Every Empire! game's fun, quirk and little bit of chaos stems greatly from its player base and interactions between players and the world the GMs set out. Behind all that story and front play lies several important GM functions that can be quite overwhelming for a single person to take on. As is the tradition in recent Empire! games most of these will have a group of people, typically non-players, who function as the GM team to help carry the burden of what gets done for Empire! Forming a GM Team is best sought out before creating anything for the game to best collaborate on the intention of the game, the rules and to talk about general milestones and planning. I had the misfortune to start without a GM Team, but the fortune that someone from the Empire! community volunteered to run organizations for me taking a considerable load I didn't know there was off my plate. From running Empire (for admittedly a short time relative to other Empire! games) I've noted a few critical roles / areas that need to be covered by someone on the GM team. Main GM / Final Adjudicator Organizations Story / Plot coordination & planning Round Processing & Tables / Sheets Maps (if the game has maps) Inter-player management The Main GM, Head GM or whatever title you come up with will be responsible for making the final rule calls for questions posed by Players or for story / techs / miracles that players want to complete. Some decisions can be left to other GMs if the question is already laid out in the rules but there should always be an agreed person who has the final say. This is mostly to prevent in-fighting in the GM team, if someone's responsibility is clearly laid out and discussed before the game begins or when a new GM is onboarded interpersonal issues can be avoided in the future. Organizations have more robust rules and methods in which they interact with the Empire! world, not fully a realm like players they break some of the rules and 'cheat' in the way they act. A GM in charge of specific Organizations or a single organization allows them to fully characterize that organization consistently and push the direction of the stories the Organizations pursue in coordination with the Story / Plot being planned. The Story / Plot coordination and planning is especially important to discuss, talk, discuss and plan consistently between all of the GM team, if a GM is creating story / plot elements in isolation they risk conflicting with other story ideas, organizations or even player to player interactions. There are many ways you can assign / design the story and collaborate on what could happen but typically the Main GM would have had some macro idea of a overarching plot to enact and it would usually fall to them to pass final say on what other Co-GMs story arcs are being introduced. Round processing and Sheets / Tables updates is especially important due to the large quantity of information being passing in a typical 10+ player Empire! game requiring some form of better data / information keeping so that players can make informed decisions on their actions for a round. Processing the round so that the opener goes out consistently as well as keeping the tables and sheets updated is critical for a longstanding continued game to keep everyone informed on the state of play. Maps! I Love Maps, maps are a very good way to disseminate information about the world and the current status of who is where and what is going on. At minimum a map would need to provide how regions are connected to each other, what region labels (numbering) are for reference as well as what is currently visible / exposed to players as information. My maps tend to have additional information from this but feel free to show the minimum if the overhead of managing the map is too much. This can be a powerful tool to let players quickly reference realm information or it could be a reference tool for how regions connect. In any case however maps are done it is important to consider that someone on the GM team is updating the reference map. All GM's would typically be involved in some level of inter-player management as they try to allow the mismatch of players have fun with their own goals and ideals. It is natural that some conflict could be generated from the type of game Empire is, it is a GM's role to try and remind players that this is a game. Be impartial in your dealings, try to see both sides of the conflict before you wade in. Sometimes the best course is some players do not play together, but try to strike a balance when conflicts occur. Some GMs on the GM team might not be involved in dealing with these, so lay out what the expectation would be with your GM team on who should be the 'conflict resolver'. I hope if you run Empire! you gather a good team around you, even if its just one person to bounce ideas off of. Cheers! ~ Ducj

