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blklizard

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Mar 7, 2012
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France's Internal Struggles

Hello everyone! I'm blklizard and I am pleased to announce my first forum game, France's Internal Struggles. I have been wanting to run with this idea for awhile and finally found the courage to do so. As I said, this is my first time so please bear with me if I make beginner mistakes. I hope to improve quickly and bring a satisfactory experience to those who participate. As the title suggests, this game will be taking place in France as shown below.

hB33sSR.png

I know this is quite messy but I can assure you that the French map will improve as this game moves forward.

Game Rules:
Introduction:
The starting year will be 1356 and a new map will be posted every 2-4 years after that bringing about new opportunities. Now, I believe you are probably wondering what I meant by internal struggles. There will be a number of noble families that will be competing for power within the nation. We will start with three families but, depending on the number of participants, I might increase that. The main objective is to make your family the strongest in France in terms of wealth, influence or possibly a combination of both.

At the start of each turn (2-4 years), the players will get a chance at making a number of decisions. The decisions might be limited at the start of the game but, as time passes, there will be more made available. At this moment, you will be able to roleplay to your heart's content as you pursue both your own interests and the interest of your family. For the most part, you will need to make wise decision on how to invest your limited resources to get the greatest return. There will be events happening at times to add some diversity.

Map:
The map is shown above with a rather ugly looking France. The map will improve as time passes so you mustn't worry about the ugly border gore. France starts with 12 provinces and this number will grow as she conquers her neighbors. At the start of the game each of the noble families will control 2 provinces each which means 6 provinces are occupied and 6 more are available for purchase. All provinces offer the same benefit so you mustn't worry about fighting over one province. The more provinces a family controls, the more benefits that family would acquire.

Wealth and Influence:
Wealth is the amount of ducats one has. Each member will have a certain amount of wealth at the start of each year which he or she may use to make purchases. Available provinces and buildings require ducats. Some events might have an option where one pay with ducats so it might be wise to save some for those events.

Influence is an indication of the power the family has in court. The higher the influence, the more votes the family has in matters. This is how it works:
Family A, B and C all have 30 influence each at the start.
The three families control a total of 120 votes (for simplicity). Therefore, each family has 40 votes since they control a third of the total influence [30/(30+30+30)=1/3 ].
Family A has 4 members. Each member has 10 votes each.
Family B has 8 members. Each member has 5 votes each.
Family C has 5 members. Each member has 8 votes each.

If Family A's influence grows to 40 while the other two Families remain at 30, Family A controls [40/(40+30+30)] 40% of the total votes (48 votes) while the other two Families control [30/(40+30+30)] 30% of total votes (36 votes) each. As you can see, Family A will be gaining more votes because their influence increased.

Votes on laws will be made available later that could have enormous impact on each families. Influence will only be acquired by certain events I present from time to time.

Character Creation:
Please present in the following format with each player limited to one character:

Name:
Family:
Class:
Religion:
Bio:

Name is pretty straightforward since it's what we call you in-game.

Family will be listed below. Your primary objective is to make your faction the strongest in the government so you hold the most power. Do note that when a faction gets too powerful, they will go through trials that are attempts to weaken them.

Classes consist of noble and merchant. Noble is influential in government decisions and makes steady income from their land. Merchants make their ducats from trade so they can establish trade posts in foreign lands

Religion is the faith that your character follows. At the start, everyone will be Catholic. Once the Reformation starts, you may choose to be Protestant or Reformed. After the reformation, different religions will offer different benefits which will be revealed later in the game.

Bio is a simple past to give your character more life. Chances are that this bit won't affect the character.

There is no date of birth. You may keep your character for the entire duration of the game if you'd like. If you wish to change the name, feel free to notify me and I will make the necessary change.

Noble Families:
The three starting noble families will be:

House of Bourbon
House of Orléan
House of Valois

There aren't any differences between the three families except for their names. Feel free to join any of them.

I know this might seem exceptionally simple but too much ambition could result in failure so I've decided to make it so I allow for the addition of new mechanics later on. Like I said, I'm new with this and decided to take a rather simple approach. Thank you for taking the time to visit my threat and hope you are willing to spare some time to participate. :)

It's never too late to join!!!
 
