Pitch
As a newly created Warlord of the Exarch Empire, you've been chosen to colonize a remote, resource rich planet and send its bounty back to homeworld to fuel its unending war efforts.
However, they sent six of you to make sure the job gets done.
And no planet is big enough for six Exarchs.
Overview
SeeD-vilization is a game designed for Six Players (the Exarchs) and one GM, who functions as an arbitrator and controls actions taken by the planets natives (and the Empire, should it become necessary).
The goal is for one Exarch to eventually seize control of the entire planet and subjugate the locals, while wiping out the other Exarchs in the process. Along the way, they'll also have to send back resources to the main Empire, least they grow annoyed by your lack of results and find escalating ways to punish you for it.
The game is played similar to a 4x, with each player controlling a specific faction tied to one of six elements, chosen at creation, and then building both an army and harvesting instructor to take over the world. Elements can't repeat, and each one is particularly well suited to fighting another so you've already got things to worry about as soon as you land.
Elements & Resources
The six Elements are: FIRE, VOID, SKY, EARTH, NATURE and WATER. They form a loose wheel, with each one in sequence dealing +50% damage to the next one down the line. See the attached image.
There are three types of resources: LIGHT, Materials, and Influence.
LIGHT is the primary type of resource in the game, and the one that the Empire has tasked the PCs with harvesting. In addition to needing to send it back to the homeworld, LIGHT is also used to upgrade your Exarch, create and expand buildings, and create minions for your army. In other words, it's needed for basically everything!
Materials are additionally resources that are used when spending LIGHT to create things. They've broken up into 6 sub-types, and specific upgrades, buildings and minions will need different combinations of materials in order to be made. The subtypes are:
Stone - Vaguely earth aligned. Primarily associated defensive properties.
Iron - Vaguely fire aligned. Primarily associated with offensive properties.
Coral - Vaguely water aligned. Primarily associated with recovery properties.
Glass - Vaguely sky aligned. Primarily associated with special skills.
Wood - Vaguely nature aligned. Primarily associated with distance properties.
Bone - Vaguely void aligned. Primarily associated with life properties.
Creating your Exarch
The Avatar for the Player Characters, the horrible godlike monsters themselves. Each Exarch is created at the start of the game being given life and sentience during the Arcopolis' descent into the alien world they've come to take over. Each Exarch is tied to one element each, and every Exarch a different element. The player is eliminated from the game when their Exarch is completely destroyed.
Exarch are terribly fearsome opponents, and evolve uniquely based on the habitat of the Arcopolis that creates them. They continue to evolve over time as well, with parts regularly being replaced for newer, stronger ones. And unlike Minions which are composed of a single stat block, Exarch are made up of four key parts fused together instead. These are:
Core: Grants HP, END and SP. Skills are mostly magicalish but can cover most niches.
Bulk: Grants END, DEF and SP. Skills are mostly defensive.
Manipulator: Grants ATK, DEF, Range and SP. Skills are mostly offensive. (Range uses nature/wood like Move, given each non-SP stat/material 2 places it can appear.)
Motor: Grants HP, ATK, MOV and SP. Skills are mostly for movement or utility.
Exarchs are also notoriously difficult to kill. Anytime its reduced to 0 HP, rather than being defeated outright as a Minion would be, the Exarch instead chooses one of its four bodyparts to be destoyed. Afterwords, they're restored to their new maximum HP and carry on as they had been. Notably, if its Manipulators are destroyed it will now only perform melee attacks, and if its Motor is destroyed, it now can only move 1 space per turn, while if no parts grant HP or END, either stat is reduced to 1 maximum. A destroyed bodypart isn't the end of the world for an Exarch as noted, and they can even be replace by new ones while within the confines of your Arcopolis. However, if all four parts are destroyed at once, the Exarch is eliminated from the game.
Use the exarch page for the numbers side of Exarch creation.