Bundle of Alpha Changes / Clarifications: Rule 2.3: Make clearer that you assign the rolled scores for your first ruler. Sack Action add: "When a city is devastated it loses all benefits for the owner and cannot be Sacked again until it is repaired, You may not repair a city on the same round it is Sacked" Industry Repair Action for A City, If a city is devastated a repair industry action is required by the owner of the region to repair it. This will require a TN industry roll of 10 to successfully repair the city. Raise a City Action: Clarification on the resource the City provides as it is supposed to not entirely count as a normal trade post: "... which provides the owner of the City with a local resource as if it was a trading post (counts for income). This resource cannot be bought-out and is lost if the City is damaged (devastated)." Raise Organization by trading in favor. This can only occur once per round as a non-action for 1 favor. Ways to raise rep in rounds: 1: Raise Rep Action 2: Trade Favor for Rep (Non-Action) 3: Fulfil an Org's Request(s) that awards Rep Clarify using Favor and Reputation requirements: There is a two-step process to Org Favors. You must have a Favor Owed to you by an Org and you must have a positive reputation with the Org. Having a Favor without Rep equates to your Favor only being useful as a Rep booster and nothing else. It's a nuanced rule, best spelled out in the rules.  Per Ducj instructions, noting that perhaps the Claims Process should be broken out into Establish Claim (Claim Region) Press Claim (Develop Regional Claim) Complete Claim (Integrate Region) as the current process seems to cause a lot of misunderstanding. Making a note here for desirable rule adjustments, Duel Rolls should probably be excluded from unrest penalties along with battle and stabilize rolls. Upgrade a Resource: RAW says this is used to upgrade a resource into a better type of resource that makes sense. RAI from discord discussion is that this is more accurately a "Transform Resource" signifying either an improvement of the local industry to something higher or to represent an entire shift in resource production. IE instead of just wild horses to domesticated horses, it could be horses to copper to represent the people living there being forced to mine for copper. When used in this way it used to also reduce the supply of the region by 1. Is it an action or not an action to disband a unit?   Non-Action Does Military.Purge Faith have a range of "borders" or "in contact with" ? "to clear a faith group from a region they control", by this does this mean a region in the realm, or a region in the faith group? If it means in a realm, can one purge faith on behalf of another realm ruler who may suck at Military things?   "Region they control" is your regions, you can only military purge faith from regions inside your realm (or vassals' realm)  The language of press claim makes assumptions that are not true of all realms in the game.  - the existence of the ritual of marriage - the existence of a dynasty - the familial nature of the rulers of the realm   Yes, this is mostly because the game was developed without other types of realms and I've been working on making it generalized. Thanks for pointing it out. There does not seem to be an Industry action to build a base for an Organization.   This is intentional. Organization Bases Fall under Great Projects Add clarification in the rules There does not appear to be the ability to trade/loan Heroes to other realms during a Diplomacy meet. - highlight this trade ability RAW: Most actions are based on having Contact - Some actions required direct path (War, Converting). I will add a note to the alpha rules feedback that this should be reviewed and clarified as nowhere in E6 (that I could find) did it specify that the fog of war blocks all actions / events / interaction if contact was made. Non-Exhaustive list of actions with contact: Can buyout trade posts (and exchange) Can attend events Can seek aid for another realm if the same faith Can quest (if relevant) Can make embassies Can Forment Unrest Can Raid Can Theft Can Slander Cannot Convert Cannot Deploy Forces Cannot Sack (requires adjacent or shared waterway anyway) Clarify all round actions occur at the end of the round at the same time: 1. When you raise unit you do not gain the benefit of them until the opener of the following round. IE you cannot trade units you just raised in the same round.  2. Traded units become yours at the opener of the following round you are traded them and the limits are checked at that time.  You do not gain the benefit of traded items / units / technologies until the opener of the following round and limits cannot be breached - any overflow will be disbanded / lost at the opener. 3. As all actions occur mechanically at the same time you cannot trade the same thing back and forth in the same round as you obtain the benefit of the traded item at the next round opener. There is no action, purge would be the closest but that requires your own regions as a target. Destroying the base requires an Intrigue special action. If you own the region there is no contested roll to destroy it making the inclusion in purge breaking the balance of requiring a special action. Press Claim does not provide what occurs on a failed press claim attempt. Do you lose the established claim or are you free to attempt a first go another time? > From Discord you maintain the claim and can press again later - claim is only lost if you only do a single round press claim and it needs the 2nd round to finish and you don't complete the second round - reflecting you spurring the inhabitants Review Rebel Rules and adjust    

Press Claim does not provide what occurs on a failed press claim attempt. Do you lose the established claim or are you free to attempt a first go another time?

