The Iron Oath looks like it has its overworld all figured out. A few paragraphs to give you a general idea of what to expect:

Hey folks! Today we’re going to dig into the overworld simulation aspect, touching on how ruling houses operate, events, encounters, and missions.

Each region within the game’s world is comprised of a Royal House and a few Major Houses. Royal Houses rule over the entire region in which they are situated. They hold ownership of the region’s capital city and sometimes other cities as well. The Major Houses are Vassals of the Royal House. If the Royal House ever gets involved in a war or other situation where assistance is required, the vassals are obliged to answer their King or Queen’s call. Major Houses can also rule and own multiple cities, and it’s even possible for them to have a greater wealth and military strength than that of their liege.

Each ruling House has their own set of goals and principles(or ethos). Their ethos can differ slightly from generation to generation, but extreme changes in a short time period are unlikely(like going from peaceful to warmongering over a span of a few years). Each city also its own ethos, which at the beginning will be quite similar to that of others within the region(since they generally are the same race, have the same practices etc). A city’s ethos is less subject to change over time, but it will slowly be influenced by the ethos of its ruler. Each city has some stats that are tracked that help drive the logic of its ruling House:

Wealth: Used to buy resources, hire mercenaries and fund their army Military Strength: Having a strong military means they are less likely to shy away from conflict Resources: Are they able to feed citizens? Do they need to trade for wood or stone? Each region has some predetermined resource nodes, but new ones will also appear during the course of the game. Population Happiness: How happy are the citizens with their ruler

The other stat tracked would be each rulers standing with one another and other factions of the world. Those with a high standing would be allies, those with low would be enemies. Generally, a vassal will be in good standing with their Liege, but it’s possible for it to drop low enough that they may choose to rebel against him or her.

The ethos and stats will all determine how a ruler reacts to different situations and world events that occur. Events occur all the time in the game and help make each playthrough unique. A single event can vary in complexity and impact on the world. They can be either triggered upon certain criteria being met, or completely random. Some examples of random events are:

• Plagues
• Droughts
• Floods
• New resource nodes
• Blighted attacks
• Void breaches(the release of spirits & demons into the world).

Some conditional events would be:

• A bandit raid on a city, with the condition being that the city has a low military presence. A city’s military numbers could be lowered for various reasons, such as conflict or simply a lack of funds.
• Revolt of a city, if citizen happiness remains low for a long period of time, the citizens may trigger a revolt and regime change.
• A vassal may rebel against his King or Queen if their ethos’ greatly differ and their relationship weakens. Other factors that are taken into account would be the ruler’s ambition and military strength that he or she commands.

Both types of events would have a type of mission or encounter generated alongside each, and you could come across them providing you’re in the right region(for an encounter) or hub(for a mission). Depending on the mission or encounter, you’ll have the chance to influence the world in varying degrees, either by completing it or by choosing not to.