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Mechanics introduced in the 15th century gameplay.
Mechanics introduced in the 16th century gameplay.


Buildings:

The following buildings are only available to noble class.

Farm: +4 ducat/year for each level (cost: 8 ducats)
Workshop: +8 ducats/year for each level (cost: 24 ducats)

The following buildings are only available to merchant class.

Marketplace: +12 ducats/year for each level (cost: 48 ducats)
Trading Post: +1 ducats/year for each level (cost [level - 1]^2 ducats)

The following buildings are available to all classes.

Spy Network: +2% chance to success per level (cost: 24 ducats)
Vetting School: +2% spy defense per level (cost: 24 ducats)

This is where provinces come into play. Each level of building requires a single province. By acquiring new provinces, you may get more slots allowing you to upgrade your buildings. Do note that you cannot destroy your building once it's built. Below is an example of how buildings and provinces are related:
Player A, a noble, has 2 provinces at the start of the game. A few options available to him or her are:

Level 1 Farm and Level 1 Workshop
Level 2 Farm
Level 2 Workshop
The exception to this rule is trading post where the only limit to the levels is the cost. The first level is free while level 2 and 3 are relatively cheap. However, they get more expensive for higher levels since they aren't tied to province limits.

The two buildings available to all classes, spy network and vetting school, require provinces to build much like farm and workshop. The difference is that their bonuses apply to the entire family. See explanation below:
Player A and Player B are both part of the same family.

Player A has a level 2 spy network and a level 1 vetting school.
Player B has a level 1 spy network and a level 1 vetting school.

Their family, as a result, gets +6% chance to success and +4% spy defense. Note that this takes up a total of five province slots which could have been used for other buildings.

Provinces:
All three families start with two provinces. Thus, each member in the families have two provinces allowing them to construct the buildings unique to their class. Provinces aren't cheap since a single province purchase gives all members in the family a slot for potentially more income. The cost of province purchase is as follows.
Province Cost = Members * 50 * ( Province Number - 2)

Members is the total number of players in a family. The larger the noble family, the more expensive a province is. Province Number indicates how many provinces a family would have upon purchasing the next province. Since all families start 2 provinces at the start of the game, the third province for a family with 3 members is:

3 * 50 * (3-2) = 150 ducats

Given how much provinces cost, each player in a family may, at the start of each year, invest a certain amount of their choosing. I will keep track of the invested amount which, upon reaching the province cost, will give the family a province. There is a limit to the number of provinces so, if a province isn't available and the family invested enough, the family will be on a waitlist until a new province is made available.

During the event of a new member joining the family, he or she will enjoy the benefits of gaining access to the number of provinces unlocked by the family. However, additional costs will be put into the next province to balance things out.

Each province provides the following to each player regardless of class:

+5 ducats/ year

Reputation:
Reputations can rise or fall depending on the decisions made during events. Neutral reputation is 0. Good reputation is greater than 0. Bad reputation is less than 0. One's reputation has direct impact on the rewards of certain events. For example:
The reward for a decision is: + 50 * (1 + reputation * 0.01) ducats.

Player A, with reputation of 50, gets 75 ducats while Player B, with reputation of -50, gets only 25 ducats.

Piety:
Piety will come in handy fairly soon into the game. It's recommended to have some piety saved up for the rough storm ahead.

10 ducats purchases 1 piety.


Piety has two main uses:

Improve reputation (10 Piety raises reputation by 1)
Events (certain events might have a cost involving piety as one of the options)


Colonies:
Each family will be given a colony to invest in. Colonies will introduce food and production which are unique to them. Each colony will start with a level 1 town center, level 1 farmland, level 1 carpenter's shop and level 1 warehouse. Each family member can invest in three of the four buildings in their colony. Only the town center can be upgraded by food. Note that production is a lot cheaper when compared to the ducat costs so it might be wise to have self-sufficient colonies. You might have noticed the warehouse provides goods storage. Goods are produced in colonies and could be sold for ducats by the family that have control over them. Goods produced are dependent on the population in the colony. Higher the population, the more goods produced and more storage is needed. Any goods produced that cannot be stored will be destroyed so be sure to have plenty of space.

