{ "schemaVersion": 20, "license": { "name": "CC BY 4.0", "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" }, "count": 37, "systems": [ { "id": "ai-diplomacy", "name": "AI Diplomacy", "status": "unverified", "domain": "society", "driver": "autonomous", "core": [ "reputation-factions" ], "parts": [ "agent-memory", "intensity-reading", "forecast", "side-relations" ], "core_parts": [ "side-relations" ], "definition": "Computer-run rival powers hold attitudes toward the player and one another, moved by deeds, agendas, broken treaties and relative strength, and act on them; they set the price of peace, vote in councils and declare war", "aliases": [ "diplomatic AI", "computer diplomacy" ], "media": [ "video" ], "mechanics": [ "income", "reputation-factions", "voting" ], "examples": [ { "title": "Civilization", "year": 1991, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Sid Meier and Bruce Shelley (MicroProse)", "components": [ "reputation-factions", "victory-points" ], "parts": [ "agent-memory", "intensity-reading", "side-relations" ], "note": "Each rival leader's mood, from antagonistic to supplicating, follows its personality (aggressive, friendly or neutral), how the two civilizations compare with the world, and any peace the player has broken. Talks end in peace or war; rivals ask tribute, trade advances, offer rewards for attacking a third party, and may make peace with each other to attack the player.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Master of Orion", "year": 1993, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "SimTex (MicroProse)", "components": [ "reputation-factions", "voting" ], "parts": [ "agent-memory", "side-relations" ], "note": "Each race keeps a Relations bar toward the player from -100 to +100 that drifts one point a turn toward its starting level. A broken treaty costs 36 points at once and a lasting -5 to the race's core reaction, a falling bar brings one warning and then war, and computer players' Galactic Council votes follow their alliances and relations.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Europa Universalis IV", "year": 2013, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Paradox Development Studio", "components": [ "reputation-factions", "difficulty-settings" ], "parts": [ "forecast", "side-relations" ], "note": "Every country rates every other from -200 to +200, and the two opinions need not match. Declared rivals can be embargoed and nations may join coalitions against a common foe, offers show whether the other side will accept and why, and the AI difficulty setting changes the AI's aggressiveness toward the player and other AIs.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Civilization VII", "year": 2025, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Firaxis Games", "components": [ "reputation-factions", "income" ], "parts": [ "side-relations" ], "note": "Relationships run from Helpful to Hostile, moved by endeavors, sanctions, settling close, trade routes and each leader's agenda. Diplomatic actions cost Influence earned each turn, and the other leader may support, accept or reject them; military alliances need Helpful, formal war needs Hostile, and a surprise war costs War Support.", "latest": true } ], "provenance": { "title": "Civilization", "year": 1991, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "confidence": "low", "note": "The earliest documented use cited is Civilization, whose manual gives each rival ruler a mood set by personality, relative power and remembered broken peace, and has rivals ask tribute, trade advances, make peace or declare war, and make peace with each other to attack the player. Nobunaga's Ambition (1983) reportedly lets the player ally with computer-run daimyo, and other earlier strategy games remain unsurveyed. Sid Meier's Pirates! (1987) has nations declaring war, peace and alliance, with the player as a privateer rather than a ruler." }, "established": null, "sources": [ { "key": "sid-meier-s-civilization-manual-1991", "canonical": false, "title": "Sid Meier's Civilization manual", "author": "Sid Meier and Bruce Shelley", "year": 1991, "year_approx": true, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": "MicroProse", "url": "https://archive.org/details/manual_Civilization", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Diplomacy, pp. 126-128; Foreign Minister, p. 117; Republic, pp. 112-113; Civilization Score, p. 44", "note": "Rival rulers' moods set by personality, relative power and remembered broken peace; negotiations ending in peace or war; tribute, technology trades and rewards for attacking a third party; rivals making peace with each other; scored turns of world peace." }, { "key": "master-of-orion-the-official-strategy-guide-1994", "canonical": false, "title": "Master of Orion: The Official Strategy Guide", "author": "Alan Emrich and Tom E. Hughes, Jr. (Prima Publishing)", "year": 1994, "year_approx": false, "type": "book", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/details/MasterOfOrionStrategyGuide", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Chapter 4, The Galactic Council, pp. 62-66; Chapter 11, Politics and Personalities, pp. 225-233, 251-252", "note": "The Relations bar of Diplomacy Points from -100 to +100, its drift toward the starting level, leader personalities, the oath-breaker penalties, alliance obligations, threats followed by war, and computer players' council votes set by alliances and relations." }, { "key": "europa-universalis-iv-manual-2013", "canonical": false, "title": "Europa Universalis IV manual", "author": "Paradox Interactive", "year": 2013, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/details/europa-universalis-iv-pc-manual-english", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Game Options, AI Difficulty, p. 16; 4.3 Diplomacy, pp. 34-36", "note": "Opinions from -200 to 200 that need not match, rivals and coalitions, offers marked as accepted or refused with the other side's reasons, and the AI difficulty setting's effect on aggressiveness toward the player and other AIs." }, { "key": "civilization-vii-dev-diary-6-diplomacy-influence-and-trade-2024", "canonical": false, "title": "Civilization VII Dev Diary #6: Diplomacy, Influence, and Trade", "author": "Bill Anderson (Firaxis Games)", "year": 2024, "year_approx": true, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://civilization.2k.com/civ-vii/game-guide/dev-diary/diplomacy-influence-trade/", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Relationship stages from Helpful to Hostile, agendas, Influence earned per turn and spent on endeavors, sanctions and treaties, responses of support, acceptance or rejection, formal and surprise war, and War Support and War Weariness." } ], "n_examples": 4, "n_sources": 4, "word_count": 527, "updated": "2026-10-30", "url": "/systems/ai-diplomacy" }, { "id": "ai-director", "name": "AI Director", "status": "unverified", "domain": "pacing", "driver": "adaptive", "core": [], "parts": [ "conditional-spawn", "return-to-rest", "intensity-reading" ], "core_parts": [ "intensity-reading" ], "definition": "A controller reads the players' recent state, such as damage taken, position and pressure, and adjusts spawns, item placement and threat during play, alternating peaks of intensity with lulls instead of following a fixed script", "aliases": [ "Game Director" ], "media": [ "video" ], "mechanics": [ "boss-encounters", "cooperative-play", "procedural-generation" ], "examples": [ { "title": "Left 4 Dead", "year": 2008, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Valve and Turtle Rock Studios", "components": [ "procedural-generation", "hit-points", "boss-encounters", "cooperative-play" ], "parts": [ "conditional-spawn", "return-to-rest", "intensity-reading" ], "note": "The AI Director rates each Survivor's emotional intensity from damage taken, incapacitation and nearby kills, decaying it over time, and tracks the highest of the four. It sends full threat populations until a peak, then relaxes for 30 to 45 seconds; it also chooses which weapon caches and item groups exist and deals Tank, Witch or nothing along the route.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Left 4 Dead 2", "year": 2009, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Valve", "components": [ "procedural-generation", "cooperative-play" ], "parts": [ "conditional-spawn", "intensity-reading" ], "note": "Valve describes AI Director 2.0 as procedurally changing the weather and the pathways the four survivors take, besides tailoring the enemy population, effects and sounds to the players' performance, so level layout, world objects and lighting also vary between runs.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Alien: Isolation", "year": 2014, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Creative Assembly", "components": [ "stealth-detection", "line-of-sight" ], "parts": [ "intensity-reading" ], "note": "A director that always knows the player's position periodically sends one alien toward the player's area, and the alien must find the player by sound, the motion tracker and short sight lines. A menace gauge rises with the alien's proximity and the player's line of sight on it, and at its peak the director sends the alien elsewhere.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Back 4 Blood", "year": 2021, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Turtle Rock Studios", "components": [ "cooperative-play", "boss-encounters" ], "parts": [ "conditional-spawn", "intensity-reading" ], "note": "Turtle Rock describes a Game Director constantly adjusting to player actions in a four-player cooperative campaign, sending tougher Ridden including mutated boss types. The director also adds Corruption Cards to the deck a run plays through, and the players must react to them.", "latest": true } ], "provenance": { "title": "Left 4 Dead", "year": 2008, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "confidence": "medium", "note": "The earliest documented use cited is Left 4 Dead, whose AI Director Michael Booth of Valve described in a 2009 talk: a per-Survivor intensity estimate driving a cycle of build-up, peak, fade and relax, together with procedural placement of enemies, items and bosses. Booth credits the spiky pacing of Counter-Strike, a multiplayer game without such a controller, as the inspiration. Automatic difficulty adjustment is older but changes difficulty rather than pacing, and earlier encounter controllers remain unsurveyed." }, "established": { "title": "Left 4 Dead", "year": 2008, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "confidence": "low", "note": "Left 4 Dead 2's Director 2.0 extends the same controller, and Back 4 Blood is sold as a game from the creators of Left 4 Dead with its own Game Director. Both lines run through Valve and Turtle Rock, and no cited source traces Alien: Isolation's director to it, so the claim rests on one studio lineage." }, "sources": [ { "key": "the-ai-systems-of-left-4-dead-2009", "canonical": false, "title": "The AI Systems of Left 4 Dead", "author": "Michael Booth (Valve)", "year": 2009, "year_approx": false, "type": "talk", "publisher": null, "url": "https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/apps/valve/2009/ai_systems_of_l4d_mike_booth.pdf", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Procedurally Populated Environments, slides 64-75; Adaptive Dramatic Pacing, slides 78-82 and 92", "note": "Structured unpredictability, the Active Area Set, mob intervals of 90 to 180 seconds and sizes of 20 to 30, boss events shuffled and dealt, director-chosen weapon caches and item groups, the Survivor Intensity estimate, the Build Up, Sustain Peak, Peak Fade and Relax cycle, bosses left outside it, and pacing adjusted rather than difficulty." }, { "key": "left-4-dead-2-steam-store-listing-2009", "canonical": false, "title": "Left 4 Dead 2 (Steam store listing)", "author": "Valve", "year": 2009, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://store.steampowered.com/api/appdetails?appids=550&l=english", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "About This Game", "note": "AI Director 2.0 procedurally changing weather and pathways and tailoring population, effects and sounds to performance, and customising layout, world objects, weather and lighting." }, { "key": "the-perfect-organism-the-ai-of-alien-isolation-2017", "canonical": false, "title": "The Perfect Organism: The AI of Alien: Isolation", "author": "Tommy Thompson (Game Developer)", "year": 2017, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/the-perfect-organism-the-ai-of-alien-isolation", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "The director that always knows the player's location and points the alien toward the player, the alien's senses, the menace gauge raised by proximity and line of sight, and the director sending the alien elsewhere at the gauge's peak." }, { "key": "back-4-blood-steam-store-listing-2021", "canonical": false, "title": "Back 4 Blood (Steam store listing)", "author": "Turtle Rock Studios", "year": 2021, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://store.steampowered.com/api/appdetails?appids=924970&l=english", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "About This Game", "note": "The four-player cooperative campaign, the creators of Left 4 Dead, and the Game Director constantly adjusting to player actions with tougher Ridden and mutated boss types; release date 12 October 2021." }, { "key": "behind-back-4-blood-s-ingenious-card-system-2021", "canonical": false, "title": "Behind Back 4 Blood's ingenious card system", "author": "Bryant Francis (Game Developer)", "year": 2021, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/behind-back-4-bloods-ingenious-card-system", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "The AI director adding Corruption Cards to the deck during a run, and lead designer Brandon Yanez on players reacting to them." } ], "n_examples": 4, "n_sources": 5, "word_count": 554, "updated": "2026-10-30", "url": "/systems/ai-director" }, { "id": "alert-phases", "name": "Alert Phases", "status": "unverified", "domain": "inhabitants", "driver": "player-action", "core": [ "stealth-detection" ], "parts": [ "escalation", "return-to-rest", "paid-reset", "report-step", "aid-lockout" ], "core_parts": [ "escalation", "return-to-rest" ], "definition": "One detection puts every guard in an area into a shared alarm that brings more guards and takes away the player's aids, and the area steps back through searching and wariness to normal on timers or when cleared", "aliases": [ "alarm states", "alert modes" ], "media": [ "video", "board-card" ], "mechanics": [ "crowd-blending", "map-markers", "stealth-detection" ], "examples": [ { "title": "Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake", "year": 1990, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Konami (Hideo Kojima)", "components": [ "stealth-detection", "map-markers" ], "parts": [ "escalation", "return-to-rest", "aid-lockout" ], "note": "The manual sets out an alert system of three levels. Found by a sentry or sensor, the game enters level 3, where enemies keep calling comrades, the radar gives way to a counter and the sensors stop. Off screen it falls to level 2, a timed search, and at zero a return call sends the guards back to their posts.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Metal Gear Solid", "year": 1998, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Konami (Hideo Kojima)", "components": [ "stealth-detection", "map-markers" ], "parts": [ "escalation", "return-to-rest", "aid-lockout" ], "note": "Discovery by a soldier or camera puts the game in Alert Mode, with reinforcements and no radar. Out of sight, a countdown leads to Evasion Mode, where soldiers leave their routes to search, and a second countdown returns it to Infiltration Mode. A single soldier who only hears a noise searches alone.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty", "year": 2001, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Konami (Hideo Kojima)", "components": [ "stealth-detection", "map-markers" ], "parts": [ "escalation", "return-to-rest", "report-step", "aid-lockout" ], "note": "Alert mode calls backup and disables the radar. Evasion follows a gauge, with sweeps of hiding places, and gives way to Caution, where patrols are more vigilant and may gain extra soldiers, until a counter returns the area to Normal. An elevator will not move until Caution lifts, and jamming blocks the radio call for backup.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Burgle Bros.", "year": 2015, "year_approx": false, "medium": "board-card", "creator": "Tim Fowers", "components": [ "stealth-detection", "cooperative-play" ], "parts": [ "escalation", "return-to-rest", "paid-reset" ], "note": "A tripped alarm sends the floor's guard to it, and each alarm on the board adds one to his speed, up to six. Reaching an alarm turns it off, and a new patrol card is drawn when none remain. Cracking a safe makes the guards on that floor and below faster for good, and all players lose if one is caught without a stealth token.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Hitman 3", "year": 2021, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "IO Interactive", "components": [ "stealth-detection", "crowd-blending" ], "parts": [ "escalation", "return-to-rest", "report-step" ], "note": "A status bar runs from trespassing and suspicious through compromised and hunted to combat. Civilians report to guards, a guard's sighting starts a search party, and cameras ping the player for a guard. Blending into a crowd avoids scrutiny, and after a firefight the status can step back down the list if the player stays hidden.", "latest": true } ], "provenance": { "title": "Metal Gear", "year": 1987, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "confidence": "low", "note": "The earliest documented use cited is Metal Gear, whose 1987 MSX2 manual puts the whole game into an alarm mode when the player is seen or trips the alarm network, and back to sneak mode once a certain number of enemies are destroyed. It gives no timer or search phase. Earlier stealth games, among them Castle Wolfenstein (1981), remain unsurveyed for a shared alarm." }, "established": { "title": "Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake", "year": 1990, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "confidence": "low", "note": "The Metal Gear 2 manual sets out three alert levels, a timed search, the radar withdrawn while the alarm lasts, and a return call to normal duty. Metal Gear Solid, its 2001 sequel (adding Caution) and Snake Eater (2004, naming them phases) keep the form, but the line runs inside one series and no cited source traces it to other games." }, "sources": [ { "key": "metal-gear-user-s-manual-european-edition-1987", "canonical": false, "title": "Metal Gear User's Manual (European edition)", "author": "Konami", "year": 1987, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/details/MetalGearManual", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "How to play, rules 5-6", "note": "Alarm mode entered when the player is seen or triggers the alarm network, and sneak mode restored once a certain number of enemies are destroyed." }, { "key": "metal-gear-2-solid-snake-user-s-manual-japanese-1990", "canonical": false, "title": "Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake user's manual (Japanese)", "author": "Konami", "year": 1990, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/details/metal-gear-2-manual", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Alert system (警戒体制), levels 1-3, p. 18", "note": "Levels 1 to 3, enemies calling comrades and the radar and sensors shut down at level 3, a timed search at level 2 ending in a return call, a timer that varies with the player's level, and the ways back to level 1." }, { "key": "metal-gear-solid-manual-playstation-1998", "canonical": false, "title": "Metal Gear Solid manual (PlayStation)", "author": "Konami", "year": 1998, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/details/ps-1-mgs-manual-print", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "On Screen Display, p. 18; Enemy Alertness Level", "note": "Alert Mode with reinforcements and an unusable radar, the countdowns to Evasion and Infiltration Mode, and a single soldier's Noise Mode." }, { "key": "metal-gear-solid-2-sons-of-liberty-manual-ps2-2001", "canonical": false, "title": "Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty manual (PS2)", "author": "Konami", "year": 2001, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/details/ps2_Metal_Gear_Solid_2-_Sons_of_Liberty_USA", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Enemy modes: Normal, Alert, Evasion, Caution; Jamming; Get into the Elevator", "note": "Alert with backup and no radar, Evasion and the Clearing, Caution with extra soldiers and a counter back to Normal, jamming that blocks calls for