RAW: Most actions are based on having Contact - Some actions required direct path (War, Converting). I will add a note to the alpha rules feedback that this should be reviewed and clarified as nowhere in E6 (that I could find) did it specify that the fog of war blocks all actions / events / interaction if contact was made. Non-Exhaustive list of actions with contact: Can buyout trade posts (and exchange) Can attend events Can seek aid for another realm if the same faith Can quest (if relevant) Can make embassies Can Forment Unrest Can Raid Can Theft Can Slander Cannot Convert Cannot Deploy Forces Cannot Sack (requires adjacent or shared waterway anyway)

I will allow this to be a technology for Alpha games. Call it peace keeping or something. I will review and may include range adjustments in future editions of the rules or for ones set in different time periods. As of Alpha the targeting being limited is staying. To clarify Foment Unrest's range is everywhere you have contact with. Which on splits starts is not everywhere. Non-Action 1. When you raise unit you do not gain the benefit of them until the opener of the following round. IE you cannot trade units you just raised in the same round.  2. Traded units become yours at the opener of the following round you are traded them and the limits are checked at that time.  You do not gain the benefit of traded items / units / technologies until the opener of the following round and limits cannot be breached - any overflow will be disbanded / lost at the opener. 3. As all actions occur mechanically at the same time you cannot trade the same thing back and forth in the same round as you obtain the benefit of the traded item at the next round opener. "Region they control" is your regions, you can only military purge faith from regions inside your realm (or vassals' realm)  No. They are not owned by Players. If you have a legitimate claim you can use yours to support someone else who also has a claim for the same region. Yes, this is mostly because the game was developed without other types of realms and I've been working on making it generalised. Thanks for pointing it out. It is a Non-Action. You lose all benefits of the region at the next round opener. Yes. See above. As Stated, One successful Claim per Leader. Not per Leader per Region. Yes. Its more vaguely alluding to the fact that it requires a 10 special action to do.  No. Target is your own regions. This can be done to a vassal's region as their regions count as yours, but the vassal retains the benefits of the City. As the treasure is traded at the same time as any other actions like thief this does not protect the treasure. Realm 1 gives Realm 2 a treasure. Realm 3 steal a treasure targeting Realm 1 and succeeds. If Realm 1 has more than one treasure, Realm 3 takes a treasure from Realm 1 and Realm 2 gets the traded treasure from Realm 1, leaving Realm 1 down two treasures. If Realm 1 has a single treasure Realm 3 steals the treasure in transit. Realm 2 gets no treasure from the trade as it was stolen and Realm 1 is down a treasure. This would fall under Great Projects which are loose ended like Techs and Miracles. All Units are the same so it doesn't matter which are disbanded. There is no action, purge would be the closest but that requires your own regions as a target. Destroying the base requires an Intrigue special action. If you own the region there is no contested roll to destroy it making the inclusion in purge breaking the balance of requiring a special action. This is intentional. Organization Bases Fall under Great Projects Heroes count as a tradeable item like artifacts, treasures and technologies so they are included in the full transfer. The ownership will change hands at the next round opener and the new owner realm is not required to trade them back. (There is no automatic loan requirement) It is? Special 10: Incite Betrayal You may disband any hero employed by your realm as a non-action.  Not mechanically. This would potentially lead to exploring the exploration mechanics that may give you bonuses to "finding" a previously forgotten land. You may do this IC, but it will have not mechanical impact. Yes, But again as previously stated you lose the region at the next opener. And you will need to get a successful press claim attempt in the following round. Round 1: Lose the region Round 2: Attempt to Establish Claim (TN 12) Round 3: Press the Claim (TN 12) if round 2 was successful. Round 4: Continue the press claim if it was not a Great Success (TN 18) VS Round 1: Stabilize a Region (TN 12) / Suppress Unrest (TN 14)

Since regions not under the control of a Player cannot be in Unrest, can one abandon a region and then Press Claim on the region to recover it without having to resort to military actions?