For every 1000 population, 1 good are produced each month. The goods can be sold at 1 ducats each at the start of each turn. There is no limits to how many levels of buildings you can build as long as you have the ducats, production or food.

Town Center: +1000 population for each level (cost: 1000*[level-1]^2 food)

Farmland: +2 food/month for each level (cost: 200 ducats or 240 production)
Carpenter's Shop: +4 production/month for each level (cost: 200 ducats or 240 production)
Warehouse: +100 goods storage for each level (cost: 200 ducats or 240 production)

The following action require the permission of all family members:

-selling goods and the amount

To avoid confusion, both family members should post the same order regarding the colony. The ducats acquired from selling goods will be evenly distributed amongst the family members.

Food will automatically be consumed if enough to upgrade Town Center. Production is now evenly split between members (member 1/member 2) so each member can send orders with what they have without permission from the other family members.


Religion:
Once the reformation starts (after the year 1500), all players have a choice of going with one of these three religions: Catholicism, Protestantism and Reformed.


Catholic: sympathizes with Catholic Zealots, enormous penalty to income (loses 75% of income)
Protestant: no penalty to income, must deal with all Zealot rebels
Reformed: medium penalty to income (loses 50% of income), must deal with Catholic Zealots


Events:
Events will happen at random occasions at my choosing. They will be in the following format:
Event Name

Event Description.

A. Option 1 (-10 ducats)
B. Option 2 (- 5 ducats)
C. Option 3 (nothing)

First, please bold your decision and make sure you meeting the requirements shown in brackets. If you don't meet the requirements of the option, you will be assigned the default option where nothing happens. Secondly, the outcomes of the options won't be made available until everyone interested voted. This will allow you to make your decisions based on your own hunch without numbers affecting your decision.

Votes:
Votes will happen at various times. Some might involve laws directly affecting a certain class. Others might decide on the future of the nation. They will be in the following format:
Vote Name

Vote Description.

A. Option 1 [France goes with exploration idea]
B. Option 2 [France goes with trade idea]
C. Option 3 [France goes with naval idea]

First, please bold your decision. Secondly, the outcome of the options are shown in the square brackets. Note that votes have no costs. They might have hidden rewards and could unlock new mechanics. For instance, exploration ideas open up opportunities in the New World.

Reports:
Reports will be presented on three occasions: start of each turn, before an event and after an event. The objective of the reports is to present the various numbers to keep the players updated so they could make the their decisions. If you notice any errors, feel free to notify me.

Intrigue:
Wealth can be used to sabotage other families. Currently, there are only three options available with more to be added later. The three options are listed below. In the brackets, the numbers represent (cost/chance of success/success outcome).

1. Sabotage Reputation (10 ducats / 5% / -5 reputation for targeted family)
2. Sabotage Influence (20 ducats / 5%/ -2 influence for targeted family)
3. Incite against merchant (10 ducats / 5% / -25% income of targeted merchant for a turn)

Do note that there are risks involved with these actions. All actions have a 50% chance of discovery to which the player's associated family gets a -2 reputation regardless of success or failure.

The chance of success shown above is the base amount. There will also be a chance of success % and a spy defense % associated with each family. The chance of success is calculated as following:

chance of success = base amount + chance of success % from buildings - targeted spy defense %

Once the number is calculated, I will be using a RNG to determine success or failure along with whether or not this was discovered as shown below.
chance of success = 25 %, chance of discovery = 50%

chance of success: Roll (1-100), success if 76-100
chance of discovery: Roll (1-100), discovered if 51-100
Note: Chance of success is maxed at 80%. Such actions can be only taken at the start of each turn and their outcomes revealed at the end of each turn.
 
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Rise of France

The Black Death has, by 1348, ravaged Europe. None of the European nations were spared and France suffered greatly. However, the plague was equally devastating for the English who, in the year 1351, agreed to a truce. The two nations were expected to be at war once again but, for the time being, they needed a truce to recover. In a blink of an eye, it was the year 1356. The truce between France and England has ended with both sides ready for a renewed war. Old rivalries weren't forgotten so easily.