backup, and the elevator held until Caution lifts." }, { "key": "metal-gear-solid-3-snake-eater-instruction-manual-2004", "canonical": false, "title": "Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater instruction manual", "author": "Konami", "year": 2004, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/download/ps2_Metal_Gear_Solid_3-_Snake_Eater_USA/Metal_Gear_Solid_3-_Snake_Eater_USA_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Alert Phase, Evasion Phase, Caution Phase", "note": "The three named phases, each ended by a Phase Gauge reaching zero, and more soldiers on patrol in Caution." }, { "key": "burgle-bros-faq-as-of-28-november-2016-2016", "canonical": false, "title": "Burgle Bros FAQ (as of 28 November 2016)", "author": null, "year": 2016, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://lot.ahml.info/Burgle%20Bros%20FAQ.pdf", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "An alarm moving the guard's destination, one alarm per tile, the guard disabling an alarm on arrival, and a new patrol card once all alarms are off." }, { "key": "board-game-arena-burgle-bros-game-help", "canonical": false, "title": "Board Game Arena: Burgle Bros. game help", "author": null, "year": null, "year_approx": false, "type": "wiki", "publisher": null, "url": null, "accessed": null, "locator": null, "note": "Alarm tiles, the floor's guard sent to an alarm, one extra movement per alarm up to six, permanent speed rises after a safe is cracked, and the shared loss when a player is caught." }, { "key": "hitman-3-tips-and-tricks-how-to-master-agent-47-s-latest-world-tour-2021", "canonical": false, "title": "Hitman 3 tips and tricks: How to master Agent 47's latest world tour", "author": "Dom Peppiatt (Red Bull)", "year": 2021, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://redbull.com/gb-en/hitman-3-tips-guide", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "The trespassing, suspicious, compromised, hunted and combat statuses, blending into a crowd, and the step back down the list after a firefight." }, { "key": "hitman-3-beginner-s-guide-essential-tips-to-become-a-silent-assassin-2021", "canonical": false, "title": "Hitman 3 Beginner's Guide: Essential Tips To Become A Silent Assassin", "author": "Alex Van Aken (Game Informer)", "year": 2021, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.gameinformer.com/feature/2021/01/24/hitman-3-beginners-guide-essential-tips-to-become-a-silent-assassin", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Cameras pinging the player for a guard, civilians reporting to guards, guards starting a search party, and the compromised, hunted and combat statuses." } ], "n_examples": 5, "n_sources": 9, "word_count": 523, "updated": "2026-10-30", "url": "/systems/alert-phases" }, { "id": "army-supply-limits", "name": "Army Supply Limits", "status": "unverified", "domain": "society", "driver": "autonomous", "core": [], "parts": [ "world-clock", "exposure", "capacity-load" ], "core_parts": [ "capacity-load" ], "definition": "Each province or area can feed only so many troops, set by its wealth, terrain, season and who holds it, and troops above that limit waste away or must disband, so armies spread out and losses are refilled from a slow inflow of men", "aliases": [ "Supply Limit", "Regional Supply Limits" ], "media": [ "video", "board-card" ], "mechanics": [ "income", "supply-lines", "upkeep" ], "examples": [ { "title": "Europa Universalis", "year": 2000, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Paradox Entertainment", "components": [ "upkeep", "supply-lines" ], "parts": [ "exposure", "capacity-load" ], "note": "Each month every army's supply is checked and its attrition losses shown. Its size matters most, then the province's control, pillage, production, terrain and winter; an army that cannot trace a supply line loses 30% more. Maintenance is paid monthly by the number of men, and a conscription center improves an army's maintenance ability in its province.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Hammer of the Scots", "year": 2002, "year_approx": false, "medium": "board-card", "creator": "Jerry Taylor (Columbia Games)", "components": [ "area-control", "income" ], "parts": [ "world-clock", "capacity-load" ], "note": "Each area has a Castle Limit of 0 to 3 for its economic value. At the Winter Turn non-noble blocks beyond an area's limit must disband to the draw pool, English blocks in England disband, and each friendly area yields replacement points equal to its limit, a cathedral adding one for the Scots.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Imperator: Rome", "year": 2019, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Paradox Development Studio", "components": [ "upkeep", "income" ], "parts": [ "exposure", "capacity-load" ], "note": "Developer diaries before release give each location a supply limit: the size of army the land supports without attrition. Light infantry needs half a unit's supply and war elephants five times, so 10,000 elephants need a limit of 50. Desert and harsh winter add attrition; manpower recovers to replace losses, and doubled maintenance speeds it.", "latest": true } ], "provenance": { "title": "Europa Universalis", "year": 2000, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "confidence": "low", "note": "The earliest documented use cited is Europa Universalis, whose manual makes an army's size the main factor in its monthly attrition, weighed against the province's control, production, terrain and winter. The video game was adapted from Philippe Thibaut's board game of the same name, and the forage and stacking rules of earlier board wargames remain unsurveyed, so earlier forms are plausible and the title is the earliest cited rather than a defended origin." }, "established": null, "sources": [ { "key": "europa-universalis-manual-2000", "canonical": false, "title": "Europa Universalis manual", "author": "Paradox Entertainment (Strategy First)", "year": 2000, "year_approx": true, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/download/Europa_Universalis/Europa_Universalis_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Conscription centers, pp. 43-44; Maintenance, pp. 48-49; Supply Lines, p. 56; Attrition, pp. 56-58", "note": "Monthly attrition checks led by army size, the province factors, the 30% increase without a supply line, the attrition colours, and monthly maintenance by troop numbers." }, { "key": "hammer-of-the-scots-rules-version-4-0-2019", "canonical": false, "title": "Hammer of the Scots rules (version 4.0)", "author": "Jerry Taylor (Columbia Games)", "year": 2019, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://rally-the-troops.com/hammer-of-the-scots/info/rules.html", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "1.2 Castle Limits; 1.3 Cathedrals; 5.8 Eliminated Blocks; 7.0 Wintering, 7.3 English Disbanding, 7.5 Scottish Disbanding, 7.6 Winter Builds", "note": "Copyright 2002-19. Castle Limits by economic value, disbanding blocks beyond them at the Winter Turn, winter attrition, and replacement points equal to each friendly area's limit." }, { "key": "imperator-rome-manual-v-2-0-1-compiled-developer-diaries-2019", "canonical": false, "title": "Imperator: Rome Manual V. 2.0.1 (compiled developer diaries)", "author": "Paradox Development Studio", "year": 2019, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/details/ImperatorRomeManualV.2.0.1", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Resources and the power system, p. 5; Battles and Deployment, Attrition, pp. 112-113; Attrition for Units, p. 137", "note": "A fan compilation of the pre-release developer diaries. The supply limit, unit supply weights, desert and winter attrition, manpower for reinforcing, and army maintenance." }, { "key": "europa-universalis-iv-manual-2013", "canonical": false, "title": "Europa Universalis IV manual", "author": "Paradox Interactive", "year": 2013, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/details/europa-universalis-iv-pc-manual-english", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "3.3 The Information Bar (Manpower), p. 21; Map Modes (Supply Limit Map), p. 29; 5.2 The Province Interface, p. 58; 6.6 Siege Warfare, p. 71", "note": "Province supply limits and their map mode, manpower that replaces losses, and monthly attrition from an army consuming the local supplies during a siege." }, { "key": "crusader-kings-ii-manual-2012", "canonical": false, "title": "Crusader Kings II manual", "author": "Paradox Interactive", "year": 2012, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/download/crusader-kings-ii-pc-manual-english/PDX7605US_CK%20II_Onlinemanual_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "4.10 The Province Interface, p. 31", "note": "Each province's Supply Level, the number of thousands of soldiers who can survive off the land." }, { "key": "crusader-kings-3-developer-diary-reveals-how-war-is-waged-2019", "canonical": false, "title": "Crusader Kings 3 developer diary reveals how war is waged", "author": "Fraser Brown (PC Gamer)", "year": 2019, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.pcgamer.com/crusader-kings-3-developer-diary-reveals-how-war-is-waged", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Pre-release report that armies above the supply limit first drain the supplies they carry before attrition begins, and take heavy attrition deep in enemy territory." } ], "n_examples": 3, "n_sources": 6, "word_count": 532, "updated": "2026-10-30", "url": "/systems/army-supply-limits" }, { "id": "civic-unrest", "name": "Civic Unrest", "status": "unverified", "domain": "society", "driver": "autonomous", "core": [], "parts": [ "population-change", "contentment" ], "core_parts": [ "contentment" ], "definition": "A population's stored satisfaction, set by its growth, living conditions, amenities and laws, decides how much it works and pays; at its low end production stops, rebels arise, or the people remove the ruler", "aliases": [ "civil disorder", "population happiness" ], "media": [ "video", "board-card" ], "mechanics": [ "base-building", "end-game-triggers", "income", "voting" ], "examples": [ { "title": "Civilization", "year": 1991, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Sid Meier and Bruce Shelley (MicroProse)", "components": [ "income", "base-building", "victory-points" ], "parts": [ "population-change", "contentment" ], "note": "Each city counts its citizens as happy, content or unhappy, and past the first two to six, set by difficulty, new citizens are unhappy. Temples, luxuries and martial law calm them. When the unhappy outnumber the happy, the city yields no taxes, research or production, and under Democracy prolonged disorder can bring revolution.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Tropico", "year": 2001, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "PopTop Software", "components": [ "voting", "end-game-triggers" ], "parts": [ "contentment" ], "note": "Each islander's happiness averages factors such as food, housing, religion, health care and work, weighted by the person. Discontent past a danger level sends people into the woods as armed rebels who raid outlying buildings and may storm the palace, and an election lost to an unhappy people ends the President's rule.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Through the Ages: A Story of Civilization", "year": 2006, "year_approx": false, "medium": "board-card", "creator": "Vlaada Chvátil (Czech Board Games)", "components": [ "income", "upkeep" ], "parts": [ "contentment" ], "note": "In the Advanced and Full games each rise in population can require another Happy Face, and each face missing makes a worker discontent and idle. With more discontent workers than unused ones an uprising skips the production and maintenance phase, so the civilization produces and scores nothing that turn.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Frostpunk", "year": 2018, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "11 bit studios", "components": [ "skill-trees", "base-building", "end-game-triggers" ], "parts": [ "population-change", "contentment" ], "note": "Two bars, discontent and hope, move with each law passed from the books of law and each new building. High discontent brings rebellion and low hope makes people leave. At a critical value the people set an ultimatum to move one bar by 15% within two days, and failing it the player is banished and the game ends.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Frostpunk 2", "year": 2024, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "11 bit studios", "components": [ "voting", "end-game-triggers" ], "parts": [ "population-change", "contentment" ], "note": "Tension rises while hunger, cold, squalor, disease and crime persist and with unpopular laws, and trust falls with deaths, starvation, disease and crime; each faction and community holds its own trust. Laws pass by a council vote that promises can sway, and full tension or zero trust removes the Steward from power.", "latest": true } ], "provenance": { "title": "Civilization", "year": 1991, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "confidence": "low", "note": "The earliest documented use cited is Civilization, whose manual counts each city's citizens as happy, content or unhappy, makes new citizens unhappy past a threshold, and halts a city's taxes, research and production when the unhappy outnumber the happy. Utopia (1981) is a reported earlier candidate with rebels on a player's island, and Hammurabi and other early city-state programs remain unsurveyed. Santa Paravia en Fiumaccio (1978) penalises harsh taxes in a ruler's ledger without a stored measure of the people's mood." }, "established": null, "sources": [ { "key": "sid-meier-s-civilization-manual-1991", "canonical": false, "title": "Sid Meier's Civilization manual", "author": "Sid Meier and Bruce Shelley", "year": 1991, "year_approx": true, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": "MicroProse", "url": "https://archive.org/details/manual_Civilization", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Civil Disorder, pp. 38, 55-56; We Love The (King) Day, p. 56; Civilization Score, p. 44; Happiness Chart, p. 69; Democracy, p. 114", "note": "Citizens happy, content or unhappy; the content threshold by difficulty; disorder when the unhappy outnumber the happy, stopping taxes, research and production; temples, luxuries, specialists and martial law; revolution after more than two turns of disorder under Democracy; happy and content citizens in the score." }, { "key": "tropico-manuale-edizione-italiana-2001", "canonical": false, "title": "Tropico, manuale (edizione italiana)", "author": "PopTop Software (Take 2 Interactive)", "year": 2001, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/details/manualzilla-id-6100111", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Capitolo cinque, Felicità, pp. 20-21; Capitolo otto, Ribelli, Elezioni, Colpi di stato, pp. 42-47; Ribellione, p. 48", "note": "Each person's overall happiness as the average of weighted factors; discontent past a danger level producing rebels who raid buildings and may storm the palace; elections every five to nine years, lost by an unhappy people; coups by unhappy soldiers." }, { "key": "through-the-ages-a-story-of-civilization-rulebook-english-version-3-2007", "canonical": false, "title": "Through the Ages: A Story of Civilization rulebook (English, version 3)", "author": "Vlaada Chvátil (Fred Distribution)", "year": 2007, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://abreojogo.com/site/firepigeonproject/Home/through-the-ages/ThroughtheAgesRulebook_v3_attredirects-0.pdf", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Advanced Game Mechanics: Happiness; Uprising, p. 14", "note": "Happy Faces required as population grows, one discontent worker per missing face, discontent workers not working, and an uprising that skips the production and maintenance phase." }, { "key": "new-game-from-this-war-of-mine-developer-leaves-you-with-difficult-choices-2018", "canonical": false, "title": "New Game From This War Of Mine Developer Leaves You With Difficult Choices", "author": "Elise Favis (Game Informer)", "year": 2018, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.gameinformer.com/games/frostpunk/b/pc/archive/2018/03/25/new-game-from-this-war-of-mine-developer-leaves-you-with-difficult-choices.aspx", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Frostpunk's discontent and hope bars, rebellion and departure, game over at either extreme, and the books of law described as a skill tree." }, { "key": "frostpunk-what-happens-when-discontent-or-hope-reach-critical-values-2018", "canonical": false, "title": "Frostpunk: What happens when Discontent or Hope reach critical values?", "author": "Gamepressure", "year": 2018, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.gamepressure.com/frostpunk/what-happens-when-discontent-or-hope-reach-critical-values/zfad7c", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Laws and buildings moving the two bars, the ultimatum to move one by 15% in two days, and banishment ending the game." }, { "key": "frostpunk-2-steam-store-page-2024", "canonical": false, "title": "Frostpunk 2 (Steam store page)", "author": "11 bit studios", "year": 2024, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://store.steampowered.com/app/1601580/Frostpunk_2/", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Release date of 20 September 2024, the Steward, the city's factions, and the Council Hall." }, { "key": "frostpunk-2-s-developers-didn-t-want-it-to-be-a-jackass-simulator-2024", "canonical": false, "title": "Frostpunk 2's developers didn't want it to be a 'jackass simulator'", "author": "Bryant Francis (Game Developer)", "year": 2024, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/frostpunk-2-s-developers-didn-t-want-it-to-be-a-jackass-simulator-", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Factions approving or disapproving of laws, tension among the core mechanics, council votes swayed by promises, and laws that can be undone." }, { "key": "frostpunk-2-all-problems-trust-tension-and-how-to-solve-them-2024", "canonical": false, "title": "Frostpunk 2: All Problems, Trust & Tension and How To Solve Them", "author": "Mezbah Turzo (NoobFeed)", "year": 2024, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.noobfeed.com/articles/frostpunk-2-all-problems%2C-trust-%26-tension-and-how-to-solve-them", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "The problems that raise tension, the deaths and crimes that lower trust, trust held by each faction and community, and removal from power at full tension or zero trust." } ], "n_examples": 5, "n_sources": 8, "word_count": 535, "updated": "2026-10-30", "url": "/systems/civic-unrest" }, { "id": "contagion", "name": "Contagion", "status": "unverified", "domain": "inhabitants", "driver": "autonomous", "core": [], "parts": [ "escalation", "paid-reset", "propagation", "population-change", "treatment", "forecast", "containment" ], "core_parts": [ "propagation" ], "definition": "A disease passes by contact or nearness from character to character or place to place, often after a delay and in rising outbreaks, and is checked by cures, vaccination, isolation or quarantine, so the player races to contain it", "aliases": [ "epidemics", "disease spread", "outbreaks" ], "media": [ "video", "board-card", "tabletop-rpg" ], "mechanics": [ "base-building", "clocks", "saving-throws", "status-effects" ], "examples": [ { "title": "Theme Hospital", "year": 1997, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Bullfrog Productions", "components": [ "status-effects", "clocks" ], "parts": [ "paid-reset", "propagation", "treatment" ], "note": "A patient diagnosed with a contagious disease has infected every patient met. Declaring the epidemic vaccinates them at once for a fine and lost reputation; a cover-up starts the Epidemic Watch counting down to an inspector, who fines each infected patient he finds, while nurses race to vaccinate the marked carriers.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Pandemic", "year": 2008, "year_approx": false, "medium": "board-card", "creator": "Matt Leacock", "components": [ "cooperative-play", "clocks", "set-collection", "variable-player-powers" ], "parts": [ "escalation", "propagation", "treatment", "containment" ], "note": "Infection cards add cubes to cities; a fourth cube is an outbreak that adds one to every connected city, in chains. Epidemic cards raise the infection rate and re-stack infected cities, five same-colour cards cure a disease, the Quarantine Specialist shields nearby cities, and eight outbreaks lose the game.