INTRODUCTION
Village of Eco is a PBEM (Play by email) roleplaying game that puts you in the role of a character in a medieval fantasy village. First, you choose the role of a scholar – a caster of spells, a farmer – a producer of food, a craftsman – a creator of weapons, or a merchant – a maker of money. You interact with the other characters and the town government, as you feel the effects of the economy, crime and politics on the nascent town. This is a fully sandbox rpg – meaning you can retire to be a subsistence farming hermit, undercut the competition as a scrupulous merchant, or gather a bunch of weapons and instill your own government over the town. You can even create buildings and make a new township in the country. It’s all up to you. In the Village of Eco, you have control.
In the village of eco, you control your character through two ways – email, and forum roleplaying. Email is further divided into items, preparations, work or battle. You are permitted infinite item use, one preparation, and your choice of work or battle. Item is a time where you can eat or access your inventory for any purpose. Preparations are moving from one number to another, accessing the facilities of the village, or peddling – merchant only – which combines the two. In work, scholars write books, farmers harvest food, craftsmen make weapons, and merchants buy bonds, and all villagers forage, lumberjack and quarry. In battle, you can attack with an ambush, a tactic, or charge; or defend with an ambush, tactic, or charge, pillage silver or items, and hunt.
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Name:
Items: Use X
Preparation: (Move/Shop/Peddle/Build/Activate)
Work or Battle: (Write/Harvest/Craft/Buy/Forage/Lumberjack/Quarry) or (ATK/DFN with Ambush/Charge/Tactic/Besiege/Hunt/Pillage)
Items:
Items can be both created by players and bought in the village shops.
LvlX Book: A book enables the user to use a spell contained within, using 10 MP at lvl1, 20 MP at lvl2, et cetera. Higher level spells are superior to lower levels.
LvlX Craft: A melee, ranged weapon, or armor gives the user a tactical advantage in all forms of battle. The higher the level, the more the advantage.
Food: Every character in the Village of Eco must eat 1 Food a week, or else they lose 50 HP. In addition, eating food restores 20 HP or 20 Mana. If you are at full health, this HP exists above your standard HP, representing fat and a decrease in battle competence. If you are at full mana, this MP exists above your standard MP, representing magical overload.
Bonds: A bond gives the owner 2 extra silver per week. You can own multiple bonds, as well as sell them. They may be affected by changes in town government.
Wood: Enough wood to build a wooden facility. Transporting wood costs an additional 5 HP on top of the standard 10 HP. The 10 can be voided with a mount, and the 5 with a vehicle.
Stone: Enough stone to build a stone facility. Transporting stone costs an additional 10 HP on top of the standard 10 HP. The 10 can be voided with a mount, and the 10 with a vehicle.
Vehicles: Vehicles are a type of lvl2 Crafts (for carriages, chariots, boats, anything made of wood/metal). Riding on a vehicle eliminates the cargo penalty – but if you do not also have a mount, you will still feel the movement penalty.
Mounts: Horses, llamas, alpacas, and can be bought in the farms for 2 Food. Riding on a mount eliminates the movement penalty; but you must still eat 1 food per week for lose 50 HP. In addition, if you do not have a vehicle, you will still have the cargo penalty.
Apprentices: A non-player character to join you in your adventures! They have HP and MP like you, but no SP. You can train them to increase in levels (see below). Their levels are capped at 10, at which point they become full honest-to-goodness masters of their training Disciples.
Disciples: Apprentices that have fully developed at Level 10, thus having 100/100 HP and 100/100 MP. They can make class-specific actions. They can breed. They are pretty much just as powerful as you, only you own everything that they use. If you die, you can continue on as them, or they will revert into NPCs of whatever town you leave them in.
Preparations [One per email]
Move: Move from one region to an adjacent one. This costs 10 HP, unless you have a mount. 5 or 10 to move wood and stone, unless you have a vehicle.
Shop: Access the village buildings
Peddle (merchant only): Move and access the shops of two regions at once.
Build: Create a facility. See building section below. This costs 1 WOOD or 1 STONE.
Activate: Increases attack and defense by two OR recovers 100 Health to PC OR recovers 100 MP to PC. Good for one turn. Uses 100 SP.
Project: Orders apprentices to build items, but takes double the building materials. (-MATERIALS X 2)
Building:
Building is a special kind of preparation.
Scholars can build Libraries (+1 book per week)
Farmers can build Closed Gardens (+1 food per week)
Craftsmen can build Businesses (+1 craft per week)
Merchants can build Banks (+1 bond per week)
In addition, owning a facility enables the owner to have their own shop, list things, services or coins for sale in exchange for things, services, or coins. Each facility a character acquires gains a setting equal to the kind they build. For example, if a scholar buys a bank, it becomes a library, and he gets +1 Books. If a merchant buys a library, it becomes a bank, and he gets +1 Bonds. The title and function is all flavor, and does not necessarily denote its production.