Creating Your Base of Operations And Expansion
At the start of the game, the only Building you possess is the Arcopolis, which functions as a home base for your Exarch. In order to Expand, you'll either need to build Workers and Engineers, or give your Exarch themself access to the Construct Skill. Once you do, you can then use it to both upgrade existing Buildings, add Annexes to them, or even create entirely new ones on empty map tiles.
Both the Arcopolis and most Main Build have domains. These are tiles a certain number of spaces that are controlled by that specific building, and no other Buildings can be constructed within the domain of another Building. Domains grants additional bonuses depending on the type of Building they originate from.
Use the buildings page for the numbers and more in depth explanation of how each Building and Annex functions.
Main Buildings
Arcopolis - By default, this is where any newly created Minions spawn. Your Exarch must be within the Acropolis' domain in order to be upgraded or to change parts. Uniquely, the Arcopolis can attach certain Annexes to itself without taking up an Annex Slot. Additionally, while inside the Arcopolis' domain, any units you control that perform a Rest action recovers the charges of all their Skills and regains Boost END HP. You cannot create any new Arcopolis during the course of the game. You can, however, seize control of the Arcopolis of defeated players. Doing so will enable you to create Minions matching the defeated Exarch's element from that Acropolis, in addition to making Minions of their own element in their initial Arcopolis. (The specific Annex that can always be added to the Acropolis are: the Fiend Engine, Temple, Forge, Design Studio, and the Processing Plant).
LIGHT Extractors - These are built in order to gather more LIGHT every round. The LIGHT gathered depends on the tier of the Extractor, and can further be boosted by terraforming the tiles within its domain to your element. Each tile adds +1 to the LIGHT yields. LIGHT Extractors cannot be build within 3 tiles of another Building of any kind, and likewise, no new Buildings may be constructed within 3 tiles of a LIGHT Extractor.
Harvester - These are built on top of resource nodes not within a domain. Doing so claims its yield for your Exarch, and further boosts it depending on the Harvester's tier. (Resources within a domain still give yeilds, but not nearly as much as a dedicated Harvester would offer).
Outpost - These are useful for resupplying your army forces while away from the safety of the Arcopolis' domain. When a Unit you control that perform a Rest action while either on or adjacent to the Outpost recovers all spent Skill charges, and recovered Boosted END HP. Outpost cannot be constructed within 3 tiles of another Outpost, but have no such restrictions for Harvesters or Dungeons.
Dungeon - Dungeons serve multiple purposes. First and foremost, when you create a Dungeon you create an associated Minion of any kind to serve as a Dungeon Monster Template. From then on, you can spend and inflated Influence cost rather than LIGHT in order to spawn the template Minion on top of the dungeon. Creating a dungeon also generates a number of impassable terrain around the dungeon (so long as it does not close off the dungeon center itself), based on the tier of the building. If desired, when creating a Dungeon you can choose to create two separate entrances (centers). Doing so allows you to have units you control spend 1 Move to transverse between the two entrances, creating a shortcut through the impassable terrain for yourself. (Doing this does make it more vulnerable to attack, however). Further more, Humans will also generally prioritize running raids on Dungeons above all other Buildings when possible.
Special Annex
Special Annexes are Annex which can be attached to the Arcopoilis without taking up an Annex Slot, and which provide key functionality to your Exarch's ability to expand and grown their Empire. Like the Acropolis you can only have one of each Special Annex. Technically, you can graft these to normal Buildings, but it's not recommended and makes your infrastructure needlessly vulnerable.
Fiend Engine - Required in order to create Tiered Minions and Specialists. Without a Fiend Engine, you're regulated to only being able to make Untiered Workers and Infantry.
Temple - Required to upgrade your Exarch. Without the Temple, you're stuck only being able to create Tier 1 parts.
Forge - Required to make Relics and Armaments. Without a Forge, you can't make any equipment at all.
