Blood Tides Rising 3

Contents

• Faction Numbers
• Game Summary
• Game Details
• Pledging
• Set-up Details
• BTR3 Module Revisions
• Apprentices
• GMs
• Factions
• Combat Clashes/Clashes
• BTR FAQ
• L3 Changes

 

 

 

 

 

Current Faction Numbers

Last updated: 17/07/2017 

Faction	Faction Numbers
1. The Kingdom Eternal	2
2. The Merchant Princes	7 (GMs+players)
3. The Viking Lords	5
4. The Masters of Light and Darkness	5
5. The Children of the Mad-God	5
6. Saurians	5
7. Parthians	7

 

 

 

 

 

Game Summary

Blood Tides Rising 3 is an Explorer Game of Harlequin Games’ new Legends Module. 

Victory Conditions are suspended. Take this last opportunity to explore the world of BTR before major design revisions are applied. 

This is a Duo position game. Each player is allowed to setup up two positions within ONE chosen faction. This will enable single players to more fully explore background adventure arcs of their chosen faction if they so desire. Players pledging to Duo positions by the initial deadline will be given a Mark of Fate on the main character of BOTH positions. 

Although no Victory Conditions are in effect, if you gain the Legendary title (t2999) within one year you will get honourable mention. 

 

 

 

 

 

Game Details

Training Level: 12 

SEI cap: 2500 (public works 6) 

Tac cap: 100% 

Tradegoods will weigh 5. 

Thief Ruin penalty 280. 

 

Adventure 1000 Peaceful Life. This adventure is available to all at any point before King’s Peace ends. Be any dead, lose 1 CON, gain life. Note, ‘stoned’ is a form of ‘dead’ and this adventure will bring you back from that state. 

King’s Peace ends after 6 months. (December 2017 Production for BTR3). 

10 day turnaround for the whole game. 

Revolts every 6 months (See notes at the bottom of your results for Merchants and their Slave population, they won’t revolt). 

No Teleporting of TGs using adventures or item activation. 

Character Rolling Thunder is allowed. 

 

 

 

 

 

Pledging

The Pledge deadline is by Noon on Monday 3rd April. Pledges received by this deadline will be eligible for a bonus Mark of Fate on their main character. 

Double position setups must continue to run two positions for at least 12 months, i.e. during the first year you may NOT drop one of them and continue with the other. 

You may pledge and mention factions and/or players you do not wish to play with, in a private message to the GM. 

 

 

 

 

 

Set-up Details

Please consult the setup document when designing your BTR3 setup. 

All characters start with 3 character actions. All characters (main or secondary) may setup as a Priest-Mage. 

Flying mounts will be rare in the game except for small races. Heroes ED – 1 guilds at str 9 Adventurer Parties DCBBB – 1 guild str 6 Overlords CBBBAA – 2 guilds each str 8, Medium race, 1800 pop, 150 lvl 2 Guards; Very Large (Parthian), 1200 pop, 100 lvl 2 Guards. Mercenaries DCBA 1 guild str 12, Medium race, 150 pop, 300 lvl 8 Knights; Large (Troll), 100 pop, 200 lvl 8 Knights. (Note: starting troops will have statuses). 

Seafarer setups are allowed and/or required for some factions. 

Guilds may be placed in module cities which contain the same race population as the guild sponsor. Overlords and Mercs may place their guild in their start location. No-one may place their guild in an ally’s home location. Any Hero/AP/Nomad may choose to have their starting guild in a ‘nearby’ faction module location. 

 

 

 

 

 

Module Revisions for BTR

The changes below have been motivated from player experiences in BTR1/2. They will probably be implemented in further normal games of BTR. Participation in this explorer game will give players experience in how this changes play in-game. 

1) Werewolf and vampire status afflication will be downgraded (afflicting the ravenous status two levels down the tree – rather than the current level ravenous status) as that should have a significant impact on the number of high level status troops that come charging out from those factions (i.e. the first three rungs of the status tree will all afflict the bottom status). 

2) Merchant adventure crown costs will be divided by 5 (this should deal with some of the questions of the supposed weakness of the faction). 

3) The Kingdom will be allowed diplomacy but only with players in the Merchant faction. This rule is intended to give Merchants the ability to trade with the Kingdom and potentially to act as an intermediary between them and other factions. Once there is a King with a crown (rather than a regent) the Kingdom may choose to enter freely into diplomacy. 

4) The inquisition will have it’s equation changed – making it more likely to come into effect. 

5) Adventure 2202 – Matter over Might is changed to read. Be a Priest of Tyr, level 15, with PC 8 or more. Lose 4 PC and 5 Priest. Gain 4 Tactics 

6) There has been a small change to the bounds of the Kingdom. 

 

 

 

 

 

Apprentices

Apprentice players are allowed in BTR 3. 

See the Rules for details on Apprentices. 

 

 

 

 

 

GMs

GMs will be playing in Blood Tides Rising 3 as members of The Merchant Faction. 

 

 

 

 

 

Factions

All factions have a maximum size of 8 players, except for The Masters. 

In BTR3, The Masters can be filled to the maximum size of 16 players. 

 

 

 

 

 

Combat Clashes

For all combat clashes you must provide me with an empty force ID. You must have set up the slot commanders and retreat percentage yourself. You must inform the GM of these details in a separate email. 

The GM will teleport characters in and out of the force as appropriate. 

In team events the team leader is responsible for organising this and must send details in a clearly titled email. 

Defaults: Healing after rounds. Resurrection after clash. No curing of poison; stoning or insanity. Magic and mounts are permitted. 