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Dungeons & Dragons, 5th edition", "year": 2014, "year_approx": false, "medium": "tabletop-rpg", "creator": "Wizards of the Coast", "components": [ "saving-throws", "status-effects", "hit-points" ], "parts": [ "propagation" ], "note": "Diseases show symptoms hours or days after infection and bring exhaustion. Cackle fever passes to a humanoid starting its turn within 10 feet of a laughing carrier unless it makes a Constitution save, and a save after each long rest wears the disease down; lesser restoration can cure a small outbreak.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Crusader Kings III", "year": 2020, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Paradox Development Studio (Paradox Interactive)", "components": [ "status-effects", "base-building" ], "parts": [ "escalation", "propagation", "population-change", "forecast", "containment" ], "note": "Epidemics, added by the Legends of the Dead expansion, break out in baronies, spread to neighbouring provinces and infect the characters in them with a disease trait. Hospices, burial sites, a physician's task and decisions to isolate in the capital or close the gates raise resistance; the Black Death is announced in advance.", "latest": true } ], "provenance": { "title": "Theme Hospital", "year": 1997, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "confidence": "low", "note": "The earliest documented use cited is Theme Hospital, whose 1997 manual has a contagious patient infect every patient met, with vaccination to stop the spread and a choice between a fine and a timed cover-up. Earlier disease rules in tabletop games, such as the 1979 Dungeon Masters Guide, and in strategy games remain unsurveyed. The Oregon Trail's diseases (1985 manual) strike party members by chance and do not pass between them." }, "established": null, "sources": [ { "key": "theme-hospital-manual-1997", "canonical": false, "title": "Theme Hospital manual", "author": "Bullfrog Productions", "year": 1997, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/stream/themehospitalmanualscan/Theme%20Hospital%20Manual%20Scan_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Pop Up Icons: Epidemics; Appendix A, Patient and Staff Mood Icons", "note": "Contagious patients infecting those they met, declaring an epidemic or attempting a cover-up, the Epidemic Watch, the inspector's fines, and vaccination by nurses." }, { "key": "pandemic-rulebook-2015", "canonical": false, "title": "Pandemic rulebook", "author": "Matt Leacock", "year": 2015, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": "F2Z Entertainment", "url": "https://lehi-innovation.github.io/boardgame-rules/extracted/pandemic-rules.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Infections; Outbreaks; Epidemic Cards; Actions: Treat Disease, Discover a Cure; Roles: Quarantine Specialist; Game End", "note": "The second-edition rules in a 2015 printing; infection by rate, outbreaks and chain reactions on connected cities, epidemics, cures from five cards, eradication, the Quarantine Specialist, and the eight-outbreak loss." }, { "key": "system-reference-document-5-1-diseases-2016", "canonical": false, "title": "System Reference Document 5.1: Diseases", "author": "Wizards of the Coast", "year": 2016, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": "Wizards of the Coast", "url": "https://5thsrd.org/gamemaster_rules/diseases/", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Gamemaster Rules: Diseases, Cackle Fever, Sewer Plague, Sight Rot", "note": "Onset after hours or days, cackle fever's spread within 10 feet, Constitution saves to resist and recover, exhaustion, and cures." }, { "key": "dev-diary-146-it-started-with-a-cough-2024", "canonical": false, "title": "Dev Diary #146: It Started With a Cough...", "author": "PDX-Trinexx and PDS_Noodle (Paradox Development Studio)", "year": 2024, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://devtrackers.gg/crusader-kings/p/8b2dd338-dev-diary-146-it-started-with-a-cough", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Outbreaks by barony, three intensities, spread to neighbouring provinces, infection of characters, plague resistance from hospices, burial sites, physicians and isolation, and the Black Death's advance warning." } ], "n_examples": 4, "n_sources": 4, "word_count": 520, "updated": "2026-10-30", "url": "/systems/contagion" }, { "id": "crew-mutiny", "name": "Crew Mutiny", "status": "unverified", "domain": "society", "driver": "player-action", "core": [], "parts": [ "escalation", "drain", "exposure", "propagation", "contentment" ], "core_parts": [], "definition": "A crew's stored morale falls with time at sea, short rations, unpaid wages, thin shares or fear, and recovers with plunder, pay or time ashore; at its low end the crew deserts at port or mutinies against its captain", "aliases": [ "crew morale", "mutiny rules" ], "media": [ "video", "tabletop-rpg" ], "mechanics": [ "degrees-of-success", "loot-distribution", "sanity", "upkeep" ], "examples": [ { "title": "Sid Meier's Pirates!", "year": 1987, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "MicroProse", "components": [ "upkeep", "loot-distribution" ], "parts": [ "escalation", "drain", "contentment" ], "note": "The crew's attitude runs from happy through pleased and unhappy to angry, rising with the party's gold and sinking as the months pass. An unhappy crew deserts at each port, a crew angry too long mutinies and the captain fights to keep command, and running out of food brings defections. Smaller crews mean larger shares and happier men.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Sunless Sea", "year": 2015, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Failbetter Games", "components": [ "upkeep", "sanity", "permadeath" ], "parts": [ "drain", "exposure", "propagation" ], "note": "The ship spends fuel and supplies to feed its crew, and terror rises at sea and away from the lamps of civilisation. A frightened crew goes mad and can tear the ship apart, mismanaged supplies leave it starving and ready to mutiny, and the captain's death is permanent.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Unearthed Arcana: Of Ships and the Sea", "year": 2018, "year_approx": false, "medium": "tabletop-rpg", "creator": "Wizards of the Coast", "components": [ "degrees-of-success", "exploration-procedures", "random-tables" ], "parts": [ "contentment" ], "note": "A crew's quality score, from -10 to +10 and starting at +4, falls with casualties, hardship, hazards and plague and rises with shore leave and the first mate's efforts. Below 0 the captain makes a daily Charisma check modified by it; a total of 1 to 9 lowers quality, and 0 or less starts a mutiny.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Wartales", "year": 2023, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Shiro Games", "components": [ "upkeep", "experience-levels" ], "parts": [ "contentment" ], "note": "The troop's happiness accumulates, falls when companions go unfed or unpaid and reaches levels that give bonuses. Wages fall due every three rests, and paying on time adds happiness and combat experience. When the total drops too low companions leave, with a last chance to talk one into staying.", "latest": true } ], "provenance": { "title": "Sid Meier's Pirates!", "year": 1987, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "confidence": "low", "note": "The earliest documented use cited is Sid Meier's Pirates!, whose manual (second edition) ties the crew's attitude to the party's gold and the months at sea, with desertion at port and a mutiny fought for command. The Seven Cities of Gold (1984) is a reported earlier candidate, in which hungry men reportedly panic or mutiny; its rules remain unsurveyed. Uncharted Waters (1990) lowers crew condition with short rations and lets disloyal mates desert. Tabletop and board antecedents remain unsurveyed." }, "established": null, "sources": [ { "key": "sid-meier-s-pirates-manual-second-edition-1987", "canonical": false, "title": "Sid Meier's Pirates! manual, second edition", "author": "MicroProse (Sid Meier and Arnold Hendrick)", "year": 1987, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": null, "accessed": null, "locator": "Information, Party Status, p. 18; reloading, p. 26; Your Career on the High Seas, A Merry Crew 'On Account', Morale and Dividing the Plunder, pp. 33-34", "note": "The crew's attitude from happy to angry, mutiny if angry too long, defections when food runs out, morale set by the party's gold and falling as months pass, desertion at port, larger shares for a smaller crew, reloading speed set by morale, and the division of plunder." }, { "key": "sunless-sea-review-2017", "canonical": false, "title": "Sunless Sea review", "author": "Fraser Brown (PCGamesN)", "year": 2017, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.pcgamesn.com/sunless-sea/sunless-sea-early-access-review", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Terror from being at sea, a mad crew that infects others, starving crews sparking mutiny, fuel and supplies to feed the crew, and permanent death at the hands of mutineers." }, { "key": "sunless-sea-is-the-first-essential-video-game-of-2015-2015", "canonical": false, "title": "Sunless Sea is the first essential video game of 2015", "author": "Andy Kelly (Vice)", "year": 2015, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.vice.com/en/article/sunless-sea-is-the-first-essential-video-game-of-2015-214", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Running out of food turns the crew on the captain; fuel and food as the main expenses; a crew member's rampage killing the crew and captain." }, { "key": "sunless-sea-steam-store-page-2015", "canonical": false, "title": "Sunless Sea (Steam store page)", "author": "Failbetter Games", "year": 2015, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://store.steampowered.com/app/304650/SUNLESS_SEA/", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Release date of 6 February 2015; a crew that grows fearful and loses its sanity away from the gas-lamps of civilisation; the captain's death and a legacy passed on." }, { "key": "unearthed-arcana-of-ships-and-the-sea-2018", "canonical": false, "title": "Unearthed Arcana: Of Ships and the Sea", "author": "Wizards of the Coast", "year": 2018, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://media.wizards.com/2018/dnd/downloads/UA_ShipsSea.pdf", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Officers; Crew; Mutiny; Shore Leave, p. 6; Raise Morale, p. 7; Hazard Check Results, Other Events, p. 8; Ship Ownership Complications, p. 9", "note": "The crew's quality score and what moves it, the daily mutiny check with its bands, shore leave and the first mate's raise-morale activity, hazards and plague lowering quality, and mutiny on the ship-owning complications table." }, { "key": "wartales-community-update-1-now-live-2021", "canonical": false, "title": "Wartales Community Update 1 Now Live", "author": "ValH (GameBanshee), reposting Shiro Games", "year": 2021, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "http://www.gamebanshee.com/x63x9", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Accumulated happiness, its loss when troops are not fed or paid, bonus levels, companions leaving when the total drops too low, and a last chance to convince one to stay." }, { "key": "wartales-community-update-6-released-2023", "canonical": false, "title": "Wartales Community Update 6 Released", "author": "ValH (GameBanshee), reposting Shiro Games", "year": 2023, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "http://www.gamebanshee.com/94hrw", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Wages due every three rests, and a bonus to happiness and combat experience for paying on time." }, { "key": "wartales-steam-store-page-2023", "canonical": false, "title": "Wartales (Steam store page)", "author": "Shiro Games", "year": 2023, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://store.steampowered.com/app/1527950/Wartales/", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Release date of 12 April 2023 and the mercenary company that shares money, loot and meals in camp." } ], "n_examples": 4, "n_sources": 8, "word_count": 525, "updated": "2026-10-30", "url": "/systems/crew-mutiny" }, { "id": "crime-and-bounty", "name": "Crime and Bounty", "status": "unverified", "domain": "society", "driver": "player-action", "core": [ "stealth-detection" ], "parts": [ "conditional-spawn", "escalation", "return-to-rest", "paid-reset", "report-step" ], "core_parts": [ "paid-reset" ], "definition": "Crimes that witnesses report put a price on the player's head, kept per region or authority, that outlasts any chase and sends hunters until the player pays it, serves time, or removes its source", "aliases": [ "bounty system", "crime system" ], "media": [ "video" ], "mechanics": [ "map-markers", "reputation-factions", "stealth-detection" ], "examples": [ { "title": "Red Dead Redemption", "year": 2010, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Rockstar San Diego", "components": [ "stealth-detection", "morality-systems" ], "parts": [ "conditional-spawn", "escalation", "return-to-rest", "paid-reset", "report-step" ], "note": "A reported crime brings a Wanted Level and a Bounty, and the higher they are the more lawmen join the chase. Breaking their line of sight ends the Wanted Level, but bounty hunters still come until the bounty is paid at a telegraph office or cleared by a pardon letter. Eyewitnesses can be bribed or killed before they report, and high honor makes them look away.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Assassin's Creed Odyssey", "year": 2018, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Ubisoft Quebec", "components": [ "stealth-detection", "map-markers" ], "parts": [ "escalation", "return-to-rest", "paid-reset" ], "note": "Crimes seen by an enemy or a civilian raise a bounty of five levels that sends one, then up to two, mercenaries, stronger at higher levels. The player pays it off, kills the sponsors paying for it (marked on the map), or commits no crime until it fades. Mercenaries are ranked in tiers the player climbs.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Red Dead Redemption 2", "year": 2018, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Rockstar Studios", "components": [ "stealth-detection", "map-markers" ], "parts": [ "conditional-spawn", "return-to-rest", "paid-reset", "report-step" ], "note": "Witnesses report crimes unless silenced, and the law searches an area marked on the map until the Wanted level fades. Serious crimes by an identified player add a bounty kept by state, which sends lawmen and bounty hunters and remains until paid at a post office or served in jail.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Starfield", "year": 2023, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Bethesda Game Studios", "components": [ "reputation-factions", "stealth-detection" ], "parts": [ "paid-reset" ], "note": "A faction issues its own bounty for hostile acts it catches, or that a companion reports. It bars the player from its outposts, and its ships may attack even outside its airspace. The bounty is paid at a kiosk outside that faction's airspace, served in jail, or bribed away.", "latest": true } ], "provenance": { "title": "Red Dead Redemption", "year": 2010, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "confidence": "low", "note": "The earliest documented use cited is Red Dead Redemption, whose 2010 manual sets a reported crime's Wanted Level, which ends at broken line of sight, beside a Bounty that outlasts it, sends bounty hunters, and is paid at a telegraph office or cleared by a pardon, with eyewitnesses who can be stopped. Antecedents hold one part each: Elite (1984) sends bounty hunters after fugitives, and The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (2002) keeps a bounty as the price for crimes the player was seen committing. Regional bounties in earlier open-world games remain unsurveyed." }, "established": null, "sources": [ { "key": "red-dead-redemption-manual-xbox-360-singapore-english-2010", "canonical": false, "title": "Red Dead Redemption manual (Xbox 360, Singapore English)", "author": "Rockstar Games", "year": 2010, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/details/red-dead-redemption-xbox-360-singapore-english", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Fame and Honor, p. 11; Law Enforcement: Wanted Level and the Bounty on Your Head, Eyewitnesses, p. 12", "note": "Reported crimes giving a Wanted Level and a Bounty, more lawmen as they rise, the Wanted Level lost by breaking line of sight, bounty hunters after an escape, payment at telegraph offices or pardon letters, eyewitnesses stopped by bribes or killing, and honor making witnesses look away." }, { "key": "assassin-s-creed-odyssey-mercenaries-how-to-beat-them-bounties-tiers-and-rewards-2018", "canonical": false, "title": "Assassin's Creed Odyssey Mercenaries - How to Beat Them, Bounties, Tiers, and Rewards", "author": "Robert Ramsey (Push Square)", "year": 2018, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.pushsquare.com/news/2018/10/guide_assassins_creed_odyssey_mercenaries_-_how_to_beat_them_bounties_tiers_and_rewards", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Crimes seen by enemies or civilians raising a five-level bounty, one then up to two mercenaries sent, payment, the sponsors shown on the map, the bounty fading without crimes, and mercenary tiers 9 to 1." }, { "key": "how-the-wanted-and-bounty-systems-work-in-red-dead-redemption-2-2018", "canonical": false, "title": "How the Wanted and Bounty systems work in Red Dead Redemption 2", "author": "Bill Lavoy (Shacknews)", "year": 2018, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.shacknews.com/article/108138/how-the-wanted-and-bounty-systems-work-in-red-dead-redemption-2", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Witnesses reporting crimes, the search area marked on the map, a bounty for identified serious crimes, someone in the area hunting the player, and payment at a post office." }, { "key": "rdr2-org-bounty-system", "canonical": false, "title": "RDR2.org: Bounty System", "author": null, "year": null, "year_approx": false, "type": "wiki", "publisher": null, "url": null, "accessed": null, "locator": null, "note": "Bounties kept by state, lawmen and bounty hunters sent, payment at any post office or a jail sentence, and the bounty remaining until one of them." }, { "key": "starfield-bounty-system-explained-2023", "canonical": false, "title": "Starfield: Bounty System Explained", "author": "Rafeed Sultan (GameRiv)", "year": 2023, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://gameriv.com/starfield-bounty-system-explained/", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Bounties issued by the victim's faction, companions reporting crimes, outposts barred, faction ships attacking outside their airspace, and payment at a kiosk outside that faction's airspace, jail, or a bribe." }, { "key": "space-traders-flight-training-manual-elite-1984", "canonical": false, "title": "Space Traders Flight Training Manual (Elite)", "author": "Acornsoft", "year": 1984, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": null, "accessed": null, "locator": "pp. 10-11, 27", "note": "Antecedent; bounty hunters pursuing fugitives." }, { "key": "the-elder-scrolls-iii-morrowind-manual-2002", "canonical": false, "title": "The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind manual", "author": "Bethesda Softworks", "year": 2002, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": null, "accessed": null, "locator": "Stats Menu, Bounty; Crime and Jail, p. 44", "note": "Antecedent; the bounty as the price for crimes the player was seen committing, paid off or served in jail." } ], "n_examples": 4, "n_sources": 7, "word_count": 526, "updated": "2026-10-30", "url": "/systems/crime-and-bounty" }, { "id": "crop-growth", "name": "Crop Growth", "status": "unverified", "domain": "environment", "driver": "clock", "core": [], "parts": [ "world-clock", "exposure", "treatment" ], "core_parts": [], "definition": "Planted plots hold crops that advance through stages of growth as days, rounds or hours pass, helped by water, soil and care, until they are harvested for sale or use or wither from neglect, drought or a season's end", "aliases": [ "farming", "crop cycle" ], "media": [ "board-card", "video" ], "mechanics": [ "appointment-mechanics", "base-building", "resource-conversion", "resource-gathering" ], "examples": [ { "title": "SimFarm", "year": 1993, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Maxis (Eric Albers)", "components": [ "markets", "loans-and-debt", "base-building" ], "parts": [ "world-clock", "exposure" ], "note": "Seed is bought and planted in fields, irrigation ditches are run from water, and each crop passes through phases of growth on its own harvest cycle. The harvest is graded by soil, weather and water and sold at moving market prices or on futures, drought dries up crops, and failed crops can be covered by a bank loan.