Design Studio - Allows you to create higher Tier Buildings, and attach additional Annexes to each Building. Without a Design Studio, you can create Untiered Buildings, but cannot upgrade them or attach any Annexes to them. (The Design Studio is not needed in order to upgrade other Special Annex or the Arcopolis, only normal Buildings and Annex)
Processing Plant - Allows you to convert LIGHT or Materials into other Materials. The Tier of the Processing Plant affects how efficient the conversion process is.
General Annex
Once a Design Studio is created, you can start constructing Annex in Buildings! No Building will be able to attach each Annex, so you'll have to decide what fits best or work with what Materials you have available as each type primarily uses a different one.
Fortifications - Are primarily constructed with Stone, and they grant the Building bonuses to its defensive stats as well as the ability to perform Counters.
Energy Node - Are primarily constructed with Iron, and grant large bonuses to any Unit that occupies the same space as the Building or is within its Domain. (This even includes units Garrisoned or mutants attached to a Lab!)
Garrison - Are primarily constructed with Coral, and they allow a single Minion to Occupy the Building as a defensive measure. The Occupying Minion does not prevent another Unit from standing on the Building's tile like it normally would, and must be defeated before the Building can be taken over. The Occupying Minion cannot be attacked until the Building's nature defenses and fortifications are reduced to 0 HP, but can be Countered if it chooses to attack while they're still active.
Arsenal - Are primarily constructed with Glass, and allows the Building to equip Armaments, granting them access to Skills and allowing them to perform attacks. Skills gained from the Arsenal run on cooldowns, rather than the usual single charge Units are subjected to.
Rail Depot - Are primarily constructed with Wood, and form a rail connection between the Building and the Arcopolis and any other Building with a Rail Depot. They also provided an additional bonus, depending on the Building it's attached to. Extractors provide bonus LIGHT, Harvesters extra Material, while Outpost and Dungeon provide additional spawn points for newly created Minions. Allows units to move twice as far when moving between building connected by rail depots. If attached to a Harvester connected to the Arcopolis, increases yields as well.
Laboratory - Are primarily constructed with Bone, and designate the Building as a High Priority target for Human adventurers. Additionally, anytime an Adventurer is defeated within 3 tiles of the Building and the Lab is unoccupied, the adventurer is revived and turned into a Mutant. The Mutant inherits the Element of the Building and becomes owned by the Exarch to defend the Building. Unlike the Garrison, the Laboratory Mutant does not strictly need to be defeated before the Building can be taken over, but can move up to 3 tiles away from the Building. Only one Mutant can be assigned to any given Laboratory.
Building an Army
Minions are both your workforce and your army, because what's the point of lording over an Empire if you have to do everything yourself?
Workers and Engineers are the primary way you'll build up your Empire's infrastructure and create buildings. Your Exarch technically could do it, but assigning the task to Minions in a lot more efficient and safer.
Meanwhile, Infantry and other Specialist Units are designed with warfare in mind - both for other Exarch's forces and for the native Humans.
At the start of the game, only Workers and Infantry can be created. Just like with everything else, they'll be a LIGHT cost which much be paid to create a Minion, and possibly an additional Material cost depending on the type of Unit you're creating and any extra abilities you might give it. By default, you can't expend extra LIGHT for higher tier units with bonuses either. You'll need to invested in a Fiend Engine for that as well as the ability to create Specialists.
When you create a Minion, they spawn within range of your Arcopolis' dominion by default, though certain Buildings and Annexes will give you additional options for spawn locations.
Use the minions page for the number side of Minion creation.
Forging Relics and Armaments
There are two types of equipment: Relics and Armaments. Relics are made to be used by Minions and Exarchs, while Armaments are used by Buildings with Arsenals. Neither can be created until you build a Forge. Any newly made equipment is kept in the Acropolis by default, though if a Unit without a Relic is in the Dominion is can be immediately equipped. (An Acropolis with a Rail Depot allows it to deployed like a Minion would).
A Unit can only equip one Relic at any time, while an Arsenal can equip two Armaments at once.
Equipment primarily boost Unit stats but may have Skills added to them.
Armaments always have one Skill, and may potentially have more. Their Skills also work on cooldowns, rather than charges.
