I am hoping to also develop a digital version of the game with digital play pieces but this is further into the future.
Each player has a set number of points in which to buy and equip their force, choose their hero and distribute his stats as to help him and his fleet on the battle field.
There are six factions each encapsulating a different idea, aesthetic, strategy and way of play.
It was soon after that it all began. Where the azure lights had fallen, a new substance had started to grow. All across the land, a crystal, with the same radiance and color of the lights that fell a few nights before, started to grow. This crystal grew at steady rate, as if like a new specie of plant. Within a year, the crystal, now named 'Azulight', had become a highly sought after resource. Every country wanted it and no nation could get enough... for this new resource contained power previously unfathomable.
The Tallion, already a strong an prosperous people, used it to power their machines, their inventors advanced their technology rapidly with the raw energy that emanated from the Azulight... but the power diminished quickly when the crystal was cut from the ground and with the growing dependence on this machinery, the need outweighed the supply and scout forces were dispatched to find and obtain more. The search teams even began to tread into diplomatic deep waters when stealing the resource seemed the only viable option.
The Narysau discovered that the Azulight empowered their elven bodies and enabled them to weave great spells that brought about change to their environment, their very hands could shape nature and bend the forests to their will. They used this ability to help each other, to protect themselves from the wild beasts of the forests and continued to live their sheltered lives, but some grew tired of their race staying hidden away and in the shapeless forests of the world outside, first contact with a Tallion resource collection force was made.
The Dergu had found a small but potent effect to the crystal that grew near their villages. It gave some the ability to interact with animals that had also touched the Azulight. It bound them to one another and a handful of men became known as 'The Voice of the Sea' as they had become bound to dolphins, whales and other sea faring creatures. But these interactions caused them no harm and had little to no effect on any other race or people, the Dergu simply used this ability to guide ships through storms safely. Only a small amount of Azulight was ever collected by the Dergu on their travels and as the effect of binding happened upon first touching the crystal, after the bind had been performed, the crystal was sold on as a resource to the Tallion population as a means to maintain themselves.
The Aethos were wary of this new substance, just as they had been of the azure rain that had fallen before, to them it was alien, demonic and un-natural. They tried to discourage people from using the Azulight, they believed it to be manipulating people, weaving it's way through them, infecting them with temptation and lust for power. The Aethos began to rally and plea to the people, begging them to return to the divine path, to return to their gods and to stop preying to this mere substance.
But their cries went unheard and the Aethos were left in the dusts of progress as the world advanced around them. They knew that their cause was lost and retreated far out of the way, to a single monastery high in the mountains on a small island, silent but in prayer, they felt what was about to happen next.
The first battle broke out on the coast of the elven homeland as an invasion force attempted to retrieve Azulight growing along the forest line. A group of no more than thirty elves took on the small invasion force of over two-hundred men. After two days of small skirmishes, the elves tired and weak from the drawn out fighting had fallen in number. Seven of the initial thirty remained able to fight but on the third day reinforcements arrived that would finally turn the tide of battle against them as another two ships came to the aid of the Tallion. The elves fell quickly with the fresh swords arriving to back up their more tired opponents. The elves were slain and the Azulight was stolen.
Angered, the Narysau fought back. Determined to recover their precious Azulight, they punched deep into Tallion lands killing all that stood in their way. As they reached the Capital, Tallar, the battle that took place within the city walls was bloody, the Tallion fought with blade and bow, the Narysau with spell and blade, many lost their lives, most notably: Elliaj Killica, a well respected hero and captain of the Tallion army. It was this event that started the Azulight War.
Time and time again, The Tallion and Narysau forces clashed, on land and on sea, killing even when there was no resource to be gained, blood was spilled on many battlefields and before the bodies dried, battles were being fought on the killing grounds once again. But it was the Tallion that eventually got the upper hand. With numbers on their hand, they found that by wearing the Narysau down when backed into pockets, they eventually fell. Using this tactic, the Tallion cut off the elven villages one by one and obliterated them.
Fearing extinction, the Narysau made their last stand. Spread out, in a large enough are to cause the most damage possible. The elves brought on the full force of their Azulight knowledge. They began to dance in unison, connected, using the Azulight to build strength. At full power, panic and confusion swept through Tallion lands. The people were not prepared for a single spell of it's magnitude, let alone enough of them to wipe out the human population.
The spells were devastating, each ripping huge holes into the ground, vaporizing all that they touched. Whole sections of the ocean were swallowed whole by the spells and evaporated. Tallar was so badly hit, countless lives lost and less than a tenth of Tallar's total land mass remained intact. Tallar had become in seconds, many small islands with a pitifully low number of inhabitants.
With this devastating blow, the shock and fear caused, the Azure War ceased. All of the Azulight had been excavated and used. Man and elf called truce and slowly, in just under fifty years, live slowly returned to a sort of peace.
The remnants, the small remaining islands started to rebuild their lives, before long many settlements became cities once again, people began to rest, ships were build to accommodate the new greater need for inter-island travel. The seas became the new roads and before long, sails dotted every horizon and this new way of life opened up many previously unexplored opportunities.
But, last year, the Azulight began growing again, this time through the Tallion fleets were ready. For they had been silently studying the Azulight and new more about it's abilities than they did those fifty years ago.
The Tallion forces moved into place to protect the first new Azulight field but soon other forces moved in to challenge their hold.
This new situation suddenly changed many things:
The Tallion's military funds were redistributed, more so now than ever towards their navy. New ship designs and equipment, new Azulight powered specialized cannons and other mysterious machines lay hidden aboard their ships. Soldiers were trained to assault from their ships and became extremely adept at swiftly taking and holding beaches and other shoreline locations before fortifying their positions.