The French monarch, Jean II, wasn't as eager as his many subjects in attacking England. In strength, the two nations were relatively equal with the English having the naval advantage while France boasted the land advantage. He saw it more wise to reclaim some territories that rightfully belonged to him. This would eventually lead to conflict with England but that was to be expected. There could, after all, never be true peace between France and England.

Jean II first turned his attention to the nation of Provence which controlled some cores of France. To allow such a nation control French territory was absurd. Jean II didn't waste any time declaring war on Provence to reclaim his rightful provinces. The English, after claiming the defender of the faith, foolishly went to the aid of a fellow Catholic nation in distant lands. With her rival distracted by affairs far away, France was in the position to rise above all other nations in Europe as she prepared for the inevitable war with England.

______________________________________________________________________________
Report 0 (1356 Start)

Available Provinces: 6

House of Bourbon [Influence: 30] [Reputation: 0] [Chance of Success % = 0] [Spy Defense % = 0]
Provinces owned: 2 | Province Purchase (invested/total): 0/100 ducats

Jacques Ier de Bourbon-La Marche (Catholic Noble) - Dadarian
Wealth: 15 ducats | Income: +5 ducats/year | Votes: 20 | Buildings: None
Notes:

Guillaume (Catholic Merchant) - Artistove
Wealth: 15 ducats | Income: +5 ducats/year | Votes: 20 | Buildings: None
Notes:



House of Orléan [Influence: 30] [Reputation: 0] [Chance of Success % = 0] [Spy Defense % = 0]
Provinces owned: 2 | Province Purchase (invested/total): 0/50 ducats

Renaud (Catholic Noble) - iisbroke
Wealth: 30 ducats | Income: +10 ducats/year | Votes: 40 | Buildings: None
Notes:


House of Valois [Influence: 30] [Reputation: 0] [Chance of Success % = 0] [Spy Defense % = 0]
Provinces owned: 2 | Province Purchase (invested/total): 0/50 ducats

Philippe (Catholic Noble) - Michaelangelo
Wealth: 30 ducats | Income: +10 ducats/year | Votes: 40 | Buildings: None
Notes:
 
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Sounds very interesting, and a novel idea. Count me in, and good luck with the game!
 
Sounds very interesting, and a novel idea. Count me in, and good luck with the game!

Thanks for the support! :) I still need to add some details like buildings and provinces before we could get started.
 
The rules and general mechanics are more or less complete. Feel free to ask me any questions if anything requires clarification. I welcome any feedback and will try my best making this game a fun one.

Accepting characters now!!!
 
Are we to assume France here is as it was in our 1356, with Jean II on the throne and so forth?
 
Are we to assume France here is as it was in our 1356, with Jean II on the throne and so forth?

Yes, this was the France from our 1356. Yet, we will be going ahistorical from this point onwards with some decisions made by the players. This is a bit like an IAAR but, due to its complexity, there was no way it could be approved by the mods in the AAR section. Therefore, I brought it here with the rules being more lax. I will be personally playing as France with EU3 and provide a yearly map. The players will be mostly focused about expanding their power within the nation like controlling more provinces as opposed to the diplomacy and war against foreign nations.
 
young-nobleman-600.jpg

Name: Renaud
Family: Orléan
Class: Noble
Religion: Catholic
Bio: Renaud is one of the many family members of the noble house of Orléan, the best house in all of France. HE is loyal to the expansion of his house's power, like any good family member, but has ambitions to be its leader, like any good noble would.

((I GM here so I'll join to A)try a more IAAR style game, and B) support a new GM on our little alcove of the forum.))
 
250px-Merry-Joseph_Blondel_-_Jacques_de_Bourbon%2C_comte_de_La_Marche.jpg
Name: Jacques Ier de Bourbon-La Marche
Family: Bourbon
Class: Noble
Religion: Catholic
Bio: Count of La Marche and Count of Ponthieu, he is a noble and loyal officer to the Bourbon dynasty and the French Crown.
 
Welcome! You have no idea how excited I am to have two characters submitted. :) I hope to make this a fun experience for you two and others who might join.

((I GM here so I'll join to A)try a more IAAR style game, and B) support a new GM on our little alcove of the forum.))