Use the equipment page for the numbers side of Equipment.
On Locals
Not only will you have to contend with your fellow Exarch for control of the world, but there are also the native humans to consider. Human settlements produce Adventurer units every so often (every 7 days, much like with Homeworld Cargo Shipments.), and when taken over can be utilized in certain different ways by spending Influence on them. Adventurers follow the same rules and mechanics that Minion creation use, though the settlements don't spend LIGHT to create them, as they do not harvest it.
At the start of the game there are seven human settlements: six spread out between the Exarch's landing locations (known as Clans) and one situated in the center (known as the Kingdom). Each settlement can produce either a Scout or one specific type of Minion, determined at the beginning of the game and each one having a different specialization. Generally Adventurers are created a tier 1 units, though if they destroy a Unit or Building they can "level up" and increase in tier on the field. The central human settlement is unique in that it can created any of the six unit specializations for its Adventurers, as well as them spawning at Tier 2 rather than 1.
Mechanically, the six Human Clan Settlements function as Tier 1 Outpost with Fortifications. The Guardian and Shocktrooper settlements use Defensive, the Raider and Calvary use Offensive, and the Assault and Artillery use Ranged. The central Human Kingdom functions as a Tier 2 Outpost with Defensive Fortifications, and a Balanced Energy Node.
Each time you take control of a human Settlement, you can take one of the following actions, most of which have an Influence cost to perform:
Ignore These Fools. [0 INF]. Do nothing, leaving the settlement without taking control of it. The next Adventurer the settlement makes will be a Scout, which will explore in a direction away from you for a while.
Consume Everything. [0 INF]. Destroy everything, and harvest it all as LIGHT. This generates 1000 LIGHT for the Exarch which razed the settlement, but also permanently removes the settlement from the game.
Demand a Sacrifice. [50 INF]. The settlement will not produce an Adventure on the next spawning day, and the Exarch receives 100 LIGHT. Adventurers produced by this Clan after the fact direct their ire at you.
Seize Control. [100 INF]. Take control of the settlement. Adventurers produced while an Exarch is in control of the settlement do not gain bonuses stats. The Exarch gains 20 Influence a round while in control of the settlement, as well as +1 resource tied to the Clan's adventurer class (ie what it would need to be made by a fiend engine). This effect is lost if another Exarch's units attack the settlement, an Adventurer from this clan destroys one of your Buildings, or if one manages to make a single attack against your Arcopolis.
Offer an Ultimatum. [100 INF]. Offer to spare the settlement in exchange for them dealing with one of your enemy. Select another Exarch when used: the settlement will focus their hostilities upon them now. This effect last until another Exarch takes control of the settlements, regardless of which action they then take.
Taking a Turn and General Flow of Rounds
Each round you'll passively generate both LIGHT and Materials, and then be able to give orders to all your units on your turn. Your Acopolis can be upgraded without limit beyond LIGHT and Material costs. You'll then be able to create a single Minion and piece of Equipment from your Arcopolis (dungeon minions don't count against this) each turn, as well give orders to all the Units you control.
Note that Influence is not normally passively generated. The main way of gaining it is by creating things for yourself, (new Parts, Buildings, Minions, Equipment) and destroying things belonging to other Exarch or Humans. Anytime you create something, you earn Influence equal to 1/4th of the total LIGHT spend on its creation. Destruction generally gives the same amount, but will be covered in slightly more detail in the combat section.
Generally turns don't need to strictly be taken in any particular order, so long as you only get one turn per round.
Once every 7 rounds a TRIBUTE will be demanded of the players and new human Adventurers will be spawned as well. These are covered in their own seperate sections in more detail elsewhere.
Turn One Setup
At the start of the game, each player will need to choose one of the six elements for their Exarch to be aligned with. Elements cannot over lap. Its up to the Exarchs to decide who gets what - first come first serve, a lottery to randomly assign them, bartering starting resources, or perhaps even discussing it like civilized folk and coming to an agreement
Once the elements are decided, you're then given 400 LIGHT with which to build your Exarch. Spend as much as you can, as any excess won't carry over.