The Narysau also adapted quickly. They used their new Azulight to spell-weave a new type of living ship. These new living ships made of trees that lived on the waters surface were now part of the Narysau's living environment. They continued to weave their magic but found that living at sea made them sick and would only travel off-shore if and when required to do so.
Trade became vast in this new world and merchant and mercenary became profitable careers. Where ships traveled in open water, they could be attacked from all sides, this opened the opportunity for mercenaries to get a cut of the profits by ensuring safety of traveling vessels. With this new way, the Seighart arose as the official employer to mercenaries and traders, acting like agent and regulator.
The Dergu reached out for help and aid, their society did not recover as others did for their cities were in the center of the fighting and were completely affiliated in the Azulight Wars. Most of the Dergu, though innocent, were killed or caught up in the fighting and lost their lives innocently. Less than a few hundred men women and children survived and they became scattered in order to survive. With no other way to sustain themselves, many turned to thievery and piracy to survive. Stealing food, resources and ship...but it became bountiful, almost joyful to inflict the suffering on those that had killed them, destroyed their homes and refused to help them now. Some took it too far and hunted the Tallion and Narysau for their crimes.
The Aethos, scared of another wave of destruction, changed their stance. If all sides were willing to fight for their perverted paths, the Aethos would fight for the path of the righteous, with the gods and their angels at their side, they plunged into battle to rescue people from temptation and purging all who would not renounce the Azulight.
The strangest change though, came from the sea.... Where previously calm and peaceful dolphins and fish once inhabited the seas, now creatures changed by the oblivion spells lurked. Over sized squids, half-human hybrids and many legends came swimming out of the depths.
Now all sides set sail, head first for war, for control of the Azulight, for revenge, for fun or for profits, this time, there seems no peace in sight.
There are and will be (as the project is still within early development) many distinguishing features, these include:
- Six different factions
- Four different races
- Ninety-Six different different ship setups
6 Factions
4 Ship Sizes
4 Variants
(6x4x4=96)
Plus more unique ships - Uniquely customizable heroes
- Navigator - The digital aid to the physical game
- Rulebook PDF for those playing
- Simplified Rulebook PDF for those wanting to play without the aid of NAVIGATOR
- Background information and Artwork
1) To be a user friendly game calculator.
What this means is that though the game is played on the table-top, no more throwing tonnes of dice, this allows slightly more complex algorithms to be used when deciding whether a ship hits another ship or how much damage that ship will take.
2) To store information for use within the game.
What this means is that in the pre-game set up, both players will enter their ship and character details and the program will create and keep a record of each of these, it will record all statistics for each ship separately.
This allows a player to click one ship, click another and attack it, the calculator will decided whether hit misses or lands, then how much damage it has done, it will then modify the defending ship's record to represent it's damaged state.
It will allow this data to be carried through from game to game so that a ship could be damaged throughout a campaign but still continue to fight for many games... or be reset after each game.
The records will become persistent and each created ship record will become a quick-set option in future games for ease.
3) To add a graphical and audio element to the game.
What this means is that the program will be skinned in the style of parchment and stone, giving an authentic aesthetic for the game. When a ship fires upon another, depending on it's size / type / weapon or spell used, a different sound effect will be played, along with varying sound effects for shots landed or missed. Icons for both ships will be shown and a little graphic of one ship firing upon another will be displayed.
The program will include turn timers for timed play (which will also include a pause button for situations when needed), it will also include a few background tracks so that players might have something in the background as they play, though this isn't forced on them as they could also just listen to their own music in an external music player.
4) To be a record keeper.
Navigator will log all shots fired, all ships injured, the experience of heros in play and give post-game reports in a form that can be saved or printed (It will also give options of printing the ship records once inputted along with the hero statistics). Post-Game reports can be saved and used for analyzing and balancing of statistics throughout the game design process. It will also help those wishing to write post-game 'logs' for future story reference.
18-Apr-10: 23:37 - Story re-written and submitted
This is where honesty is put out there and all cards are laid on the table. I haven't started work on the Navigator program as of yet as I am unsure with what or how I should go about doing it, currently I have a drawn up diagram of the different options and what I would like it to do in some detail.
The game being played on the table-top does require more than one player. This is to be a social game and I am pretty sure it could even be taken into a games workshop and played on a table there just to drum up some interest.
Again referring to the main point of this actually being a physical game currently because of not having made a digital version, there will be physical models involved. but worry not, there is no limit to what you use as placeholders, right now, I am currently using a template for the model base with a piece of card slotted into the top to give the ship its aesthetic design, I'll explain more on these options later but this is why Navigator will have images and sounds etc.
The rules are still in early stages, the number of statistics assigned to each hero and ship isn't set in stone and the numbers will all need testing and tweaking before they are even nearly ready for release.
The way in which the algorithms are drawn is a little complex currently, adopting more of a digital rpg's idea rather than the traditional pen and paper rpg games, this is because as earlier stated, I hope that Navigator will be able to deal with these equations for the players. This means that even dice can be rolled and simulated on the digital environment without scattering everywhere and off of the table.
This is all I am posting for this current moment. I know this post is messy and I am about to start work on re-writing everything, feel free to post, if you'd like to lend your assistance in any way, please let me know. I am contactable at illitum(at)live(dot)co(dot)uk as I am not always on here.
I do have a story written up and I will be re-writing that asap, along with the descriptions of each of the factions, their reasons for fighting, their ship aesthetics etc.
I will also soon start to post information on the rules, errata, scale etc as I release it.
Again, anyone wishing to help in this project, whether it be in the style of ideas, creative design in drawing or putting together theme design for Navigator or would like to help develop Navigator, please contact me at my email address above.
Please don't slate me for this concept, I understand that a fusion tabletop / digital game might not be what this forum is about but the digital coding for the game is something that this forum might have a good knowledge on.