Work or Battle [One per email]
Work:
Write (scholar only): Write a book of magic containing a level 2 elemental spell. (Choose from Water, Fire, Earth, Wood, Metal, Void or Healing) You can further boost an existing book, making it level 3, and so on. (+BOOK)
Enchant (scholar only): Embed a gem of pure magic in an existing craft. (Choose from Water, Fire, Earth, Wood, Metal, Void). You can further boost an existing enchantment. (+ENCHANT)
Harvest (farmer only): Harvest 1 food. Everyone in the Village of Eco must eat 1 Food a week, or lose 50 HP. May choose HP or MP. If no choice, it’s HP. (+FOOD)
Plant (farmer only): Give up 8 Food to make a Food Bond. (+FOOD BOND)
Craft (craftsman only): Craft a level 2 melee weapon, ranged weapon, armor, or half-vehicle. You can further use craft on a weapon to make it level 3, and so on. (+ LVL2 CRAFT)
Reinforce (craftsman only): Make a building into a fortress. This costs +1 Wood or +1 Stone, and protects the building from one lumberjacking, quarrying, and means it is much more difficult to attack those inside. After a quarrying or lumberjacking, it will revert to its former form.
Buy (merchant only): Make a silver or copper bond. Bonds give 2 extra silver or 20 extra copper a week. (+BOND)
Sell (merchant only): Enables the user to sell any item to any NPC building, at a standard price.
Train: Boost X apprentices’ levels by 1. This means to train one apprentice, it costs 10 HP. 2, 20. And so on. Apprentices under the orders action can only train others to their level. PCs can apprentices up to level 9, after which they must use honor. (-10X HP)
Forage: Search for wild food growing in the lake, forest or mountains in exchange for -10 HP. Only usable in 2-4. (-10 HP, +FOOD)
Lumberjack: Cut down enough trees or wooden facilities to acquire wood. 5 HP to transport wood, in addition to 5 HP from movement. Only usable in wooden facilties or 3. Can also decrease a level of barricade. (+WOOD)
Quarry: Elicit stone from mountain or stone facility enough to acquire stone. 10 HP to do, 10 HP to transport stone, in addition to 10 HP from movement. Only usable in stone facilities or 4. Can also decrease a level of barricade. (+STONE)
Slaughter: Kill a mount, apprentice, or disciple you own for weapons and gear. (+FOOD, SPECIAL ITEM)
Breed: If two players make this action with each other, they both get a Child (Lvl1 Apprentice). Apprentices cannot breed, but disciples can.
Honor: Train a level 9 apprentice into a Lvl10 Disciple. This does not cost HP.
Battle:
ATTACK OR DEFEND
Ambush: Ambush another player. Strong against charge, weak to tactic.
Tactic: Use a tactic on another player. Strong against ambush, weak to charge.
Charge: Charge another player directly. Strong against tactic, weak to ambush.
Besiege: Seals a building shut. Prevents resupply, and seals characters inside.
Pillage: Steal items from a player, weak to all. Must specify target. (+ITEMS)
Shanghai: Seize a fainted apprentice. The owner will resist. (+APPRENTICE)
Hunt: Attack a creature for food and special items. Only usable outside village. (+FOOD, SPECIAL ITEM)
Skirmish: Attack a target in a neighboring region from your region. Only ranged weapons can attack and defend. (+SP)
Martyr: Instant kill a mini boss, but die in the process. If you have a disciple, you can continue on as them and keep your property. If not, you must make a new character from scratch.
Orders: Command each apprentice to use any action other than breed, martyr, honor and class-specific ones.
In addition, travel outside the village or destroying a facility may result in random encounters.
ROLEPLAYING
Roleplaying can also help you earn more character-related rewards and characterization within battles. Battles – the result of email – are posted in the roleplaying forum, and can form the start of a roleplaying topic.
25 silver is paid for substantial roleplaying topics with at least 2 paragraphs. +50 if there’s more than one character in the topic. 50 silver is paid for writing battles with a ‘writing in progress’ status and pming them to Zepp. Please claim the battle with a message before writing, to get all the details.
STATS
Stats:
HP: Health points, also stamina for movement and carrying.
MP: Mana points, necessary to cast spells. Lvl1 takes 10, Lvl2 20, etc.
SP: Fighting spirit. Gained through battle.
Money: Gold, silver, copper, bonds.
Food: Each character must eat 1 food per week or lose 50 HP.
Crafts: Melee and ranged weapons, armor.
Books: Book spells and Gem spells.
Property: Buildings owned in the region of Eco. Each building boosts your pay by 1 unit a week.
Apprentices: Your underlings! You can train them up to be disciples, at which point they can make class-specific actions.
Transport: Mounts to beat movement penalities, vehicles to beat cargo penalties.
Cargo: Items not equipped to the player character, that can be used by apprentices. Building materials are also kept here. If you have a vehicle, it is presumed to be on the highest level vehicle, unless you say otherwise.