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Harvest Moon", "year": 1996, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Pack-In-Video", "components": [ "resource-conversion", "base-building" ], "parts": [ "world-clock" ], "note": "Seeds thrown on tilled soil cover three by three blocks, and a block that cannot be watered grows nothing. Turnips take five days, tomatoes ten and corn thirteen, and tomatoes and corn crop again if watering continues. Produce left in the box is collected at 5 PM, and the money buys livestock and larger fields.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Agricola", "year": 2007, "year_approx": false, "medium": "board-card", "creator": "Uwe Rosenberg", "components": [ "worker-placement", "upkeep", "resource-conversion" ], "parts": [ "world-clock" ], "note": "In the revised rulebook a worker on the Sow space puts 1 grain from supply on an empty field, which becomes 3, or 1 vegetable, which becomes 2. The crops stay on the field until a harvest, at the end of rounds 4, 7, 9, 11, 13 and 14, takes exactly one from each sown field; the family must then be fed, and grain can be baked into bread.", "latest": false }, { "title": "FarmVille", "year": 2009, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Zynga", "components": [ "appointment-mechanics", "experience-levels" ], "parts": [ "treatment" ], "note": "Crops grow in real hours, strawberries in four, and begin to wither once half their growing time again has passed without a harvest. Plowing a withered plot gives up its coins and experience, while a visiting neighbour or a bought sprayer can revive it.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Minecraft", "year": 2011, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Mojang (Markus Persson)", "components": [ "resource-gathering", "resource-conversion" ], "parts": [ "exposure" ], "note": "Seeds from broken grass are planted on farmland tilled with a hoe and grow through eight stages, faster when water lies within four blocks, and only at light level 9 or above. Bone meal from composted seeds advances the stage, and trampled farmland breaks the crop.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Stardew Valley", "year": 2016, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "ConcernedApe", "components": [ "experience-levels", "base-building" ], "parts": [ "world-clock" ], "note": "Crops must be watered each day to grow, and a missed day stalls them. Farming levels unlock sprinklers, fertilizer raises the odds of better quality, scarecrows guard eight tiles from crows, and crops still in the ground at the end of their season die.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Animal Crossing: New Horizons", "year": 2020, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Nintendo", "components": [ "resource-conversion", "resource-gathering" ], "parts": [ "world-clock" ], "note": "Vegetables, most added in the 2.0 update, are planted from starts, pass four stages and ripen on the fourth day. A pumpkin watered every day yields three, otherwise one or two, and regrows after harvest. Vegetables also turn up on abandoned farms on other islands and are cooked or crafted into other goods.", "latest": true } ], "provenance": { "title": "SimFarm", "year": 1993, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "confidence": "low", "note": "The earliest documented use cited is SimFarm, whose manual has seed bought and planted in fields, irrigation, crops passing through phases of growth on cycles that differ by crop, harvests graded by soil, weather and water, and drought that dries up crops. Earlier farm and strategy games remain unsurveyed, so the title is not defended as an origin. Harvest Moon (1996) is the earliest cited game in which the player waters each plot by hand, day by day." }, "established": null, "sources": [ { "key": "simfarm-manual-1993", "canonical": false, "title": "SimFarm manual", "author": "Maxis", "year": 1993, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/download/SimFarm_Manual_cbz/SimFarm_Manual_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Introduction; Tutorial; Reference, Market Value and Disasters, pp. 44-45", "note": "Crops with their own planting, growing and harvesting needs, phases of growth, irrigation ditches and valves, harvest grade by soil, weather and water, market prices and futures, bank loans, and drought drying up crops." }, { "key": "harvest-moon-instruction-booklet-super-nes-us-1997", "canonical": false, "title": "Harvest Moon instruction booklet (Super NES, US)", "author": "Natsume", "year": 1997, "year_approx": true, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/download/snes_Harvest_Moon_USA/Harvest_Moon_USA_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Growing Vegetables; Your Farm; The Items", "note": "Seeds sown three by three on tilled soil, watering by can or sprinkler, days to grow for turnips, potatoes, tomatoes, corn and grass, second crops from continued watering, the evening collection of produce, and expansion from the earnings." }, { "key": "agricola-rulebook-revised-edition-german-2016", "canonical": false, "title": "Agricola rulebook (revised edition, German)", "author": "Uwe Rosenberg (Lookout)", "year": 2016, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.spielkarten.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/22160028_Agricola.pdf", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Ackerbau, p. 8; Die Erntezeit, p. 9", "note": "The Sow action placing 1 grain or vegetable and adding 2 grain or 1 vegetable from supply, crops held on the field until the harvests at the end of rounds 4, 7, 9, 11, 13 and 14, one crop taken from each field, feeding, and baking bread." }, { "key": "farmville-withered-crops-2016", "canonical": false, "title": "FarmVille: Withered crops", "author": "GamePressure", "year": 2016, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.gamepressure.com/farmville/withered-crops/z228dd", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Half the growing time again to harvest before withering, the strawberry's four hours, lost coins and experience when a withered plot is plowed, and revival by a neighbour or the Unwither sprayer." }, { "key": "wheat-seeds-farmland", "canonical": false, "title": "Wheat Seeds; Farmland", "author": "Minecraft Wiki", "year": null, "year_approx": false, "type": "wiki", "publisher": null, "url": null, "accessed": null, "locator": null, "note": "Seeds from grass, eight growth stages, the light level needed, faster growth on hydrated farmland with water within four blocks, bone meal, trampling, composting, and crops added in Indev in February 2010." }, { "key": "carl-s-guide-to-stardew-valley-farming-2016", "canonical": false, "title": "Carl's Guide to Stardew Valley, Farming", "author": "Carl's Guides", "year": 2016, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://carlsguides.com/stardewvalley/farming.php", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Tilling and planting, daily watering and stalled growth when missed, sprinklers unlocked by farming level, fertilizer quality, crops dying at the season's end, scarecrows against crows, and the shipping bin." }, { "key": "animal-crossing-new-horizons-how-to-plant-grow-and-harvest-vegetables-2021", "canonical": false, "title": "Animal Crossing: New Horizons, how to plant, grow and harvest vegetables", "author": "Animal Crossing World", "year": 2021, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://animalcrossingworld.com/guides/new-horizons/how-to-plant-grow-and-harvest-pumpkins-farming-guide/", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Starts planted in the ground, four stages ripening on the fourth day, yield raised by daily watering, regrowth after harvest, vegetables on abandoned farms on other islands, their use in cooking and crafting, and their arrival in the 2.0 update." } ], "n_examples": 7, "n_sources": 7, "word_count": 518, "updated": "2026-10-30", "url": "/systems/crop-growth" }, { "id": "damage-control", "name": "Damage Control", "status": "unverified", "domain": "body", "driver": "player-action", "core": [], "parts": [ "exposure" ], "core_parts": [], "definition": "Damage to a ship lands in its systems or compartments, knocking them out, starting fires or breaching the hull, and stays until the crew repairs it, often mid-fight and at the cost of fighting, while fire, lost air and flooding worsen", "aliases": [ "ship damage control", "compartment damage" ], "media": [ "board-card", "video" ], "mechanics": [ "critical-hits", "hit-location", "hit-points" ], "examples": [ { "title": "Star Fleet Battles", "year": 1979, "year_approx": false, "medium": "board-card", "creator": "Task Force Games", "components": [ "hit-location", "hit-points" ], "parts": [], "note": "In the later Cadet Training Manual rules cited, hits past a downed shield are placed on a Damage Allocation Chart that destroys systems such as warp engines and phasers, and each two units of energy allocated to damage control repair one shield box at the end of the turn.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Battlefleet Gothic", "year": 1999, "year_approx": false, "medium": "board-card", "creator": "Andy Chambers, Gavin Thorpe and Jervis Johnson (Games Workshop)", "components": [ "hit-points", "critical-hits", "hit-location" ], "parts": [], "note": "A 6 on any hit causes critical damage, rolled on a table, that knocks out weapons or engines, starts a fire or breaches the hull. In the end phase a ship rolls a die per damage point left, each 6 repairing one system or putting out one fire, and Blast markers halve the dice.", "latest": false }, { "title": "FTL: Faster Than Light", "year": 2012, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Subset Games", "components": [ "hit-points", "hit-location" ], "parts": [ "exposure" ], "note": "Weapons aimed at chosen systems knock them out, and hits start fires and breach the hull, so air runs out and a destroyed oxygen system suffocates the crew. Crew are moved to repair systems or put out fires, a room can be emptied of air to smother a fire, and hull damage is repaired only at stores.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Barotrauma", "year": 2023, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "FakeFish and Undertow Games (Daedalic Entertainment)", "components": [ "cooperative-play", "variable-player-powers" ], "parts": [], "note": "Up to 16 players crew a submarine and operate its reactor, engines, weapons and pumps, with six classes of different skills and tasks; the crew fix leaks between manning the guns, or let the ship go down in fire and flood.", "latest": true } ], "provenance": { "title": "Battlefleet Gothic", "year": 1999, "year_approx": false, "medium": "board-card", "confidence": "low", "note": "The earliest documented use cited is Battlefleet Gothic, whose 1999 rulebook has critical damage that knocks out weapons and engines, starts fires or breaches the hull, and a Damage Control step in which crews roll to repair it. Star Fleet Battles (1979) is an earlier candidate, but the damage allocation and damage control rules cited are from its later Cadet Training Manual, so its date is not firm. Naval and space wargames of the 1970s and 1980s remain unsurveyed." }, "established": null, "sources": [ { "key": "star-fleet-battles-cadet-training-manual", "canonical": false, "title": "Star Fleet Battles Cadet Training Manual", "author": "Amarillo Design Bureau", "year": null, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": null, "accessed": null, "locator": "(D3.2) Shields; (D4.0)–(D4.4) Internal Damage and the Damage Allocation Chart; (D9.0)–(D9.2) Damage Control", "note": "Damage past a downed shield destroying interior systems by chart, warp engine hits cutting speed, Excess Damage boxes, the damage control rating, and energy spent to repair shield boxes. Read as hosted rules text on a rules site." }, { "key": "battlefleet-gothic-1999", "canonical": false, "title": "Battlefleet Gothic", "author": "Andy Chambers, Gavin Thorpe and Jervis Johnson", "year": 1999, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": "Games Workshop", "url": "https://archive.org/download/battlefleet-gothic-rulebook-original-1999/Battlefleet-Gothic-Rulebook-Original%201999_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "The Shooting Phase: Critical Hits, Crippled Ships; The End Phase: Damage Control; Boarding Actions", "note": "Critical hits on a 6 that knock out weapons and engines, start fires or breach the hull, repairs needed for each critical, crippling at half damage, and end-phase repair rolls halved by Blast markers." }, { "key": "ftl-faster-than-light-steam-store-page", "canonical": false, "title": "FTL: Faster Than Light (Steam store page)", "author": "Subset Games", "year": null, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://store.steampowered.com/app/212680/FTL_Faster_Than_Light/", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Power distribution, weapon targets chosen in combat, orders to the crew, pausing, boarding, and the release of 14 September 2012." }, { "key": "review-ftl-faster-than-light-2012", "canonical": false, "title": "Review: FTL: Faster Than Light", "author": "Fraser Brown (Destructoid)", "year": 2012, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.destructoid.com/?p=111889", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Repeated hull breaches, oxygen running out, a ship consumed one square at a time, a fire put out by the captain, crew bringing weapons back online, missiles taking out systems, and hull repair only at stores." }, { "key": "ftl-faster-than-light-review-2012", "canonical": false, "title": "FTL: Faster Than Light Review", "author": "Ari Margo (Gamer Horizon)", "year": 2012, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://gamerhorizon.com/2012/12/19/review-ftl-faster-than-light/", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Suffocation when the oxygen system is destroyed, fires local to a part of the ship, a vacuum made to put out a fire, and crew moved into position to repair systems." }, { "key": "barotrauma-steam-store-page", "canonical": false, "title": "Barotrauma (Steam store page)", "author": "FakeFish and Undertow Games", "year": null, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://store.steampowered.com/app/602960/Barotrauma/", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "A co-op submarine simulator of up to 16 players, on-board systems including pumps, six classes with different skills and tasks, fixing leaks, the ship going down in fire and flood, and the full release of 13 March 2023." }, { "key": "silent-hunter-5-battle-of-the-atlantic-manual-2010", "canonical": false, "title": "Silent Hunter 5: Battle of the Atlantic manual", "author": "Ubisoft", "year": 2010, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/download/silenthunter5manual/287201_Manual_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Subsystems / Damage Management Screen, p. 15; Crew: Chief Engineer", "note": "Compartments' integrity, flooding and fire shown by sector, and a chief engineer leading a damage control team to repair critical damage." } ], "n_examples": 4, "n_sources": 7, "word_count": 556, "updated": "2026-10-30", "url": "/systems/damage-control" }, { "id": "day-night-cycle", "name": "Day-Night Cycle", "status": "verified", "domain": "environment", "driver": "clock", "core": [], "parts": [ "world-clock", "conditional-spawn", "escalation", "drain", "exposure", "forecast" ], "core_parts": [ "world-clock" ], "definition": "The world passes through day and night on a repeating clock, and the hour changes what can be seen, which enemies appear and how dangerous they are, and what is open, so players plan their actions around the time", "aliases": [ "day/night cycle", "time of day" ], "media": [ "tabletop-rpg", "video" ], "mechanics": [ "exploration-procedures", "fog-of-war", "random-tables", "real-time", "stealth-detection" ], "examples": [ { "title": "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Dungeon Masters Guide", "year": 1979, "year_approx": false, "medium": "tabletop-rpg", "creator": "Gary Gygax (TSR)", "components": [ "exploration-procedures", "random-tables" ], "parts": [ "world-clock", "conditional-spawn" ], "note": "Daylight is divided into morning, noon and evening and darkness into night, midnight and pre-dawn, and each terrain checks for encounters only at some of them. The city table has a separate night column that adds ghosts, wights and vampires, sends bandits in bands of 3 to 12, and doubles the watch.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Minecraft", "year": 2011, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Mojang (Markus Persson)", "components": [ "real-time", "base-building", "resource-gathering" ], "parts": [ "world-clock", "conditional-spawn", "exposure" ], "note": "Daytime lasts about ten real minutes. At sunset hostile mobs spawn wherever the light is low, and zombies and skeletons burn in sunlight. Mojang's guide answers the night with walls of blocks, torches crafted from wood and coal, mining through the dark, or a bed that skips to morning.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Dota 2", "year": 2013, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Valve", "components": [ "fog-of-war", "status-effects", "boss-encounters", "map-markers" ], "parts": [ "world-clock", "exposure" ], "note": "Heroes see less far at night (Axe 800 against 1800 by day) and Night Stalker the reverse, whose Void also mini-stuns and lasts longer at night. From patch 7.33 (2023) Roshan crosses to his other pit as day turns to night, and his current pit is highlighted on the minimap.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Dying Light 2 Stay Human", "year": 2022, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Techland", "components": [ "stealth-detection", "experience-levels", "quests" ], "parts": [ "world-clock", "conditional-spawn", "escalation", "drain", "exposure", "forecast" ], "note": "After sunset the infected take the streets. A Howler that senses the player starts a chase, and from April 2024 Volatiles take 2 to 7 seconds to recognise the player by distance. Experience earned at night is multiplied by 1.5, and some quests are marked as night quests.", "latest": true } ], "provenance": { "title": "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Dungeon Masters Guide", "year": 1979, "year_approx": false, "medium": "tabletop-rpg", "confidence": "medium", "note": "The earliest documented use cited is the Dungeon Masters Guide, whose wilderness encounter checks fall at named periods of day and night and whose city encounter matrix has separate day and night columns. The 1974 Dungeons & Dragons rules count a wilderness turn as one day and check for wandering monsters once at its end, with no division into hours. Chainmail's fantasy supplement (second edition, 1972) gives troops traits by light, goblins penalised in full daylight and dwarves unaffected, an antecedent without a cycle. Supplements and fanzines of 1975 to 1978 remain unsurveyed. In video games Castlevania II (1987) and Ultima V (1988) are documented early uses." }, "established": null, "sources": [ { "key": "advanced-dungeons-dragons-dungeon-masters-guide-1979", "canonical": false, "title": "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Dungeon Masters Guide", "author": "Gary Gygax (TSR)", "year": 1979, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/download/dungeon-masters-guide-efreet-cover/Dungeon%20Masters%20Guide%20%28Efreet%20Cover%29_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "The Adventure (Land Adventures), Frequency of Encounter Chance Time Checks, p. 48; Appendix C, City/Town Encounters Matrix, p. 191", "note": "Daylight and darkness each divided into three periods with encounter checks by terrain, a night-only creature footnote, and the city table's night column with undead, larger bandit groups and a doubled watch." }, { "key": "dungeons-dragons-volume-3-the-underworld-wilderness-adventures-1974", "canonical": false, "title": "Dungeons & Dragons, Volume 3: The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures", "author": "Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson (TSR)", "year": 1974, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/download/tsr02002bboxedsetvolume3underworldandwildernessadventuresocr/tsr02002B%20-%20boxed%20set%20-%20Volume%203%20-%20Underworld%20And%20Wilderness%20Adventures%20-%20OCR_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "The Wilderness, Turn; Wandering Monsters", "note": "Each wilderness move is one day, and the referee checks for a wandering monster at the end of each day, with no time-of-day division." }, { "key": "chainmail-2nd-edition-1972", "canonical": false, "title": "Chainmail, 2nd edition", "author": "Gary Gygax and Jeff Perren (Guidon Games)", "year": 1972, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/download/chainmail-2nd-edition/Chainmail%20-%202nd%20Edition_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Fantasy