Thanks for the support! It's a scary experience to join a new part of the forum. I'll see if I can provide a greater IAAR experience with more decisions made available to my fellow players that provide more impact on my gameplay. Going to play the first year to see what inspirations I can get. I've had a quick look at your game and, as tempting as it is, I fear I'm already stretched for time with real life, two AARs and this game. I wish you luck with your game though.
 
((Glad to see that those rule and ideas of yours get to be put to use. All that work wasn't for nothing after all. :) May as well claim the last noble family left. :p))

Name: Philippe de Valois
Family: Valois
Class: Noble
Religion: Catholic
Bio: A member of the powerful Valois family, Philippe desires to see France prosper above all others. He is loyal to the king to a fault, which isn't unexpected when the king is a blood relative. He is a fairly pious man and keeps a level-head most of the time. His skills with a sword are unmatched amongst his family, although he prefers to resort to diplomacy to resolve matters.
 
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((I would like to ask if you plan to ever make the king a player controlled character or if you plan to control him yourself. As it could be quite fun having a player as king, balancing the many factions, and instead of 3 different families, then instead creating three different factions, allowing more characters to open up. I would also like to ask if you do plan on opening up more houses, mainly if all the dukes can be filled out and so on, we could end up with a civil war on top of the 100 years war, getting our own King Maker and all of that. Also, do you plan on adding armies to each lord, as we currently are in the feudal age. Finally, then how long does a turn last?))
 
Welcome! You have no idea how excited I am to have two characters submitted. :) I hope to make this a fun experience for you two and others who might join.



Thanks for the support! It's a scary experience to join a new part of the forum. I'll see if I can provide a greater IAAR experience with more decisions made available to my fellow players that provide more impact on my gameplay. Going to play the first year to see what inspirations I can get. I've had a quick look at your game and, as tempting as it is, I fear I'm already stretched for time with real life, two AARs and this game. I wish you luck with your game though.

((My games aren't for everyone especially the massive behemoth that's Landfallen setting I've got. Hope your game here goes well.))
 
((I would like to ask if you plan to ever make the king a player controlled character or if you plan to control him yourself. As it could be quite fun having a player as king, balancing the many factions, and instead of 3 different families, then instead creating three different factions, allowing more characters to open up. I would also like to ask if you do plan on opening up more houses, mainly if all the dukes can be filled out and so on, we could end up with a civil war on top of the 100 years war, getting our own King Maker and all of that. Also, do you plan on adding armies to each lord, as we currently are in the feudal age. Finally, then how long does a turn last?))

For the moment, I'll be controlling the king myself. I'll admit that having a player controlling the king sounds fun but it greatly complicates so many things. For instance, I have full control of the game so that means I must assign different powers to the king. I will be exploring the idea but I cannot make any guarantees. As I mentioned earlier, I'm starting this relatively simple and will slowly add new mechanics once I'm comfortable with the old ones.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by allowing more characters to open up. Do you mean more classes? I do have plans of including a few other classes in the future depending on the route France takes. Two classes I have off the top of my head is clergy (for the reformation) and viceroy (if colonies exist). Depending on the number of people who join, there could be more families available. With three families, there's already a lot of options.

Civil war won't be taking place anytime soon. I don't want to implement it just yet considering the complexity behind it. The same goes for armies since this introduces combat mechanics which seem rather ambitious for a beginner GM like me. My original plan was for a turn to last a year but I've decided to change it to 2-4 years depending on what happens in-game. Thank you for the questions as they help me ponder more on this game. This game is simple now but I hope to slowly increase the complexity of it over time.

((My games aren't for everyone especially the massive behemoth that's Landfallen setting I've got. Hope your game here goes well.))

Sounds quite ambitious and most definitely not for me. Thanks! I'm quite happy with the three characters submitted as this is the bare minimum I need to get things started. I plan to wait a few more days before I get things started. Hopefully, I will get more people participating by then.
 
For the moment, I'll be controlling the king myself. I'll admit that having a player controlling the king sounds fun but it greatly complicates so many things. For instance, I have full control of the game so that means I must assign different powers to the king. I will be exploring the idea but I cannot make any guarantees. As I mentioned earlier, I'm starting this relatively simple and will slowly add new mechanics once I'm comfortable with the old ones.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by allowing more characters to open up. Do you mean more classes? I do have plans of including a few other classes in the future depending on the route France takes. Two classes I have off the top of my head is clergy (for the reformation) and viceroy (if colonies exist). Depending on the number of people who join, there could be more families available. With three families, there's already a lot of options.

