MEM 2, Electromagica

Land

Size

The size of a state plays may play a large roll in shaping it, but is very much a mixed blessing.

Pick one (no cost):

Tiny Your nation is really small. Probably an Island in fact

On Earth Britain, Eritrea or Taiwan fit this category.

Small Your nation is extremely packed together, making transport links very easy, but meaning you have little space to trade for time.

On Earth France, Germany or Japan fit this category.

Normal You are a fairly normal midsized state, neither particularly large nor particularly small.

On earth Indonesia, Argentina or Iran fit here.

Large You are a very large state, with massive amounts of land between each city, and likely a considerable amount of remaining wilderness

On earth Russia, Canada or China fit this category.

Terrain

Terrain is bought in blocks, each representing 10 percent of the state's total land area.

Defence

Minus two points: Very Hard to Defend: Valleys overlooked by high ground held by a foreign power.

Minus one points: Hard to Defend: Trackless jungle inhabited by natives hostile to you

Zero points: Normal Plains or Deserts.

One point: Forests and hills

Two points: Rolling hills and downs with limited sight lines

Three Points: Bocage and Hedgerow country

Four Points: Steep hills and valleys you dominate, riverine systems

Five Points: Trackless Jungles and Mountains, under dark caverns

Economic Value

Minus two points: Sandworm infested desert or undead infested marsh 1.5 times development cost

Minus one points: Marshes or deserts without monsters 1.2 times development cost

Zero points: Normal wilderness 1.0 time development cost

One point: Land crossed by an ancient road system 0.9 times development costs

Two points: On a minor river, costal 0.8 times development costs

Three Points: On a Major river, blessed by the spirits 0.7 times development costs

Four Points: Major river mouth or delta 0.6 times development costs

Five Points: Ancient megacity ruins with still standing buildings and functional infrastructure 0.5 times development costs

Land Advantages

Unclaimed Land -10 points
You have a large amount of unclaimed land near your country that you can claim as the game goes on.

Major Terrain Feature -1 points for the first -2 for the second etc.
You have something very large and impressive in one of your provinces. Provides a bonus to defence or a -0.1 bonus to development costs

Advancement

According to ancient sages there are two forms a civilization may take. Arcane and Emergent. An Arcane civilization bases its power on the personal. An Emergent bases its power on the group, the mass, the machine.

It is also said that the most advanced civilizations have combined these two elements together, creating machines with souls that carry with them the raw power of the Arcane.

All technology is granular. A TL2.0 steam ship will be at a considerable disadvantage to a TL2.9 dreadnought, and an emergent tech 2.0 Difference Engine won't give anywhere near the processing power of a tech 2.9 desktop.

Core Advancement

All powers have a certain core advancement. This represents their basic core sophistication in technological and magical ability. Without Arcane or Emergent techniques however it cannot train powerful mages or create complex, autonomous technologies. Core advancement maybe freely enchanted and may in fact be the product of either technology or magic. Core advancements allows the building of Simple Units

Level zero: Power of Nature: Mechanical movement through wind, water, animals and natural mana sources or sacrifices. Wind and water mills and steel weapons are used. Larger ships can be constructed, primary moved by sails rather than oars. (High Middle Ages or earlier)

Level one: Power of Knowledge: Gunpowder, Alchemy, Mathematics, clockwork. Firearms make wide appearence for the first time, growing to replace all other arms by the end of the tech level. Cannon replace catapults as the primary artillery weapon. Towards the end of the tech level balloons and gliders are experimented with (Renaissance)

Level two: Power of Industry: Mana coal mining, high explosives, mass production enchantments or machines. Engines replace muscles completely at this level, from steam driven devices to internal combustion engines. Chemical engineering allows the creation of large scale explosives such as refined firedust, dynamite, elemental mixture and TNT. Powered aircraft become common by the middle of this tech level, as to civilian motor vehicles. Ships lose their sails here and replace them with engines. (industrial revolution)

Level three: Power of Artifice: Synthetic materials, atomic power. At this level mana can be extracted from unstable material as it splits, or enmass from natural mana producing regions. Both of these processes can have serious consequences for the region involved however. Synthetic materials are less destructive, at least initially, but can have a widespread impact. Precision machines are easy to make at this level, replacing the clunky industrial age devices. (modern day)

Level four: Knowledge of the Universe: Fusion power, energy weapons, macro and microshrines. At this level smaller, more efficient and safer fusion reactors tend to replace the older extraction and atomic reactors. While they still require mana rich gas to operate, they cause no permanent radiation damage if they do. Personal space craft are fairly common at this level, as are energy weapons and non-chemical projectile throwers like rail guns or elemental driven bows. For the first time at level four the precise wants of spirits maybe asserted, giving rise to both smaller and larger shrines which give vastly more efficient congress than the older cathedrals. (near future)

Level five: Power of the Universe: Soul generators, energy shields, spirit modification, anti-gravity. At this level the primal forces of the universe maybe tapped. Soul generators tap into local mana and suck it into themselves the way that spirits do, tapping any local mana source for fuel. Energy shields and anti-gravity allow flying castles or buildings made of solid light, while spirit modification allows the creation of spirits on demand to power new devices and items. (Far future)

Emergent Advancement

Emergent Advancement is the depersonalization of technology. With simple technology a person is always required, and objects tend to be large and somewhat clumsy. Complex technology allows for smaller and finer parts to be created, eventually including machines smaller than the eye can see.

Unfortunately the alienating nature of Emergent Technology hinders the use of Arcane technology, and beyond a certain level outright prevents it. . . unless the technology to build machine souls is created.

It allows the creation of Complex Units

Level Zero: Bad animal domestication. The very earliest use of animal life. (No saddles)

Level one: Animal Domestication. A very long technology level stretching all the way up to the industrial revolution. (automatic)

Level two: Precision Engineering: computers, small finely machined parts, wireless battlefield communications.

Level three: Information Networks: machines talking to machines, internets, micromachines, remote piloted vehicles.

Level four: Autonomous Computers: machines that possess their own judgement nanotech, mobile fabricators, cyberware, biotech.

Level five: Sapient Computers, prefix tech, uploads, computronium

Arcane Advancement

Arcane Advancement is more particulate than the other two, with mages mastering all manner of different techniques. It is however more powerful together than separately. Many spells require more than one sphere to be effective.

Military

Simple Units

Simple Units are created with core advancement. They represent uncomplicated units, usually without much minaturization or the like, but are cheap to build and avaliable in large numbers. The most notable trait of simple units is their specialization. They tend to do one and only one thing well, compared to complex units which become increasingly multipurpose as technology advances.

Some simple units do require a level of complex technology to be most effective, notably cavalry.

Simple Unit added capacities

Simple Ground Units
Simple Air Units
Simple Naval Units

Complex Units

Complex Units are the product of emergent advancement. They represent units equipped with the fruits of an emergent civilization and its precision engineering. Most modern units would be considered complex. Complex units tend to be much more multipurpose than their simple equivalents, and capable of large numbers of different roles with the right added capacities.

Complex units are difficult or impossible to enchant. See the rules for Arcane magic for details.

Complex Unit Added capacities

Complex Ground Units
Complex Air Units
Complex Naval Units