Clash results are not quite final – to give players a chance to appeal if *I* have made an error. You will be told swiftly if there is a last minute change.” 

A detailed calendar of Clashes available for BTR3 will be announced in due course. 

 

 

 

 

 

BTR Module FAQ

These will be updated periodically (if particular questions are asked frequently). 

1) There is affliction available in the module – particularly vampire and werewolf statuses. 

2) It is correct that Parthians become Pilgrims, and Trolls are required to be Pilgrims. 

3) Dwarves and Elves both have access to all runepower type spells via the Pwr Dwarven Axes, and Pwr Elven Hammers. 

4) The “Trade Off” is the name for the time of the Merchant Clashes (details available in the Merchant cities). 

5) N’DM armoured status does really give minus one thousand five hundred AF/CB/RB/MiAF and have a very high INV. 

6) There are several maps in the module but they each show a different world view which can be put together. 

7) All the factions are meant to be very distinct, very strong effects will probably be deliberate but ask if you are not sure. 

8) Should I have a weaponmaster skill as a basher? A: There will be monster targets for which the extra DAM is useful/needed. But also bear in mind every skill slot is useful for adventure/title completion in BTR. 

 

 

 

 

 

Legends 3 changes that apply to all current games including BTR3

Besides lots of tiny bug fixes that should make everything more consistant, and just generally work nicely, here is a list of 13 specific changes that may differ from your previous Legends II experience – be careful with expectations of success/failure for the game. 

1) Covert C12 update 

The new code for Covert actions and specifically the C12 order will be used for BTR. 

 

2) Fixed various problems with Sighting and searching. 

Forces containing only invisible characters will not be sighted unless those invisible characters are overburdened. Note – Mounts, wagons, population and ships in character possessions (not equipped) do not count toward their carry capacity for increasing this, they count as weight only. 

Force sightings during movement are now done before encounter battles in each province. So all forces in a province have the same chance to sight another force entering that province, before encounter battle losses reduce its hiding sight value. 

 

3) Fixed duel/battle spells being cast by people who can’t cast the spell. 

Loaded battle/duel spells will no longer work if you don’t have some means to cast the spell when you reach combat. The spell must be in your spell list, or on a familiar, or given by an equipped item. This restriction doesn’t affect auto-cast spells from items. 

 

4) Completely revised battle code.

Fixed bugs for spell castings Fixed many combat calculations Fixed reserve options to work like the rules describe – and additionally countercharge will now activate against opportunity charge and countercharge. All overall modifiers now affect a character’s DF. All equipment is validated before battle starts, anything of an inappropriate type or not usable by the soldiers or characters is ignored for the duration of the battle. Overwhelming of character’s by soldiers has been disabled as it only penalised inexperienced players.

 

5) There is a new PC/TAC increase formula for Combats. 

It will take account of damage inflicted on the other side, as well as the character’s wounds/soldiers lead losses, in determining chance of an increase. – Walkovers give a low chance of gains – Few wounds/damage on both sides gives a low chance of gains – Dying reduces the chance of gains – Chance of gains peak at around 90% wounds/losses on self/slot and 70% wounds/losses on the enemy. 

 

6) Moving Overburdened through use of Encounter Orders, fixed. 

Force carry capacity and burden is now re-calculated after each encounter battle. Any change in movement rate during movement is dealt with proportionally i.e. a force that had used 75% of its available movement before an encounter combat will have 25% of its available movement left when the movement rate is re-calculated. 

So it is now possible for a force to start its movement flying but lose flying capacity, from battle losses (or by aquiring too many items from a successful raid). It will then continue the rest of its movement as land movement (assuming the force can still walk). A land force that was not overburdened may become overburdened as a result of losses (or by aquiring too many items from a successful raid), or it may merely pick up slower moving mounts in a raid. 

Land based forces that gain flying carry capacity (and flying forces that are forced to land and then later regain flying carry capacity) will continue the move on foot.

 

7) T1 order calculations improved. 

Optimised calculations for number of spell points needed for training soldiers with a status – to use the most free spell points, or to use affliction in preference to a spell. Numbers trained are now reduced when there is insufficient equipment, it used to fail if the slot already had soldiers. Numbers are now also reduced if a ‘per soldier item’ is required for a training type, and there are insufficient items, it used to fail if the slot already had soldiers.

 

8) Merging soldiers now retains fractions of the Training Level. 

The fraction does not appear in the turn report. If the fraction is less then 0.9500 the level is rounded down, otherwise it rounds up for all purposes though the internal fraction is always retained.

 

9) Encounter order raids now work more reliably. 

However they only work for players. NPC forces will not raid even if they have orders to do so, they will simply start an encounter battle instead.

 

10) Locations lose the benefit of their walls while blocking. 

If a location blocks a force that has encounter orders to attack blockers, the location will not get the benefit of walls even though it is the defender in the battle that results. 

 

11) The turn report has been tidied a little and had some typos fixed. 

That probably means any player-written apps that process the turn report file will need revising.

 

12) Stoned, Alive or Dead? 

Legends 2 is inconsistent about whether or not the stoned condition counts as living or not. In Legends 3 stoned is consistently not living. 

 

13) Mana and Wounds Recovery Including Summoned Beings. 

Legends 2 production lets a stoned character recover wounds at production. Legends 3 does not. Note this is different from the automatic wounds recovery that all summoned creatures get regardless of their condition, in both versions of the game. Legends 2 production awards mana to all characters on the map (excludes unsummoned summonable characters) regardless of them being stoned or dead, though how wounded they are affects the calculation. Legends 3 recovers mana only for living characters (those whose conditions is alive or insane).