Supplement, Dwarves (and Gnomes); Goblins (and Kobolds)", "note": "Dwarves operating equally well day or night and goblins subtracting 1 from morale and dice in full daylight, traits by light without a cycle." }, { "key": "castlevania-ii-simon-s-quest-instruction-manual-nes-1988", "canonical": false, "title": "Castlevania II Simon's Quest instruction manual (NES)", "author": "Konami", "year": 1988, "year_approx": true, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/download/castlevania-ii-simons-quest-nes-hiresscans/Castlevania%20II%20Simon%27s%20Quest%20-%20Manual%20%28Searchable%29_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Night and Day, p. 7", "note": "Noon as the time to find clues and buy weapons, and villagers scattering at sunset while creatures roam the darkness." }, { "key": "ultima-v-the-wait-is-over-product-fact-sheet-1988", "canonical": false, "title": "Ultima V: The Wait Is Over (product fact sheet)", "author": "Origin Systems", "year": 1988, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/download/Ultima_V_The_Wait_is_Over/Ultima_V_The_Wait_is_Over_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Drawbridges raised and portcullises dropped at night, travel more perilous at night than by day, and shops unavailable once shopkeepers have gone home." }, { "key": "becoming-a-warrior-of-destiny-1988", "canonical": false, "title": "Becoming a \"Warrior of Destiny\"", "author": "Scorpia (Computer Gaming World, no. 47)", "year": 1988, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/download/Computer_Gaming_World_Issue_47/Computer_Gaming_World_Issue_47_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Ultima V review, pp. 12-14", "note": "Moongates open only between sunset and dawn, towns locking up after sunset, and night camping outdoors exposed to ambush unless a party member stands watch." }, { "key": "how-to-survive-your-first-night-in-minecraft-2023", "canonical": false, "title": "How to survive your first night in Minecraft", "author": "Mojang Studios", "year": 2023, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.minecraft.net/en-us/article/how-survive-your-first-night-minecraft", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Daytime of about ten real minutes, hostile mobs spawning in the dark, undead burning in sunlight, walling in, torches from wood and coal, mining at night, and a bed to sleep through the night." }, { "key": "daylight-cycle", "canonical": false, "title": "Daylight cycle", "author": "Minecraft Wiki", "year": null, "year_approx": false, "type": "wiki", "publisher": null, "url": null, "accessed": null, "locator": null, "note": "The 20-minute cycle, a night of 8 minutes 20 seconds when the sky light falls low enough for hostile mobs to spawn on the surface, and the Indev build of February 2010 that added the cycle." }, { "key": "dota-2-axe-official-hero-data-feed-2026", "canonical": false, "title": "Dota 2: Axe (official hero data feed)", "author": "Valve", "year": 2026, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.dota2.com/datafeed/herodata?language=english&hero_id=2", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Day sight range 1800 and night sight range 800." }, { "key": "dota-2-night-stalker-official-hero-data-feed-2026", "canonical": false, "title": "Dota 2: Night Stalker (official hero data feed)", "author": "Valve", "year": 2026, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.dota2.com/datafeed/herodata?language=english&hero_id=60", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Day sight range 800 and night sight range 1800, Void mini-stunning and lasting longer at night, and Dark Ascension summoning instant darkness." }, { "key": "dota-2-patch-7-33-official-patch-notes-data-feed-2023", "canonical": false, "title": "Dota 2 patch 7.33 (official patch notes data feed)", "author": "Valve", "year": 2023, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.dota2.com/datafeed/patchnotes?version=7.33&language=english", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Roshan", "note": "Roshan teleporting between the Radiant pit by day and the Dire pit by night, the current pit highlighted on the minimap, and all units gaining movement speed at night." }, { "key": "dying-light-steam-store-page-2015", "canonical": false, "title": "Dying Light (Steam store page)", "author": "Techland", "year": 2015, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://store.steampowered.com/app/239140/", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "The day and night cycle in which the player changes from hunter to hunted at sundown." }, { "key": "dying-light-2-stay-human-steam-store-page-2022", "canonical": false, "title": "Dying Light 2 Stay Human (Steam store page)", "author": "Techland", "year": 2022, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://store.steampowered.com/app/534380/", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "The release date of 3 February 2022 and monsters taking control of the streets with every sunset." }, { "key": "dying-light-2-stay-human-patch-notes-1-2-0-2022", "canonical": false, "title": "Dying Light 2 Stay Human Patch Notes 1.2.0", "author": "Techland", "year": 2022, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://steamstore-a.akamaihd.net/news/externalpost/steam_community_announcements/4247463006800946441", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Night Improvements and Balance", "note": "The Howler's senses range increased, a chase triggered when a Howler is hit by a ranged weapon, and a time-of-day indicator shown during the transitions between day and night." }, { "key": "good-night-good-luck-update-1-11-2023", "canonical": false, "title": "Good Night Good Luck Update (1.11)", "author": "Techland", "year": 2023, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://steamstore-a.akamaihd.net/news/externalpost/steam_community_announcements/5124582150130778669", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Good Night, Night changes", "note": "The day and night cycle called a fundamental element of the series, darker nights reducing visibility, Volatiles roaming the rooftops, and a reworked night population." }, { "key": "the-nightmare-mode-update-is-live-2024", "canonical": false, "title": "The Nightmare Mode Update Is Live!", "author": "Techland", "year": 2024, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://steamstore-a.akamaihd.net/news/externalpost/steam_community_announcements/5762994032390405789", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Night Changes", "note": "Fewer Volatiles, a recognition time of 2 seconds close to a Volatile and up to 7 seconds at 20 metres, and no extra Volatiles at chase level 1." }, { "key": "alteration-hypermode-is-back-2024", "canonical": false, "title": "Alteration: Hypermode Is Back!", "author": "Techland", "year": 2024, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://steamstore-a.akamaihd.net/news/externalpost/steam_community_announcements/5762994032394190437", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "A 2x multiplier for night XP for the weekend, instead of the usual 1.5x." }, { "key": "update-1-17-tower-raid-open-beta-2024", "canonical": false, "title": "Update 1.17 - Tower Raid Open Beta", "author": "Techland", "year": 2024, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://steamstore-a.akamaihd.net/news/externalpost/steam_community_announcements/5842939267309704968", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Fixes for a quest not marked as a night quest and for the interface's night bonus experience display." } ], "n_examples": 4, "n_sources": 18, "word_count": 556, "updated": "2026-10-30", "url": "/systems/day-night-cycle" }, { "id": "destructible-terrain", "name": "Destructible Terrain", "status": "unverified", "domain": "environment", "driver": "player-action", "core": [], "parts": [ "lasting-damage" ], "core_parts": [ "lasting-damage" ], "definition": "Terrain and structures hold a damage state that weapons and tools break and that stays broken, so craters, holes and collapses change footing, paths, cover and lines of fire for the rest of the round or level", "aliases": [ "Destructible Environments", "Deformable Terrain", "Environmental Destruction" ], "media": [ "video" ], "mechanics": [ "cover-systems", "hit-points", "line-of-sight", "procedural-generation" ], "examples": [ { "title": "Scorched Earth", "year": 1991, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Wendell Hicken", "components": [ "procedural-generation", "hit-points" ], "parts": [ "lasting-damage" ], "note": "The 1.5 documentation sorts weapons into earth-destroying ones, which tunnel or blow wedges and spheres out of the dirt, and earth-producing ones that bury tanks. Dirt removed under a tank makes it fall and take damage unless parachutes deploy, and the land is generated each round from bumpiness and slope settings or at random.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Worms", "year": 1995, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Team17", "components": [ "procedural-generation", "hit-points" ], "parts": [ "lasting-damage" ], "note": "The landscape is generated at random or from a typed name. The bazooka devastates the landscape, dynamite blows huge holes, the blowtorch and drill dig tunnels to hide in, and girders bridge gaps. Blasts take points from a worm's energy and can throw it off the edges into the water or off the screen.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Red Faction", "year": 2001, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Volition", "components": [ "lock-and-key", "power-ups" ], "parts": [ "lasting-damage" ], "note": "Rockets and remote charges blow holes in walls and floors, so a door that will not open is bypassed by blowing a hole around it, a blasted floor grate gives a shortcut, and some multiplayer power-ups lie in areas reachable only by blasting. Indestructible walls and doors and a limited supply of explosives bound it.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Battlefield: Bad Company 2", "year": 2010, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "DICE", "components": [ "cover-systems", "line-of-sight" ], "parts": [ "lasting-damage" ], "note": "Players blast holes through cover to make new firing points, chip away enemy cover and bring down whole buildings. Destroying a building's structural integrity triggers its collapse, and the ruins make new cover; iron girders, reinforced concrete and raised terrain stay intact.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege", "year": 2015, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Ubisoft Montreal", "components": [ "line-of-sight", "cover-systems" ], "parts": [ "lasting-damage" ], "note": "Destruction is procedural and depends on the weapon's power and the amount of explosive. Attackers shatter walls to open new lines of fire and breach floors and ceilings for new entries; defenders reinforce walls and floors and set barricades and deployable shields, and the sides alternate between attack and defence.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Teardown", "year": 2022, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Tuxedo Labs", "components": [ "physics-puzzles", "quests" ], "parts": [ "lasting-damage" ], "note": "In a fully destructible voxel world, each mission gives a relaxed phase to plan and prepare and then an execution phase in which targets are cleared against a timer. The player prepares by cutting shortcuts with vehicles, tools and explosives, and planks serve as bridges; elevation, water and distance are the only real obstacles.", "latest": true } ], "provenance": { "title": "Scorched Earth", "year": 1991, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "confidence": "low", "note": "The earliest documented use cited is Scorched Earth, whose documentation (version 1.5, copyright 1991 to 1995) describes earth-destroying weapons that remove dirt and tanks that fall and take damage. The 1991 release's own rules are not cited separately, and the documentation calls the game one in a long line of artillery games. Earlier artillery games, and arcade shields worn away by shots, are often named as antecedents but remain unsurveyed, so confidence is low." }, "established": null, "sources": [ { "key": "scorched-earth-1-5-documentation-scorch-doc-1995", "canonical": false, "title": "Scorched Earth 1.5 documentation (SCORCH.DOC)", "author": "Wendell Hicken", "year": 1995, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/download/msdos_Scorched_Earth_1991/Scorched_Earth_1991.zip/Scorched%2FSCORCH.DOC", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Earth Destroying Weapons, p. 26; Defense Systems: Parachutes, p. 31; Landscape Menu, p. 46", "note": "Weapons that destroy wedges and spheres of dirt or tunnel, dirt removed under a tank making it fall and take damage, parachutes against falling damage, burying with dirt, and land generated from bumpiness and slope or at random each round." }, { "key": "worms-game-manual-pc-us-1995", "canonical": false, "title": "Worms Game Manual (PC, US)", "author": "Team17", "year": 1995, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": "Team17 / Ocean", "url": "https://archive.org/download/wormsgamemanual/Worms%20Game%20Manual_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "8, Weapons Available: Bazooka, Dynamite, Blowtorch, Drill, Girders; 9, Gameplay Details: Energy Panel, Different Landscapes", "note": "Landscape generated at random or from a name, the bazooka's devastation of the landscape, dynamite's huge holes, tunnels dug with the blowtorch and drill, girders as bridges, worms knocked into the water or off screen, and the energy bar depleted by hits." }, { "key": "red-faction-pc-manual-2001", "canonical": false, "title": "Red Faction PC Manual", "author": "THQ and Volition", "year": 2001, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/download/RedFactionPCManual/Red%20Faction%20PC%20Manual_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Hints and Tips", "note": "Players told to explore using Geo-Mod technology, and to hide behind doors and walls." }, { "key": "red-faction-prima-s-official-strategy-guide-2001", "canonical": false, "title": "Red Faction: Prima's Official Strategy Guide", "author": "Keith M. Kolmos", "year": 2001, "year_approx": false, "type": "book", "publisher": "Prima Games", "url": "https://archive.org/download/red-faction-primas-official-strategy-guide/Red%20Faction%20-%20Prima's%20Official%20Strategy%20Guide_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Training Mode: When in Doubt, Blow It Up; Level walkthroughs; Multiplayer", "note": "Blowing a hole around a door that will not open with remote charges or rockets, blasting a floor grate for a shortcut, and multiplayer power-ups reachable only by geo-modding." }, { "key": "the-destruction-and-reconstruction-of-destructible-environments-in-video-games-2024", "canonical": false, "title": "The Destruction (and Reconstruction) of Destructible Environments in Video Games", "author": "Ben Lindbergh (The Ringer)", "year": 2024, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.theringer.com/2024/02/02/video-games/destruction-video-games-battlefield-bad-company-red-faction-battlebit-teardown-the-finals", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Alan Lawrance on Red Faction's subtracted explosion shapes, limited explosives and indestructible walls and doors; Bad Company 2's collapses creating new cover and the materials left intact; Dennis Gustafsson on Teardown's voxels." }, { "key": "battlefield-bad-company-2-steam-store-listing-2010", "canonical": false, "title": "Battlefield: Bad Company 2 (Steam store listing)", "author": "DICE (Electronic Arts)", "year": 2010, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://store.steampowered.com/api/appdetails?appids=24960&l=english", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "About This Game", "note": "The Destruction 2.0 system, taking down entire buildings, blasting holes through cover for new fire points, and chipping away enemy cover." }, { "key": "ubisoft-gets-tactical-introduces-rainbow-six-siege-2014", "canonical": false, "title": "Ubisoft gets tactical, introduces Rainbow Six: Siege", "author": "Xav de Matos (Engadget)", "year": 2014, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.engadget.com/2014-06-09-ubisoft-gets-tactical-introduces-rainbow-six-siege.html", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Procedural, unscripted destruction set by weapon power and explosive amount, shattered walls opening new lines of fire, breached ceilings and floors, and defenders reinforcing walls and floors with barbed wire, deployable shields and mines." }, { "key": "tom-clancy-s-rainbow-six-siege-steam-store-listing-2015", "canonical": false, "title": "Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege (Steam store listing)", "author": "Ubisoft Montreal", "year": 2015, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://store.steampowered.com/api/appdetails?appids=359550&l=english", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "About the Game", "note": "Alternating attack and defence, defenders reinforcing walls and setting barricades, attackers breaching reinforced defences, and walls shattered for new lines of sight; release date 1 December 2015." }, { "key": "teardown-steam-store-listing-2022", "canonical": false, "title": "Teardown (Steam store listing)", "author": "Tuxedo Labs", "year": 2022, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://store.steampowered.com/api/appdetails?appids=1167630&l=english", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "About This Game", "note": "A fully destructible voxel world, shortcuts made with vehicles and explosives, a campaign of 40 missions, and release on 21 April 2022." }, { "key": "combining-bombastic-heists-with-a-fully-destructible-voxel-world-in-teardown-2021", "canonical": false, "title": "Combining bombastic heists with a fully destructible voxel world in Teardown", "author": "Joel Couture (Game Developer), interviewing Dennis Gustafsson", "year": 2021, "year_approx": false, "type": "interview", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/combining-bombastic-heists-with-a-fully-destructible-voxel-world-in-i-teardown-i-", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "A planning phase and an execution phase against a timer, elevation, water and distance as the only real obstacles, shortcuts as the creative use of destruction, and planks as bridges." } ], "n_examples": 6, "n_sources": 10, "word_count": 549, "updated": "2026-10-30", "url": "/systems/destructible-terrain" }, { "id": "domain-management", "name": "Domain Management", "status": "unverified", "domain": "society", "driver": "clock", "core": [ "income" ], "parts": [ "world-clock", "conditional-spawn", "escalation", "rank-hierarchy", "population-change", "forecast", "contentment", "succession" ], "core_parts": [], "definition": "A ruler holds lands on a periodic turn; holdings yield taxes and owe upkeep, the subjects' contentment moves with taxes and events and cuts revenue or turns to revolt when it falls, and vassals and heirs carry the realm on", "aliases": [ "kingdom building", "dominion rules" ], "media": [ "video", "tabletop-rpg" ], "mechanics": [ "base-building", "income", "relationship-systems", "upkeep" ], "examples": [ { "title": "Santa Paravia en Fiumaccio", "year": 1978, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "George Blank", "components": [ "income", "upkeep", "base-building" ], "parts": [ "world-clock", "conditional-spawn", "population-change" ], "note": "Each turn is a year of harvest, taxes and justice, and public works. Harsh taxes and unfair justice carry hidden penalties and drive serfs away, short grain raises the death rate, markets, mills, palaces and cathedrals raise tax revenue, soldiers cost 3 florins a year, and a death year drawn at the start ends the reign.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Dungeons & Dragons Companion Set", "year": 1984, "year_approx": false, "medium": "tabletop-rpg", "creator": "Frank Mentzer (TSR)", "components": [ "income", "upkeep", "experience-levels" ], "parts": [ "world-clock", "escalation", "population-change", "contentment" ], "note": "A dominion's population, income and expenses are checked each game month, with 20% of income owed to a liege. A Confidence Level from 1 to 500, moved by tax rates, events and war, is checked each year, and a Defiant dominion pays no tax and raises a peasant militia. Rulers gain 1 XP per gold piece of tax and resource income.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Birthright", "year": 1995, "year_approx": false, "medium": "tabletop-rpg", "creator": "Rich Baker and Colin McComb (TSR)", "components": [ "random-tables", "income", "upkeep" ], "parts": [ "escalation", "contentment", "succession" ], "note": "A domain turn is three months in three action rounds. It opens with random events rolled on a table, then taxation rolled by province, maintenance costs and domain actions, and ends by adjusting each province's loyalty, which severe taxes lower. A rebellious province pays no taxes, and an heir inherits the domain.