Wrath of the Autarch

Bandits are stealing your grain, a border dispute has ignited with Crescent Hold, and the peasants are uprising ever since your guard accidentally murdered an innocent. Amidst all of this, the Autarch’s spies are everywhere… it is only a matter of time before they launch a full scale assault. There aren’t enough resources to deal with all of these threats, but what gets ignored?

Wrath of the Autarch is a tabletop kingdom building game. The players create a society over the course of the campaign, called the Stronghold. One player controls the schemes of the Autarch, the ruler of an empire which opposes the Stronghold. The other players control important leaders and heroes from the Stronghold. The campaign ends when either the Autarch is stopped or the Stronghold falls.

The Stronghold players must use their land and resources wisely, prioritizing their activities each season in an attempt to thwart the Autarch. Wrath of the Autarch features troupe style play, 4X domain management, a special challenge system that lets all the players add to the narrative, and four types of minigames (diplomacy, infiltration, skirmish, and warfare) to handle the various missions the Stronghold players undertake.

Will you build up a military force to stop the Autarch? Use diplomacy and convince the scattered factions around you to unite for a common cause? Go on perilous quests for legendary artifacts? Or ignore the great risks, and harness the power of the arcane arts? How much will you sacrifice for your independence?

I’d love to hear from you! Please post your thoughts in the G+ community or the  rpggeek page.

Wrath of the Autarch features:

• Domain Management
  • WotA owes its inspiration from 4X video games, and role-playing games like Birthright, Houses of the Blooded, Ars Magica, and Pendragon
  • The main character in Wrath of the Autarch is the Stronghold, a society the players grow over a number of seasons
  • The Stronghold controls regions, large areas of land that can be used to gain valuable resources
• Troupe Style Play
  • There are a limited number of available heroes for the Stronghold. These characters are diplomats, generals, champions, sorcerers, and spies
  • Each session of play highlights one season of time, focusing on one important mission for the Stronghold
  • The players choose which heroes to play based on the type of mission they elect to undertake
• Competitive
  • There is no gamemaster
  • Wrath of the Autarch is a set of rules written for a specific campaign included with the game
  • The Empire of the Autarch is a powerful kingdom bent on the Stronghold’s destruction
  • One player takes on the responsibilities for managing the Autarch, while the other players all manage the Stronghold
  • The Autarch player allocates points to various schemes over the course of the campaign, which lets them inflict miseries upon the Stronghold
  • There is a strategic interaction between the missions the Stronghold takes as seasons go by and the threats the Autarch wields against them
• The Realm
  • There are five different minor factions present in the world, each with different goods and services they’re willing to trade for, as well as different capabilities they possess
  • The factions are Burgan Vale, Crescent Hold, Gravewood, Lily Manor, and The Sunriders
  • Allying with compatible factions is a key part of the strategy for the Stronghold
  • The Autarch may sabotage relationships with minor factions using threats
  • The factions and the world they inhabit is not fleshed out in detail, giving players a framework to use, but plenty of mechanisms to make it personal and unique
  • The skeleton available for each faction is rich in history and variety, making it easy to creatively engage with the narrative
• Structured Missions
  • Each season the heroes from the Stronghold go on one mission
  • The mission choices are alliance, conquest, assassination, sabotage, or dealing with a looming threat or scheme
  • Missions consist of a challenge phase and a conflict phase
• Challenge Phase
  • The challenge phase is open and flowing, with all the players contributing to the unfolding narrative
  • There is a constant time pressure to succeed at the challenges for the Stronghold players
  • The Deck of Fate (or Fate Dice) is used to help spur creativity and create challenge scenes
  • Each challenge scene requires different sorts of skills to accomplish, and is subject to different time pressures and difficulty
  • Challenge scenes build on each other and work towards the end conflict for the mission
• Conflict Phase
  • Wrath of the Autarch employs four types of conflicts: diplomacy, infiltration, skirmish, and warfare
  • The type of conflict used depends on the mission
  • Conflicts use similar action types, but each have their own flavor and tactical options

    

• Influenced by Fate Core
  • Wrath of the Autarch is heavily influenced by the Fate Core rules, and uses the same four core actions, as well as the familiar skill ladder, stunts, and aspects
  • Instead of one type of aspect, there are three, based on their duration: minor advantages, mission aspects, and campaign aspects
    • The longer the duration of the aspect, the more important it is, and the harder it is to create
  • Wrath of the Atuarch leverages the Deck of Fate (although Fate Dice may be used instead)
  • Stunts, developments, and other effects modify how the cards are used
  • Stress for success is an option to succeed with cost for any action type: allowing a player to increase their result by drawing cards and applying the suns as physical stress and the moons as mental stress
  • A unique relationship mechanic is used that rewards both helpful and hindering relationships
  • There is a special system called “aspect burning” which lets players convert free invokes on campaign aspects into other in game effects (units, familiars, allies, advantages in conflicts)
  • Because there is no gamemaster, there is some additional structure to make the core actions work within the framework of the game

I’ve tried to provide an overview of the key features that distinguish Wrath of the Autarch from other role-playing games. If it sounds interesting to you, feel free to join either  the G+ community or the rpggeek community and let us know!