You'll then decide where inside of your Landing Zone to place your Arcopolis, determining where your base of operations on the new planet will be built. Your Arcopolis begins play Untiered.
All Exarch then begin play in round one with a pool of 500 LIGHT as well ass 50 Iron, Wood, Coral, Bone, Glass and Stone. A small gift from the Homeworld to get you started on your conquest.
A Typical Turn
Once you're calculated your LIGHT and Material gains, you're then free to spend it. Your Arcopolis can always upgrade itself, and Special Annex can be added or upgraded as well. You can then have your Arcopolis create a single Minion and a single piece of Equipment, if desired. If you've conquered enough to have multiple Acropolis', each one can create it's own Minion and Equipment each round (provided you've enough resources to do so with), though keep in mind the element each unit and equipment of each piece is tied to the Arcopolis from which it was made.
In you have any Dungeons, you can spend Influence to generate the minions tied to them. Each dungeon can produce one minion at most each round, as well.
After that, you can have your Exarch and all the Minions you control take a turn. Note that newly created units can't act until the following turn. Any Armaments with a usable Skill can perform one now, as well. Every turn, a Unit can choose to Act or Rest. Acting lets them take a Move action and perform an Attack, though certain Skills can replace either the Move or Attack. Generally they replace the Attack, and are individually noted if they replace the Move instead. A Unit that chooses to Rest will instead recover some amount of HP.
Your Buildings can also passively regenerate, but only when not under assault. If a Building was not attacked during the previous round and is missing HP, it recovers HP equal to its END value.
Rest: When a Unit takes a Rest action, they cannot Move or Attack. Doing so grants no immediate benefit. At the start of the next turn, the Unit then recovers HP equal to their END score, and gains +1 MOV for this turn.
If the Rest is performed within the Domain of an Outpost of Acropolis you own, use the Unit's Boost END rating (the second, higher value in parenthesis) instead, and gain a +2 MOV bonus for this turn. Additionally, the Unit recovers the ability to use any previously expended Skills it knows (including those on Relics).
After that, it's simply a matter of waiting for the other Exarchs (and Adventurers) to take their own turns before rolling over to a new round.
Elemental Influence on Terrain
With the Terraform Skill, a Unit is capable of elementally charging the board tiles. When this happens it does two things. First, anytime a Unit starts a turn on a tile with a matching elemental, they gain +1 MOV and +1 ATK for that round.
Secondly, if a tile within the Domain of one of your LIGHT Extracors, Harvesters or your Acropolis, it causes that building's LIGHT yield to increase by +1 per tile.
The Influence cost for Terraforming a tile is variable, and depends on how many times the tile itself has been changed. Try and get them early, before the cost inflates too high!
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Sending LIGHT to the Homeworld
Once every seven rounds, the Homeworld will demand that the Exarchs send them a TRIBUTE to contribute to the galactic war effort. Those that comply are given kickbacks to in turn help with their conquest. Initially the demands are small and you'll get more than you gave, but this won't last forever. Anytime all Exarch pay tribute to the Homeworld, the demands on the next shipment. Potentially someone might not be able to pay the tribute… or some might even rebel and simply decide not to! When this happens, anyone who failed to pay up is met with a penalty, and the more often it happens the worse it gets. Is the Homeworld actively micromanaging your conquest and hindering operations or is it simply karma coming back to haunt you? Who can say.
There's a small loop hole, however: if all the Exarch fail to send up a tribute the tax collectors will assume the world is close to being sucked dry, and no penalty will be handed out to anyone. Do what you will with this knowledge.
TRIBUTE REWARD: 300 LIGHT and 30 Resource Materials of your choosing.
The Tax Collection Round only increases when all Exarch pay the TRIBUTE.
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Infractions are cumulative. For example, if you're on your third infraction, you suffer all the penalties from 1-3. On the bright side, once you hit the bottom of the list it can't get any worse…?