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Crusader Kings II", "year": 2012, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Paradox Development Studio", "components": [ "income", "upkeep", "voting", "relationship-systems" ], "parts": [ "rank-hierarchy", "forecast", "succession" ], "note": "Laws set the taxes and levies owed by feudal, city and church vassals, and the vassals vote on any change. Raised levies cost monthly upkeep, a gift of money raises another ruler's opinion, alerts warn of vassals planning rebellion, and succession laws decide whether one heir inherits or the titles are divided.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Campaign", "year": 2013, "year_approx": false, "medium": "tabletop-rpg", "creator": "Jason Bulmahn, Stephen Radney-MacFarland and Sean K Reynolds (Paizo)", "components": [ "upkeep", "income", "base-building" ], "parts": [ "escalation", "contentment" ], "note": "A kingdom turn is one month of upkeep, edicts that levy taxes and build improvements, income, and events. Unrest is subtracted from the kingdom's checks; at 11 it begins to lose hexes and at 20 falls into anarchy. Player characters fill leadership roles, and a vacant or abdicated role raises Unrest.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Crusader Kings III", "year": 2020, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Paradox Development Studio", "components": [ "relationship-systems", "income", "voting" ], "parts": [ "rank-hierarchy", "contentment", "succession" ], "note": "Unhappy vassals, and counties whose opinion of their holder falls too low, join factions whose discontent builds to an ultimatum. In the civil war that follows a refusal, members withhold taxes and levies. Powerful vassals expect council seats and veto succession changes, and they carry more votes in elective successions.", "latest": true } ], "provenance": { "title": "Santa Paravia en Fiumaccio", "year": 1978, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "confidence": "low", "note": "The earliest documented use cited is Santa Paravia en Fiumaccio, George Blank's program printed in SoftSide in December 1978, which runs a ruler's city-state in yearly turns of harvest, taxes and justice, and public works, with hidden penalties for harsh taxes. Dungeons & Dragons (1974) already gave castle-building fighters a tax income per inhabitant per year, without any measure of the subjects' contentment. Earlier computer city-state games such as Hammurabi are reported antecedents and remain unsurveyed, as do wargame campaign rules, so the title is the earliest cited rather than a defended origin." }, "established": null, "sources": [ { "key": "softside-vol-1-no-3-santa-paravia-en-fiumaccio-1978", "canonical": false, "title": "SoftSide, Vol. 1 No. 3: Santa Paravia en Fiumaccio", "author": "George Blank (SoftSide)", "year": 1978, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/download/softside-magazine-03/SoftSide_03_Vol_1-03_1978-12_Santa_Parvia_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Santa Paravia en Fiumaccio; Harvest Phase; Obituary", "note": "December 1978 publication; one year per turn in four phases; population growth and starvation from grain released; soldiers paid 3 florins a year; serfs running away under outrageous justice; a death year drawn at random." }, { "key": "santa-paravia-and-fiumaccio-trs-80-manual-1979", "canonical": false, "title": "Santa Paravia and Fiumaccio (TRS-80 manual)", "author": "Instant Software", "year": 1979, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/download/Santa_Paravia_and_Fiumaccio_1979_Instant_Software/Santa_Paravia_and_Fiumaccio_1979_Instant_Software_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "pp. 5, 8", "note": "The harvest, tax and justice, and public works phases; hidden penalties for harsh taxes and unfair justice; markets, mills, palaces and cathedrals raising tax revenue; titles from Sir to King." }, { "key": "dungeons-dragons-volume-1-men-magic-1974", "canonical": false, "title": "Dungeons & Dragons, Volume 1: Men & Magic", "author": "Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson (TSR)", "year": 1974, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/download/dd-white-box-rules-set/TSR%202002%20-%20V1%20-%20Men%20%26%20Magic_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Fighting-Men", "note": "Fighters who build castles become Barons, may invest in their holdings, and draw a base income of 10 gold pieces per inhabitant per game year." }, { "key": "dungeons-dragons-set-3-companion-rules-1984", "canonical": false, "title": "Dungeons & Dragons Set 3: Companion Rules", "author": "Frank Mentzer (TSR)", "year": 1984, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/download/dungeons-dragons-set-3-companion-set/Dungeons%20%26%20Dragons%20Set%203%20Companion%20Set_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Dungeon Masters Companion, Book Two, Dominions, pp. 4-8", "note": "Monthly checks of population and income; standard, resource and tax income; 20% to the liege and a tithe; experience from income; the Confidence Level, its yearly check and its grades from Ideal to Belligerent; yearly dominion events." }, { "key": "birthright-campaign-setting-rulebook-1995", "canonical": false, "title": "Birthright Campaign Setting, Rulebook", "author": "Rich Baker and Colin McComb (TSR)", "year": 1995, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/download/tsr03100birthrightcampaignsetting/tsr03100%20-%20Birthright%20Campaign%20Setting_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Regency and Domains; The Domain Turn, pp. 37-48", "note": "The domain turn of three months in three action rounds, its sequence of play, random events on Table 15, taxation on Table 17, maintenance costs, loyalty grades and their adjustment, heirs assuming a domain, and investiture of vassals." }, { "key": "crusader-kings-ii-manual-2012", "canonical": false, "title": "Crusader Kings II manual", "author": "Paradox Interactive", "year": 2012, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/download/crusader-kings-ii-pc-manual-english/PDX7605US_CK%20II_Onlinemanual_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "pp. 17-18, 24, 26, 43", "note": "Rebellion and succession alerts, laws on vassal taxes and levies with vassals voting on changes, the monthly upkeep of raised levies, gifts that raise opinion, and the succession laws." }, { "key": "pathfinder-roleplaying-game-ultimate-campaign-2013", "canonical": false, "title": "Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Ultimate Campaign", "author": "Jason Bulmahn, Stephen Radney-MacFarland and Sean K Reynolds (Paizo)", "year": 2013, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/download/pzo-1125-ultimate-campaign/PZO1125%20Ultimate%20Campaign_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Kingdom Building, pp. 198-205", "note": "Kingdom rules taken from Pathfinder Adventure Path #32, the monthly kingdom turn and its four phases, Unrest and its thresholds, and leadership roles with vacancy penalties." }, { "key": "ck3-dev-diary-19-factions-and-civil-wars-2020", "canonical": false, "title": "CK3 Dev Diary #19: Factions and Civil Wars", "author": "LordofLight (Paradox Interactive forum)", "year": 2020, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://web.archive.org/web/20220629214624/https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/developer-diary/ck3-dev-diary-19-factions-and-civil-wars.1363951/", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Factions of unhappy vassals and of counties whose opinion drops too low, discontent leading to an ultimatum and civil war, members withholding taxes and levies, and factions working \"much like in CK2\"." }, { "key": "ck3-dev-diary-06-council-powerful-vassals-spouse-councillor-2019", "canonical": false, "title": "CK3 Dev Diary #06: Council, Powerful Vassals, & Spouse Councillor", "author": "Wokeg (Paradox Interactive forum)", "year": 2019, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://web.archive.org/web/20211207130531/https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/developer-diary/ck3-dev-diary-06-council-powerful-vassals-spouse-councillor.1292549/", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Council tasks raising control and development per month, bishops withholding taxes and levies when they disapprove, and powerful vassals expecting council seats, vetoing succession changes and carrying more votes in elective successions." } ], "n_examples": 6, "n_sources": 9, "word_count": 550, "updated": "2026-10-30", "url": "/systems/domain-management" }, { "id": "dynamic-weather", "name": "Dynamic Weather", "status": "verified", "domain": "environment", "driver": "autonomous", "core": [], "parts": [ "world-clock", "conditional-spawn", "exposure" ], "core_parts": [ "exposure" ], "definition": "Weather changes during play, drawn at random or simulated region by region, and alters movement, combat, equipment or damage rather than only the scenery, so players plan around conditions they do not control", "aliases": [ "weather system", "random weather" ], "media": [ "board-card", "tabletop-rpg", "video" ], "mechanics": [ "damage-types", "equipment-loadouts", "exploration-procedures", "grid-movement", "random-tables" ], "examples": [ { "title": "Tactics II", "year": 1958, "year_approx": false, "medium": "board-card", "creator": "Charles S. Roberts (Avalon Hill)", "components": [ "random-tables", "grid-movement" ], "parts": [ "world-clock", "exposure" ], "note": "In the 1961 rules' optional Weather rule, a die is rolled at the start of every monthly turn under the season's column of a Weather Table. Results run from perfect weather to spring rains that leave armour stuck in mud, high winds that bar amphibious landings and paratroop drops, and frozen rivers.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Dungeon Masters Guide", "year": 1979, "year_approx": false, "medium": "tabletop-rpg", "creator": "Gary Gygax (TSR)", "components": [ "random-tables", "exploration-procedures" ], "parts": [ "exposure" ], "note": "For voyages the referee rolls wind direction on a d8 and force on 3d6, from calm to hurricane. Winds of strong gale or worse risk capsizing, broken masts and men overboard, checked every six hours, and calms and storms cut the daily sea movement rates.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Advance Wars", "year": 2001, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Intelligent Systems (Nintendo)", "components": [ "grid-movement", "variable-player-powers" ], "parts": [ "exposure" ], "note": "Rain and snow fall on some maps and shorten the movement range of every deployed unit, and a Random weather setting in versus play lets the climate change during a battle. The commanding officer Olaf's troops ignore snow, and his Blizzard power makes snow fall on every army but his.", "latest": false }, { "title": "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild", "year": 2017, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Nintendo", "components": [ "random-tables", "equipment-loadouts" ], "parts": [ "world-clock", "exposure" ], "note": "Each of 94 map areas belongs to one of twenty climates with set odds for clear, cloudy, rainy and stormy weather, and an area's weather changes every four in-game hours. Rain makes surfaces slick so Link slips while climbing, and equipped metal weapons, bows and shields draw lightning in a thunderstorm.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Pokémon Sword and Shield", "year": 2019, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Game Freak (Nintendo, The Pokémon Company)", "components": [ "random-tables", "damage-types" ], "parts": [ "conditional-spawn", "exposure" ], "note": "As shown at Nintendo's E3 2019 demonstration, different Pokémon appear in the Wild Area depending on the weather, and the weather changes which Pokémon are effective in battle, a thunderstorm favouring Water and Electric types.", "latest": false }, { "title": "The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom", "year": 2023, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Nintendo", "components": [ "equipment-loadouts", "damage-types", "hit-points" ], "parts": [ "exposure" ], "note": "Equipped metal weapons and gear draw lightning in a storm, which strips hearts and can set Link on fire, after a few seconds' warning of sparks; unequipping them stops the strikes. Rain makes cliffs harder to climb and puts out fires, while some weapons grow stronger when wet and lightning attacks are boosted.", "latest": true } ], "provenance": { "title": "Tactics II", "year": 1958, "year_approx": false, "medium": "board-card", "confidence": "medium", "note": "The earliest documented use cited is Tactics II, first published in 1958, whose 1961 rules roll a die every monthly turn on a seasonal Weather Table that cuts movement, bogs armour and bars landings. A later review reports that weather was first drawn from cards and later from a die; the 1958 wording is not cited. The first Tactics (1954) and the umpired Kriegsspiel tradition remain unsurveyed, so the title is the earliest cited rather than a defended origin." }, "established": null, "sources": [ { "key": "tactics-ii-instruction-manual-1961", "canonical": false, "title": "Tactics II instruction manual", "author": "Avalon Hill", "year": 1961, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/download/tactics_ii_board_game_1963_scan1/tactics_ii_instruction_manual_1961_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Optional Rules: Prepare for Play; Weather", "note": "The 1961 copyright, monthly complete turns checked off on a time record card, and the die rolled each month under the current season's column of the Weather Table." }, { "key": "tactics-ii-tables-1963", "canonical": false, "title": "Tactics II tables", "author": "Avalon Hill", "year": 1963, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/download/tactics_ii_board_game_1963_scan1/tactics_ii_tables_1963_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Weather Table", "note": "The die-roll results by season, from perfect weather to spring rains, armour stuck in mud, reduced movement factors, high winds barring amphibious landings and paratroop drops, and frozen rivers." }, { "key": "tactics-ii-review", "canonical": false, "title": "Tactics II review", "author": "Grognard.com", "year": null, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.grognard.com/reviews1/tactics2.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "A variable weather table with the four seasons affecting combat and movement, and weather cards replaced by a die roll in a reissue." }, { "key": "advanced-dungeons-dragons-dungeon-masters-guide-1979", "canonical": false, "title": "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Dungeon Masters Guide", "author": "Gary Gygax (TSR)", "year": 1979, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/download/dungeon-masters-guide-efreet-cover/Dungeon%20Masters%20Guide%20%28Efreet%20Cover%29_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Waterborne Adventures: Wind Direction and Force, p. 54; Movement Afloat, pp. 58-59", "note": "The d8 wind direction and 3d6 wind force table, the damage and man-overboard chances for strong gales, storms and hurricanes checked every six hours, and calms and storms reducing sea movement." }, { "key": "advance-wars-instruction-booklet-game-boy-advance-europe-2002", "canonical": false, "title": "Advance Wars instruction booklet (Game Boy Advance, Europe)", "author": "Nintendo", "year": 2002, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/download/manual-game-boy-advance-advance-wars-en-de-fr-es-it/Manual_GameBoyAdvance_AdvanceWars_EN_DE_FR_ES_IT_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Versus mode rules: Weather; Terrain: Weather; Commanding officers: Olaf", "note": "The Clear, Snow, Rain and Random weather settings, rain and snow affecting the movement range of all deployed units, and Olaf's immunity to snow and Blizzard power." }, { "key": "weather-rain-thunderstorm", "canonical": false, "title": "Weather; Rain; Thunderstorm", "author": "Zelda Wiki", "year": null, "year_approx": false, "type": "wiki", "publisher": null, "url": null, "accessed": null, "locator": null, "note": "Breath of the Wild's 94 map areas and twenty climates with weather odds, the change every four in-game hours, slipping while climbing in rain, rain putting out fires, and metal equipment drawing lightning." }, { "key": "the-legend-of-zelda-breath-of-the-wild-makes-chemistry-just-as-important-as-physics-2017", "canonical": false, "title": "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild makes chemistry just as important as physics", "author": "Mike Minotti (GamesBeat)", "year": 2017, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://gamesbeat.com/the-legend-of-zelda-breath-of-the-wild-makes-chemistry-just-as-important-as-physics/", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "GDC 2017 chemistry engine talk", "note": "Throwing a sword towards enemies during a storm to attract a lightning bolt to them, an example from the GDC 2017 talk." }, { "key": "more-details-revealed-about-pokemon-sword-and-shield-s-wild-area-2019", "canonical": false, "title": "More details revealed about Pokemon Sword and Shield's wild area", "author": "Paul Cotton (Dexerto)", "year": 2019, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.dexerto.com/pokemon/pokemon-sword-shield-wild-area-details-709721/", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Nintendo's E3 2019 demonstration of Wild Area weather changing which Pokémon appear and which are effective in battle." }, { "key": "tears-of-the-kingdom-how-does-rain-work-and-what-does-it-affect-2023", "canonical": false, "title": "Tears of the Kingdom: How does rain work and what does it affect?", "author": "Marco Farinaccia (AUTOMATON WEST)", "year": 2023, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://automaton-media.com/en/news/20230627-19790/", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Rain making cliffs harder to climb and putting out fires, some weapons stronger when wet, lightning attacks boosted, and wet grass and objects becoming slippery." }, { "key": "zelda-tears-of-the-kingdom-how-to-avoid-lightning-during-storms-2023", "canonical": false, "title": "Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom: How To Avoid Lightning During Storms", "author": "Jon Gilbert (GameRevolution)", "year": 2023, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.gamerevolution.com/guides/939791-zelda-tears-of-the-kingdom-avoid-lightning-keep-from-getting-struck-in-storm", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Metal weapons and gear drawing lightning, strikes that strip hearts and start fires, the warning sparks, and unequipping metal to stop the strikes." } ], "n_examples": 6, "n_sources": 10, "word_count": 511, "updated": "2026-10-30", "url": "/systems/dynamic-weather" }, { "id": "dynamic-world-events", "name": "Dynamic World Events", "status": "unverified", "domain": "pacing", "driver": "autonomous", "core": [ "cooperative-play" ], "parts": [ "conditional-spawn", "escalation", "territory-change", "forecast", "headcount-scaling", "contribution-reward" ], "core_parts": [], "definition": "Authored encounters start in a shared world on a timer, schedule or trigger, are open to every player present, and resolve by stages into success or failure that decides what the area and its next event become", "aliases": [ "Public Quests", "Dynamic Events", "Public Events", "World Events" ], "media": [ "video" ], "mechanics": [ "boss-encounters", "cooperative-play", "loot-distribution", "map-markers", "quests" ], "examples": [ { "title": "Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning", "year": 2008, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Mythic Entertainment", "components": [ "quests", "cooperative-play", "boss-encounters", "loot-distribution" ], "parts": [ "escalation", "contribution-reward" ], "note": "Public quests start when a player crosses into their area and run in chapters, each showing its objective and the time left before it fails or advances, and growing harder. A chest drops at the end and its loot is rolled, with bonuses for those who killed more or damaged bosses more; each participation also raises influence in the area.