Civil war won't be taking place anytime soon. I don't want to implement it just yet considering the complexity behind it. The same goes for armies since this introduces combat mechanics which seem rather ambitious for a beginner GM like me. My original plan was for a turn to last a year but I've decided to change it to 2-4 years depending on what happens in-game. Thank you for the questions as they help me ponder more on this game. This game is simple now but I hope to slowly increase the complexity of it over time.

((This all sounds smart, I suspect you'll be a good GM))
 
((What I meant with more than the 3 families is mainly more characters from other families than the 3, such as the Duke of Burgundy (the only duke that I would truly love to play and have a lot of fun with :D also as this might prevent the historical rivalry as it still be longs to the house of Burgundy, and not yet the house of Valois) The Duke of Langres, and the Duke of Laon, as well as the Duke of Reims, and later the Duke of Auvergne, Touraine and Berry. Then instead having different families, then just have different factions that the players can also make themselves, that can switch over time, and allow political power to switch with it.

Also, while I do approve with waiting until you feel comfortable, then I dont believe the game will be a success unless you add combat and intrigue, people tend to get bored otherwise and not have long term interest.

I also see that you have income, and so far the only real way to spend it (as far as I can see) is to increase income further by upgrading buildings. What is the point in here of having income, if you have nothing to spend it on, other than making yourself more money, it makes the money in itself somewhat less worth, when it cant be used to wage war. Bribe people for political power, hire assassins and so on.

Also do you have an IRC channel for this game?))
 
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((This all sounds smart, I suspect you'll be a good GM))
((Gotta agree with Dadarian it looks like you've put and are continuing to put a lot of thought into it. Which will make you a good GM.))

Also, while I do approve with waiting until you feel comfortable, then I dont believe the game will be a success unless you add combat and intrigue, people tend to get bored otherwise and not have long term interest.

((Do have to agree with sneakyflaps though that you should try to get one or two of those mechanics up and running because people do get bored. In my experience they stay interested for the first few weeks than that's when people stop sending orders, or preferably say they're quitting.))
 
((This all sounds smart, I suspect you'll be a good GM))

((Gotta agree with Dadarian it looks like you've put and are continuing to put a lot of thought into it. Which will make you a good GM.))

Thanks for the kind words! Only time will tell if that's indeed the case. I will definitely be making mistakes along the way and, hopefully, I'll learn from them. :)

((What I meant with more than the 3 families is mainly more characters from other families than the 3, such as the Duke of Burgundy (the only duke that I would truly love to play and have a lot of fun with :D also as this might prevent the historical rivalry as it still be longs to the house of Burgundy, and not yet the house of Valois) The Duke of Langres, and the Duke of Laon, as well as the Duke of Reims, and later the Duke of Auvergne, Touraine and Berry. Then instead having different families, then just have different factions that the players can also make themselves, that can switch over time, and allow political power to switch with it.

Also, while I do approve with waiting until you feel comfortable, then I dont believe the game will be a success unless you add combat and intrigue, people tend to get bored otherwise and not have long term interest.

I also see that you have income, and so far the only real way to spend it (as far as I can see) is to increase income further by upgrading buildings. What is the point in here of having income, if you have nothing to spend it on, other than making yourself more money, it makes the money in itself somewhat less worth, when it cant be used to wage war. Bribe people for political power, hire assassins and so on.))

I think I'll stick with my three families with possible additions later. :p

I guess it doesn't hurt to mention that I have plans for intrigue in the near future. There will be options to sabotage reputations or influence along with whatever I can come up with later on. Before these are implemented, it might not be a bad idea to improve income to prepare for them. Bribes and assassinations can happen but I need some time to think these over.

On the topic of income, there's also plans for additional buildings that won't generate income. Let's not forget about the various events I plan to introduce that can provide some great benefits if you have the ducats to spend. I can see that I'm getting ahead of myself with all these talks. What I show now is what I want to work with at the moment.
 
((Good luck with the game then, I will certainly be following it, and probably joining should the Duke of Burgundy come open. :) ))