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Engaging in Combat
Before long, each Exarch will have their own army. And when that happens, there will inevitably be combat.
Each round, a Unit can take both a Movement action and an Attack Action. Movement action must be taken before Attack actions. Skills can replace either or, depending on the Skill in question. In order to engage in combat, your unit must be in range of the unit or building you which to attack. Many units don't have a range listed, however. When there is no listed range, a unit can only perform melee attacks against adjacent targets. Range 1, 2 and 3 indicate how many spaces away from your unit attack targets can be. (Range 1 is similar to Melee attacks in that they both can only target adjacent units, but melee Attacks cannot counter Ranged ones)
Once you've made an attack, you'll deal damage to the target of the attack. How much depends on several different stats. First off, you need to check how healthy your own Unit is. If your Unit has current HP equal to or above 50% of its Maximum HP, you'll deal +1d4 bonus damage. If your Unit has 75% of higher HP, it deals +2d4 bonus damage instead. And if it's under half, it deals no bonus damage. Add the Unit's ATK value to the total of the dice rolls, and then subtract the targets DEF from that number. This is the amount of HP damage you deal to the target of your attack. If the target has HP remaining, it then performs a Counter Attack if it's within range to do so. Counter Attacks are handled the same way as Attacks, except they happen automatically and can be done as many times a round as you are attacked. (You likely have less HP for bonus damage rolls when Countering, however, so the original Attacker generally has the advantage)
If the Unit or Building has 0 HP remaining after being attacked, then what happens different slightly on which of the two it was. If it was a Unit, it is destroyed (though Exarch follow slightly different rules for being defeated, as noted in the Exarch section). If it was a a Building, your Unit can immediate move on top of it at no action cost and seize control of it.
Combat Rewards
Anytime you defeat a Unit or Building, you gain Influence equal to 1/4th of the total LIGHT spend on its creation. (The same amount the other play got when creating it). In the case of Buildings, this includes annexes, while Relics are not counted for Units. Instead, any Equipment the Unit was holding may immediately be looted by your unit, or drops onto the tile of the defeated unit to be picked up by anyone that steps onto that tile later.
Seizing Control of Buildings and Equipment.
When you seize control of a Building after breaking down its defenses, you have two options available to you.
You can Destroy the Building. Doing so removes it from the map entirely, and gives you LIGHT equal to 1/4th of the LIGHT spent on its creation.
Alternatively, you can *Keep* the Building. Doing so simply flips ownership of it over from the old Exarch to you. If it had a Laboratory, it won't change the elemental alignment of any current Mutant, but any new ones created with be aligned to your own instead.
Anytime a Unit gains control of Equipment, it has these two options as well. Equipment does not change elements when ownership is transferred. Additionally, a Unit may choose to immediately equip and start using any Relic it picks up (though it's still limited to having a single one active at a time).
When an Exarch is Killed.
When an Exarch is destroyed and killed for good, their stuff doesn't simply leave the board. What happens to their former Minions and Buildings can vary however.
Any Minions that were left behind by a defeated Exarch are immediately given to the Exarch who defeated them. The element of the Minion does not change in spite of the transfer in ownership. These new Units cannot be given new orders until the next round, however.
The Acropolis is also immediately given to the Exarch's Slayer. It cannot be given new order until the next round, either.
Buildings are a bit different, and are more up for grabs by all Exarchs. They go into an inert stat, where they stop gathering resources and defending themselves. While inert they cannot use Armaments or be attacked, and have their HP semi permanently set to 0. The first Unit that steps foot on the Building will then seize control over it and give ownership to their Exarch.
Any Minions a defeated Exarch may have had are given to the slayer instantly and automatically. Their elemental affinities do not change.
Control over the Exarchs buildings is not automatically turned over to the killer, but whomever claims them on a first come first serve basis. Buildings formerly belonging to a defeated Exarch no longer attempt to defend themselves, either.