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Rift", "year": 2011, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Trion Worlds", "components": [ "cooperative-play", "boss-encounters", "map-markers" ], "parts": [ "headcount-scaling", "contribution-reward" ], "note": "Rifts open in the sky seemingly at random across the land and show on the map, and monsters run from them onto the roads and into towns. Players join a public group to fight waves of invaders until a final boss falls, with rewards set partly by participation; a month after launch the invasions were reported to scale with the number of players in a zone.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Guild Wars 2", "year": 2012, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "ArenaNet", "components": [ "quests", "map-markers", "cooperative-play" ], "parts": [ "conditional-spawn", "territory-change", "headcount-scaling", "contribution-reward" ], "note": "Events pop up when something critical happens in an area, the log and map mark them, and anyone nearby takes part without grouping. Most scale with the players present, contribution earns a gold, silver or bronze reward, and outcomes chain, so a camp the players failed to save is taken by its attackers and a later event retakes it.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Diablo IV", "year": 2023, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Blizzard Entertainment", "components": [ "boss-encounters", "map-markers", "cooperative-play" ], "parts": [ "escalation", "forecast" ], "note": "World bosses appear every 3.5 hours with an hour's warning, and since January 2024 Helltide covers a region for 55 minutes of every hour, marked on map and minimap. Since May 2024 fighting there raises a player's threat through three tiers of ambushes to a Hellborne, and a ritual summons the Blood Maiden, with other players in the subzone alerted to join.", "latest": true } ], "provenance": { "title": "Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning", "year": 2008, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "confidence": "low", "note": "The earliest documented use cited is the public quests of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, which press guides of April and June 2008 describe as area-based quests in chapters, joined by entering the area and rewarded by contribution. Developer-run live events and invasions in earlier online games remain unsurveyed, and an earlier use of open, staged events in a shared world is likely, so confidence is low." }, "established": null, "sources": [ { "key": "massively-goes-to-war-how-to-get-your-public-quest-loot-2008", "canonical": false, "title": "Massively goes to WAR: How to get your Public Quest loot", "author": "Michael Zenke (Massively, Engadget)", "year": 2008, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.engadget.com/2008-06-04-massively-goes-to-war-how-to-get-your-public-quest-loot.html", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "The goal and progress of the current phase shown, contribution ranking by kills, boss damage and items turned in, the random roll with bonuses for the top participants, and influence rising with each participation." }, { "key": "warhammer-online-age-of-reckoning-public-quest-faq-2008", "canonical": false, "title": "Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning Public Quest FAQ", "author": "RadarX (Ten Ton Hammer)", "year": 2008, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.tentonhammer.com/guides/warhammer-online-age-of-reckoning-public-quest-faq", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Area-based quests triggered by crossing into the area, joined and left at any time, broken into chapters, with influence in the area earned for each part and spent at a designated NPC." }, { "key": "warhammer-online-public-quests", "canonical": false, "title": "Warhammer Online: Public Quests", "author": "Almar's Guides", "year": null, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://almarsguides.com/Computer/Games/WarhammerOnline/gettingstarted/publicquests.cfm", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Two or more stages growing harder, the objective and time remaining before the stage fails or advances, the chest dropped on completion, and roll bonuses of +500, +150 and +50 for gold, silver and bronze contribution." }, { "key": "gb-feature-rift-planes-of-telara-preview-2011", "canonical": false, "title": "GB Feature: Rift: Planes of Telara Preview", "author": "GameBanshee, quoting Tyson McCann", "year": 2011, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "http://www.gamebanshee.com/k3y88", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Rifts opening seemingly at random and shown on the map, monsters running onto the roads and into towns, public groups fighting waves until a final boss, and rewards set partly by participation." }, { "key": "enter-at-your-own-rift-one-month-in-how-s-the-game-2011", "canonical": false, "title": "Enter at Your Own Rift: One month in, how's the game?", "author": "Karen Bryan (Engadget)", "year": 2011, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.engadget.com/2011-03-23-enter-at-your-own-rift-one-month-in-hows-the-game.html", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Rift invasions scaling with the number of players in a zone, and zone events fought by large raids." }, { "key": "guild-wars-2-signature-series-guide-2012", "canonical": false, "title": "Guild Wars 2: Signature Series Guide", "author": "Michael Lummis, Kathleen Pleet, Edwin Kern and Kurt Ricketts", "year": 2012, "year_approx": false, "type": "book", "publisher": "DK/BradyGames", "url": "https://archive.org/download/bradygames-gw2-digital-strategy-guide-en/bradygames-gw2-digital-strategy-guide-en_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Game Mechanics chapter: Events, Come One Come All, Group Events, You're Being Graded; zone event listings: Podaga Steading, Durmand Priory camp", "note": "Events open to everyone in the area, rewards even on failure, map and log markers, content scaling with the players present, gold, silver and bronze rewards by contribution, secondary events chained to completion, and failures that hand a camp to its attackers or restart a chain." }, { "key": "diablo-iv-patch-notes-1-0-1-2-2023", "canonical": false, "title": "Diablo IV Patch Notes (1.0 - 1.2)", "author": "Blizzard Entertainment", "year": 2023, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/article/24092662/diablo-iv-patch-notes-1-0-1-2", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "1.2.0 (October 17, 2023): Legion Events, World Bosses", "note": "World bosses every 3.5 hours instead of 6, the warning an hour ahead and again at 15 minutes, Legion events every 25 minutes instead of 30, and Helltide marked on the minimap." }, { "key": "diablo-iv-patch-notes-2024", "canonical": false, "title": "Diablo IV Patch Notes", "author": "Blizzard Entertainment", "year": 2024, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://web.archive.org/web/20240520115141/https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/diablo4/23964909/diablo-iv-patch-notes", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "1.3.0 (January 23, 2024): End-Game Activities; 1.4.0 (May 14, 2024): Helltide Reborn", "note": "Helltide active every hour on the hour for 55 minutes; Threat earned from monsters and Tortured Gifts in three tiers of ambushes, ending in a Hellborne and reset on death; the Accursed Ritual summoning the Blood Maiden, with other players in the subzone alerted." } ], "n_examples": 4, "n_sources": 8, "word_count": 529, "updated": "2026-10-30", "url": "/systems/dynamic-world-events" }, { "id": "ecosystem-simulation", "name": "Ecosystem Simulation", "status": "unverified", "domain": "inhabitants", "driver": "autonomous", "core": [], "parts": [ "conditional-spawn", "drain", "routines", "agent-needs", "population-change", "forecast" ], "core_parts": [ "agent-needs" ], "definition": "Creatures feed, hunt, fight and starve among themselves on their own rules whether or not the player is present, so the predators, prey and populations the player meets rise and fall with a food supply the player also draws on", "aliases": [ "Simulated Ecology", "Food Chain Simulation", "Living Ecosystem" ], "media": [ "board-card", "video" ], "mechanics": [ "boss-encounters", "hit-points", "upkeep" ], "examples": [ { "title": "Evolution", "year": 2014, "year_approx": false, "medium": "board-card", "creator": "Dominic Crapuchettes, Dmitry Knorre and Sergey Machin (North Star Games)", "components": [ "hand-management", "upkeep", "victory-points" ], "parts": [ "agent-needs", "population-change" ], "note": "Cards played from hand set the plant food at the Watering Hole each round. A carnivore must attack a species of smaller body size, cutting its population by one and taking meat equal to its body size, and every population left hungry is lost. Food eaten and surviving population score.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Rain World", "year": 2017, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Videocult", "components": [ "upkeep", "clocks" ], "parts": [ "drain", "agent-needs", "forecast" ], "note": "The slugcat sits in the middle of a food chain, both predator and prey, and must eat enough before the rain clock runs out to hibernate without starving; the more it eats one day, the less food there is the next. Creatures off screen keep hunting and fighting over territory.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Monster Hunter: World", "year": 2018, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Capcom", "components": [ "boss-encounters", "hit-points", "hit-location" ], "parts": [ "routines", "agent-needs" ], "note": "An E3 2017 preview saw an Anjanath eat a smaller creature whole and then fight a Rathalos in an unscripted clash, retreating when it was losing, while the hunters shot off its tail for materials.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Monster Hunter Wilds", "year": 2025, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Capcom", "components": [ "boss-encounters", "hit-points" ], "parts": [ "conditional-spawn", "agent-needs", "population-change" ], "note": "In the Fallow hungry predators roam for food and herds grow aggressive, an Inclemency brings the area's apex monster, and Plenty follows. The director says a hunter can lure a stronger apex monster to a herd so that the monsters fight and wear each other down.", "latest": true } ], "provenance": { "title": "SimLife", "year": 1992, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "confidence": "low", "note": "The earliest documented use cited is SimLife (Maxis), described in a review of October 1992 as simulating the behaviour and activities of organisms, with scenarios on the dynamics of a predator and prey system and a food web graph. SimEarth (1990) and earlier simulations remain unsurveyed, and the source is a user review, so confidence is low. Ultima Online's planned ecology ran in its alpha test and was removed before release." }, "established": null, "sources": [ { "key": "evolution-rulebook-web-edition", "canonical": false, "title": "Evolution rulebook (web edition)", "author": "Dominic Crapuchettes and David Lipman (North Star Games)", "year": null, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0283/4324/files/Evolution-Rules-Web_1.pdf", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Phase 2: Select Food, p. 4; Phase 4: Reveal Food and Phase 5: Feeding, p. 6; Feeding Carnivores and End of Feeding, p. 7; Extinction, p. 8", "note": "Food cards from hand setting the plant food, carnivores attacking smaller species and taking meat, hungry population lost, extinction, scoring by food and population, and the game's origin as a teaching tool by Dmitry Knorre." }, { "key": "simlife-review-1992", "canonical": false, "title": "SimLife review", "author": "Rick Russell, comp.sys.mac.games", "year": 1992, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www-ftp.lip6.fr/ftp/pub/mac/info-mac/_Game/_Commercial/sim-life-info.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "SimLife simulating the behaviour and activities of organisms, predator and prey scenarios, the Food Web graph, gestation, offspring and mutation settings; dated 8 October 1992." }, { "key": "simlife-1993", "canonical": false, "title": "SimLife", "author": "Beth C. Fishkind (COMPUTE!)", "year": 1993, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.atarimagazines.com/compute/issue155/93_SimLife.php", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Issue 155, August 1993, p. 93", "note": "Building an ecosystem and testing it with disasters, and species that go extinct." }, { "key": "uo-s-resource-system-part-2-2006", "canonical": false, "title": "UO's resource system, part 2", "author": "Raph Koster", "year": 2006, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.raphkoster.com/?p=519", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Rabbits eating grass, meat-eaters spawned from a surplus of meat, hungry wolves when players hunt the rabbits, a dragon's search for meat reaching a village, the resource bank, the ecology working in alpha, and creatures put to sleep when no player was near." }, { "key": "did-players-destroy-the-uo-ecology", "canonical": false, "title": "Did players destroy the UO ecology?", "author": "Raph Koster", "year": null, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.raphkoster.com/?p=46439", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "The ecology in the alpha test and removed during beta, its AI disabled for the cost of radial searches and pathfinding." }, { "key": "crafting-the-complex-chaotic-ecosystem-of-rain-world-2017", "canonical": false, "title": "Crafting the complex, chaotic ecosystem of Rain World", "author": "Chris Priestman (Game Developer), interviewing Joar Jakobsson and James Therrien", "year": 2017, "year_approx": false, "type": "interview", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/crafting-the-complex-chaotic-ecosystem-of-i-rain-world-i-", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "The slugcat as predator and prey, eating enough to hibernate without starving, less food the day after, the rain clock, and creatures hunting and fighting over territory off screen." }, { "key": "rain-world-steam-store-page", "canonical": false, "title": "Rain World (Steam store page)", "author": "Videocult", "year": null, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://store.steampowered.com/app/312520/Rain_World/", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Hunting food to survive among bigger creatures with the same plan, and the release date of 28 March 2017." }, { "key": "monster-hunter-world-s-living-ecosystem-creates-unexpected-gameplay-e3-2017-preview-2017", "canonical": false, "title": "Monster Hunter: World's Living Ecosystem Creates Unexpected Gameplay [E3 2017 Preview]", "author": "Cody Perez (GameRevolution)", "year": 2017, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.gamerevolution.com/features/336811-monster-hunter-worlds-living-ecosystem-creates-unexpected-gameplay-e3-2017-preview", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "An Anjanath eating prey whole, its unscripted fight with a Rathalos and retreat, and the hunters severing its tail while it was distracted." }, { "key": "monster-hunter-wilds-all-the-news-from-gamescom-opening-night-live-2024", "canonical": false, "title": "Monster Hunter Wilds: all the news from Gamescom Opening Night Live", "author": "Joseph Bustos (Capcom USA), PlayStation Blog", "year": 2024, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://blog.playstation.com/?p=395100", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Fallow, Inclemency and Plenty, hungry predators and aggressive herds in the Fallow, and the apex monster at the top of each locale's ecosystem." }, { "key": "monster-hunter-wilds-new-gameplay-details-from-today-s-state-of-play-2024", "canonical": false, "title": "Monster Hunter Wilds: new gameplay details from today's State of Play", "author": "Joseph Bustos (Capcom USA), PlayStation Blog", "year": 2024, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://blog.playstation.com/?p=392343", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Herds and packs that interact, monsters acting independently to survive, and monsters changing with the environment." }, { "key": "ich-habe-die-entwickler-von-monster-hunter-wilds-zu-einem-feature-befragt-das-noch-total-untersch-tzt-wird-2025", "canonical": false, "title": "Ich habe die Entwickler von Monster Hunter Wilds zu einem Feature befragt, das noch total unterschätzt wird", "author": "Alexander Mehrwald (MeinMMO), interviewing Yuya Tokuda", "year": 2025, "year_approx": false, "type": "interview", "publisher": null, "url": "https://mein-mmo.de/en/i-asked-the-developers-of-monster-hunter-wilds-about-a-feature-that-is-still-totally-underestimated-i-wanted-players-to-feel-the-threat-more-strongly,1226504", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Tokuda on herds with leaders that panic and scatter, and on luring a stronger apex monster to a herd so the monsters fight and wear each other down." } ], "n_examples": 4, "n_sources": 11, "word_count": 549, "updated": "2026-10-30", "url": "/systems/ecosystem-simulation" }, { "id": "election-cycles", "name": "Election Cycles", "status": "unverified", "domain": "society", "driver": "clock", "core": [], "parts": [ "world-clock", "return-to-rest", "forecast", "contentment" ], "core_parts": [], "definition": "Elections fall due on a schedule, and a simulated electorate split into groups or regions turns a ruler's record or a party's platform into votes, tracked beforehand by polls, so that each count wins or costs office or points", "aliases": [ "elections", "re-election" ], "media": [ "board-card", "video" ], "mechanics": [ "end-game-triggers", "reputation-factions", "victory-points", "voting" ], "examples": [ { "title": "Die Macher", "year": 1986, "year_approx": false, "medium": "board-card", "creator": "Karl-Heinz Schmiel", "components": [ "victory-points", "auction-bidding", "area-control", "drafting" ], "parts": [], "note": "In the rules of the 2019 edition one federal state votes at the end of each of four rounds. Votes come from rallies plus trend, times the match between a party's drafted program and the state's popular opinions. Polls bought at auction shift trends, a media majority shifts opinion, and votes and wins score victory points.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Tropico", "year": 2001, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "PopTop Software", "components": [ "voting", "reputation-factions", "end-game-triggers" ], "parts": [ "world-clock", "forecast" ], "note": "The people ask for a vote every five to nine years, and the President refuses, sets a date a year ahead or calls an early election that resets the count. Voters weigh happiness, faction and a rival's charisma; a monthly poll graph tracks the likely result, rigging angers intellectuals, and defeat ends the reign.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Democracy 4", "year": 2022, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Positech Games", "components": [ "voting", "reputation-factions", "income", "end-game-triggers" ], "parts": [ "world-clock", "return-to-rest", "forecast", "contentment" ], "note": "Each country has a fixed term and no snap elections. Simulated voters belong to several groups whose happiness moves with policy, turning cynical at late giveaways and complacent over terms. Happy voters turn out for the government, polls track them, political capital follows popularity, and an election loss ends the game.", "latest": true } ], "provenance": { "title": "Die Macher", "year": 1986, "year_approx": false, "medium": "board-card", "confidence": "low", "note": "The earliest documented use cited is Die Macher, first released in 1986 according to its 2019 rulebook, which the designer revised; the earliest rules cited are that edition's, so which parts the 1986 original had is unconfirmed. Tropico (2001) is the earliest game whose own manual is cited for a ruler facing scheduled elections with polls. Earlier election simulations, such as single campaigns for one office, remain unsurveyed." }, "established": null, "sources": [ { "key": "die-macher-rule-book-2019-edition-2019", "canonical": false, "title": "Die Macher rule book (2019 edition)", "author": "Karl-Heinz Schmiel (Spielworxx)", "year": 2019, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://how-to-play.