Can you deliberately lose all records of an explored/known land, as an action? Maps and books burning, so to speak?

There does not appear to be a mechanism or action to disband Heroes.

The Intrigue action to Incite Betrayal of Heroes is not listed under Intrigue Actions.

There does not appear to be the ability to trade/loan Heroes to other realms during a Diplomacy meet.

There does not seem to be an Industry action to build a base for an Organization.   This is intentional. Organization Bases Fall under Great Projects

The technically Military action to attack an Organization's base is not listed under Military actions.

Do you get to choose /which/ troops are disbanded if you're over the allowed unit limit, or is it more FIFO or something?   All Units are the same so it doesn't matter which are disbanded.

Is it possible to take specific actions to more carefully secure treasure? Build a giant vault?   This would fall under Great Projects which are loose ended like Techs and Miracles.

If anything being traded/transferred during a Diplomacy meeting becomes available during the next round, what happens if two realms constantly transfer treasure back and forth and thus they never actually have access to it (that is to say, as soon as they get it, it's sent on its way again) - does treasure transferred this way become more difficult to steal?

Can one raise a city in someone else's region, with permission? Like hiring a bunch of masons and master carpenters.

"A kingdom can support as many Permanent Cultural Identities as it can establish."  isn't this number infinite?   Yes. Its more vaguely alluding to the fact that it requires a 10 special action to do. 

"successfully establishing a claim happens only once per leader" as in one claim per region per leader, or one claim only per leader?   As Stated, One Claim per Leader. Not per Leader per Region.

Is abandoning control of a region possible? If so, does it also void the claim on a region?

Is abandoning your control of a region an action?

The language of press claim makes assumptions that are not true of all realms in the game.  - the existence of the ritual of marriage - the existence of a dynasty - the familial nature of the rulers of the realm   Yes, this is mostly because the game was developed without other types of realms and I've been working on making it generalized. Thanks for pointing it out.

Why is it not possible to establish a claim on behalf of another realm? E.G. realm 1 says that realm 2 in fact does have a claim on realm 3's region.   If you have a legitimate claim you can use yours to support someone else who also has a claim for the same region.

Can regions not currently under the control of a player realm be in unrest?   No. They are not owned by Players.

Does Military.Purge Faith have a range of "borders" or "in contact with" ? "to clear a faith group from a region they control", by this does this mean a region in the realm, or a region in the faith group? If it means in a realm, can one purge faith on behalf of another realm ruler who may suck at Military things?   "Region they control" is your regions, you can only military purge faith from regions inside your realm (or vassals' realm) 

It is unspecified as to when units being traded to someone actually come into the possession of them, and whether they can use these units for all actions. For example: If realm 1 has a cap of 5 units, then builds 3 units and hosts a diplomatic event to trade 3 units to realm 2, does that mean it does not have to disband any units due to unit cap because it will already be back down to 5 by the time that the over-cap check occurs at the start of the next turn? If realm 2 accepts 3 units from realm 1, can they use these units on any actions that happen on its turn, or do the units become available for use only at the start of the next turn? If a small alliance of realms are together, does that mean one realm can host two events per turn: the first event to gather all units in the entire alliance together and send them to whatever realm is actually needing them, and the second event to redistribute the units back to their respective nations or whatever is needed to keep under the unit cap? Basically do we end up with a giant ball of units slosh-teleporting around the alliance at will, so long as someone keeps up the 2/turn summits?