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1/rules/1_rules.pdf", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "01 Introduction, p. 2; 05 Sequence of Play, p. 7; 3 Secure Media Influence, p. 9; 7 Media Influence and 8 Auctioning off of Polls, p. 11; votes formula, p. 12; 9 Evaluation of Votes and Federal State Election, p. 13; 07 End of Game, p. 14", "note": "First release in 1986; four state elections, one per round; poll cards auctioned to change trends; media majority shifting opinion; votes from rallies, trend and program matches; victory points, wins and coalitions." }, { "key": "tropico-manuale-edizione-italiana-2001", "canonical": false, "title": "Tropico, manuale (edizione italiana)", "author": "PopTop Software (Take 2 Interactive)", "year": 2001, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/details/manualzilla-id-6100111", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Rispetto, p. 24; Capitolo otto, Politica, fazioni, pp. 42-43; Elezioni, pp. 44-46", "note": "Respect based on the faction's view of the President; elections every five to nine years; refusing, dating or calling early elections; the rival candidate; voters deciding by happiness and faction; the monthly poll graph; fair or rigged counts; exile on defeat." }, { "key": "democracy-4-steam-store-page-2022", "canonical": false, "title": "Democracy 4 (Steam store page)", "author": "Positech Games", "year": 2022, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://store.steampowered.com/app/1410710/Democracy_4/", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Release on 13 January 2022 after early access from 6 October 2020; one eye on the polls; losing an election as the end of the game unless the player is assassinated." }, { "key": "democracy-4", "canonical": false, "title": "Democracy 4", "author": "Positech Games", "year": null, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.positech.co.uk/democracy4/", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Simulated voters making up the electorate and popularity needed for re-election." }, { "key": "democracy-4-basic-gameplay-guide-2020", "canonical": false, "title": "Democracy 4 – Basic Gameplay Guide", "author": "Gameplay Tips", "year": 2020, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://gameplay.tips/guides/8590-democracy-4.html", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Fixed terms with no sudden elections; voters in several groups; group happiness, cynicism and complacency; turnout; polls screen; political capital from popularity; loss by election or assassination." } ], "n_examples": 3, "n_sources": 5, "word_count": 469, "updated": "2026-10-30", "url": "/systems/election-cycles" }, { "id": "faction-warfare", "name": "Faction Warfare", "status": "unverified", "domain": "society", "driver": "autonomous", "core": [], "parts": [ "population-change", "territory-change", "side-relations" ], "core_parts": [ "territory-change" ], "definition": "Factions in the game world declare war and peace, make and break alliances and rise or fall by their own rules between the player's actions, and the war moves the player's standing with each side, so the player can join or tip it", "aliases": [], "media": [ "tabletop-rpg", "video" ], "mechanics": [ "clocks", "reputation-factions", "voting" ], "examples": [ { "title": "Sid Meier's Pirates!", "year": 1987, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "MicroProse", "components": [ "reputation-factions", "markets" ], "parts": [ "population-change", "territory-change", "side-relations" ], "note": "Nations declare war, peace and alliance during play, and attacks please a target's wartime enemy and anger its allies. Colonies grow or decline with trade, raids, Indian attacks and disease, which sets their merchants' prices.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Blades in the Dark", "year": 2017, "year_approx": false, "medium": "tabletop-rpg", "creator": "John Harper", "components": [ "clocks", "downtime-phases", "reputation-factions" ], "parts": [ "territory-change" ], "note": "In downtime the GM ticks each faction's clock toward its long-term goal, so the city changes without the crew, and a tug-of-war clock can track a turf war between two factions. A faction at war with the crew (status -3) costs it +1 heat from scores and 1 hold.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord", "year": 2022, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "TaleWorlds Entertainment", "components": [ "voting", "relationship-systems" ], "parts": [ "territory-change", "side-relations" ], "note": "Kingdoms decide war, peace, annexation and who receives a newly captured fief by a vote in which each clan puts influence behind an option, and a supporter gains relationship with the sponsor. A 2020 update reworked how the AI votes on war and peace to curb snowballing.", "latest": true } ], "provenance": { "title": "Sid Meier's Pirates!", "year": 1987, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "confidence": "low", "note": "The earliest documented use cited is Pirates!, whose October 1987 manual has nations declare war, peace and alliance during play, keeps the ends of alliances secret, and lets colonies prosper or decline with trade, raids, attacks and disease. That colonies change nation rests on one phrase about colonies that \"change colors\". Earlier strategy games and wargame campaigns with non-player powers remain unsurveyed, so the title is the earliest cited rather than a defended origin." }, "established": null, "sources": [ { "key": "sid-meier-s-pirates-manual-second-edition-1987", "canonical": false, "title": "Sid Meier's Pirates! manual, second edition", "author": "MicroProse (Sid Meier and Arnold Hendrick)", "year": 1987, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": null, "accessed": null, "locator": "p. 38, European Politics; p. 39, Local Merchants, The Rise & Fall of Colonies", "note": "Attacks making a nation ill-disposed, wary or hostile; wartime opponents and allies reacting; public declarations of war, peace and alliance; colonies growing and declining with trade, raids, Indian attacks, disease and gold mines; prices set by a town's economic strength." }, { "key": "blades-in-the-dark-srd-progress-clocks-2017", "canonical": false, "title": "Blades in the Dark SRD: Progress Clocks", "author": "John Harper", "year": 2017, "year_approx": true, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://bladesinthedark.com/progress-clocks", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Faction Clocks; Tug-of-war Clocks", "note": "Faction clocks toward long-term goals ticked by the GM in downtime, so things happen that the PCs are not connected to, and a tug-of-war clock for a turf war between factions." }, { "key": "blades-in-the-dark-srd-the-faction-game-2017", "canonical": false, "title": "Blades in the Dark SRD: The Faction Game", "author": "John Harper", "year": 2017, "year_approx": true, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://bladesinthedark.com/faction-game", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "The Faction Game: Tier, Hold, Status, War", "note": "Faction tier and hold, crew status from -3 to +3, and the effects of war on the crew and on a faction." }, { "key": "mount-blade-ii-bannerlord-developer-blog-kingdom-decisions-2019", "canonical": false, "title": "Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord Developer Blog - Kingdom Decisions", "author": "ValH (GameBanshee), reposting TaleWorlds Entertainment", "year": 2019, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.gamebanshee.com/3whda", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "War, peace, annexation and fief decisions; clans backing options with influence; the ruler's override; the clan AI's weighing; a supporter gaining relationship with the sponsor." }, { "key": "mount-blade-ii-bannerlord-development-update-war-peace-2020", "canonical": false, "title": "Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord Development Update - War & Peace", "author": "ValH (GameBanshee), reporting TaleWorlds Entertainment", "year": 2020, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.gamebanshee.com/34hcc", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Patches e1.5.0 and e1.5.1 reworking how the AI calculates and votes on war and peace, to address snowballing." } ], "n_examples": 3, "n_sources": 5, "word_count": 494, "updated": "2026-10-30", "url": "/systems/faction-warfare" }, { "id": "fatigue-and-sleep", "name": "Fatigue and Sleep", "status": "verified", "domain": "body", "driver": "player-action", "core": [], "parts": [ "conditional-spawn", "paid-reset", "drain", "costly-rest" ], "core_parts": [ "drain", "costly-rest" ], "definition": "Exertion, wounds or hours without rest wear a character down toward penalties or a forced halt, and recovery needs rest or sleep that costs time, a safe place, money or risk, so when and where to rest is a recurring decision", "aliases": [ "rest and recovery", "exhaustion systems" ], "media": [ "tabletop-rpg", "board-card", "video" ], "mechanics": [ "exploration-procedures", "hit-points", "random-tables", "saving-throws", "status-effects" ], "examples": [ { "title": "Dungeons & Dragons", "year": 1974, "year_approx": false, "medium": "tabletop-rpg", "creator": "Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson (TSR)", "components": [ "exploration-procedures", "random-tables", "hit-points" ], "parts": [ "drain", "costly-rest" ], "note": "Underground, one turn every hour must be spent motionless, twice that after a pursuit; in the wilderness all creatures rest a full day after six days of movement. A rest day is checked for wandering monsters with two dice, hit points return only after days of complete rest, and oared crews spend fatigue factors that rest restores.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Wilderness Survival Guide", "year": 1986, "year_approx": false, "medium": "tabletop-rpg", "creator": "Kim Mohan (TSR)", "components": [ "status-effects", "target-numbers" ], "parts": [ "drain", "costly-rest" ], "note": "After six turns of strenuous activity a failed Constitution check leaves a character fatigued, at -2 to ability scores, attacks and saving throws until two hours' rest. Working on risks a check each turn toward exhaustion, which allows only action needed to survive and lifts to fatigue after an hour's rest and a check.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Dungeons & Dragons, 5th edition", "year": 2014, "year_approx": false, "medium": "tabletop-rpg", "creator": "Wizards of the Coast", "components": [ "status-effects", "saving-throws", "hit-points", "exploration-procedures" ], "parts": [ "drain", "costly-rest" ], "note": "Exhaustion has six cumulative levels, from disadvantage on ability checks to death. Each hour marched past eight calls for a Constitution save or a level is gained. A long rest of eight hours, one a day and broken by an hour of strenuous activity, restores hit points and removes a level if the character has eaten and drunk.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Gloomhaven", "year": 2017, "year_approx": false, "medium": "board-card", "creator": "Isaac Childres (Cephalofair Games)", "components": [ "hand-management", "hit-points", "player-elimination" ], "parts": [ "paid-reset", "drain", "costly-rest" ], "note": "Each rest loses one discarded ability card for the scenario; a long rest also takes the round, heals 2 and refreshes spent items. A character who cannot play two cards, or who drops below one hit point, is exhausted and leaves the scenario, and the scenario is lost if every character is exhausted.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Dragon's Dogma 2", "year": 2024, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Capcom", "components": [ "hit-points", "inventory-encumbrance", "checkpoints" ], "parts": [ "conditional-spawn", "drain", "costly-rest" ], "note": "Damage lowers maximum health, which basic healing items cannot restore. Sleeping at a fixed campsite needs a heavy Camping Kit and risks an ambush that forfeits the recovery; a rest at an inn or house is safe and records a checkpoint save.", "latest": true } ], "provenance": { "title": "Dungeons & Dragons", "year": 1974, "year_approx": false, "medium": "tabletop-rpg", "confidence": "medium", "note": "The earliest documented use cited is the 1974 Volume 3, The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures, which requires a rest turn every hour underground and a rest day after six days of travel, doubles rest after a pursuit, keeps wandering-monster checks running through rest, heals hit points only through complete rest, and gives oared crews fatigue factors. It sets no graded penalty for skipping rest; the earliest graded penalties cited are the Wilderness Survival Guide's (1986). RuneQuest's fatigue (1978), the 1979 Dungeon Masters Guide and wargame unit fatigue remain unsurveyed." }, "established": null, "sources": [ { "key": "dungeons-dragons-volume-3-the-underworld-wilderness-adventures-1974", "canonical": false, "title": "Dungeons & Dragons, Volume 3: The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures", "author": "Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson", "year": 1974, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": "Tactical Studies Rules", "url": "https://archive.org/download/tsr02002bboxedsetvolume3underworldandwildernessadventuresocr/tsr02002B%20-%20boxed%20set%20-%20Volume%203%20-%20Underworld%20And%20Wilderness%20Adventures%20-%20OCR_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "The Move/Turn in the Underworld, p. 8; Wandering Monsters; The Wilderness: movement and rest; Evading; Naval Combat: oared movement; Healing Wounds", "note": "The rest turn every hour and the doubled rest after pursuit, the rest day after six days, wandering-monster checks on rest days, sleeping parties attacked, crew fatigue factors, and healing through complete rest." }, { "key": "fatigue-wilderness-survival-guide-fatigue-exhaustion-p-88", "canonical": false, "title": "Fatigue (Wilderness Survival Guide, Fatigue & Exhaustion, p. 88)", "author": "1eonline.info", "year": null, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://1eonline.info/10wsg/fatigue.htm", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "The Wilderness Survival Guide's fatigue and exhaustion rules, their Constitution checks, penalties and rest times." }, { "key": "system-reference-document-5-1-conditions-exhaustion-2016", "canonical": false, "title": "System Reference Document 5.1: Conditions, Exhaustion", "author": "Wizards of the Coast", "year": 2016, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": "Wizards of the Coast", "url": "https://5thsrd.org/rules/conditions/", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Conditions: Exhaustion", "note": "The six cumulative exhaustion levels, their causes, and a long rest with food and drink removing one level." }, { "key": "system-reference-document-5-1-resting-2016", "canonical": false, "title": "System Reference Document 5.1: Resting", "author": "Wizards of the Coast", "year": 2016, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": "Wizards of the Coast", "url": "https://5thsrd.org/adventuring/resting/", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Adventuring: Resting, Short Rest and Long Rest", "note": "Short and long rests, hit points regained, interruption by strenuous activity, and one long rest in 24 hours." }, { "key": "system-reference-document-5-1-movement-forced-march-2016", "canonical": false, "title": "System Reference Document 5.1: Movement, Forced March", "author": "Wizards of the Coast", "year": 2016, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": "Wizards of the Coast", "url": "https://5thsrd.org/adventuring/movement/", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Adventuring: Movement, Travel Pace and Forced March", "note": "The eight-hour travel day and the Constitution save each further hour, failure giving a level of exhaustion." }, { "key": "gloomhaven-rulebook-2017", "canonical": false, "title": "Gloomhaven rulebook", "author": "Isaac Childres (Cephalofair Games)", "year": 2017, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://lehi-innovation.github.io/boardgame-rules/extracted/gloomhaven-rules.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Resting, p. 17; Exhaustion, p. 28; Finishing a Scenario, p. 33", "note": "Short and long rests, the card lost to every rest, Heal 2 and item refresh, and exhaustion removing a character from the scenario." }, { "key": "how-the-loss-gauge-works-dragon-s-dogma-2-2024", "canonical": false, "title": "How the loss gauge works - Dragon's Dogma 2", "author": "Sam Chandler (Shacknews)", "year": 2024, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.shacknews.com/article/139300/loss-gauge-dragons-dogma-2", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Damage lowering maximum health, basic healing items leaving it, and rest at a camp or an inn restoring it." }, { "key": "dragon-s-dogma-2-campsites-camping-kits-cooking-explained-2024", "canonical": false, "title": "Dragon's Dogma 2: Campsites, Camping Kits & Cooking Explained", "author": "Gamer Guides", "year": 2024, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://gamerguides.com/dragons-dogma-2/guide/tips-and-tricks/basics/campsites-camping-kits-and-cooking-explained", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Fixed campsites, kit weights and prices, ambushes that forfeit recovery or the kit, and inn rests creating a checkpoint save." } ], "n_examples": 5, "n_sources": 8, "word_count": 537, "updated": "2026-10-30", "url": "/systems/fatigue-and-sleep" }, { "id": "generational-heirs", "name": "Generational Heirs", "status": "unverified", "domain": "society", "driver": "clock", "core": [], "parts": [ "world-clock", "succession" ], "core_parts": [ "succession" ], "definition": "Play passes from a character who dies or whose part ends to an heir, who takes over the family's holdings, standing or traits, so the player's line outlives its members and marriages and births decide who comes next", "aliases": [ "generational gameplay", "dynasty play" ], "media": [ "tabletop-rpg", "video" ], "mechanics": [ "experience-levels", "permadeath", "relationship-systems", "roguelike-meta-progression" ], "examples": [ { "title": "Pendragon", "year": 1985, "year_approx": false, "medium": "tabletop-rpg", "creator": "Greg Stafford (Chaosium)", "components": [ "permadeath", "relationship-systems" ], "parts": [ "world-clock", "succession" ], "note": "Characters are born in a stated year, age, marry and beget heirs, so that when a knight dies the player continues with the heir along a 75-year campaign timeline. Every character starts with the passion Love of Family, and the rules on weddings, children and a family tree are detailed.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Phantasy Star III: Generations of Doom", "year": 1990, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Sega", "components": [ "multiple-endings", "experience-levels" ], "parts": [ "succession" ], "note": "Each generation's hero ends his quest by choosing between two brides, and the choice decides which son the player controls next. Two choices across three generations give four heroes and four endings; the heir's starting strength and levelling differ by line, and two cyborg companions stay with every generation.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War", "year": 1996, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Intelligent Systems (Nintendo)", "components": [ "relationship-systems", "experience-levels" ], "parts": [ "succession" ], "note": "Units gain experience and levels, and a rising love level between a male and a female unit can lead to a couple and a child. In the second half of the game play passes to those children, who inherit their parents' personal skills, and the protagonist changes from Sigurd to Seliph.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Crusader Kings II", "year": 2012, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Paradox Development Studio", "components": [ "permadeath", "voting", "victory-points" ], "parts": [ "world-clock", "succession" ], "note": "The player is a dynasty. When the ruler dies, the realm's inheritance law (primogeniture, seniority, feudal elective with dukes as electors, or gavelkind) decides who takes the lands and titles, and play continues with that heir. Matrilineal marriage keeps a line without sons alive, and the score adds each ruler's Prestige at death.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Rogue Legacy", "year": 2013, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Cellar Door Games", "components": [ "permadeath", "roguelike-meta-progression", "procedural-generation" ], "parts": [ "succession" ], "note": "Each time the character dies, a child succeeds them, one of several heirs with random traits such as colour blindness or vertigo. Gold collected in the run buys permanent manor upgrades for the next child, and every life explores a newly generated castle.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Rogue Legacy 2", "year": 2022, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Cellar Door Games", "components": [ "roguelike-meta-progression", "procedural-generation", "permadeath" ], "parts": [ "succession" ], "note": "Each run is played by a child of the last, with their own class and traits, and the parents' inheritance of gold grows the family manor that strengthens the children. Dead heirs persist in the family record, heirlooms permanently give heroes new abilities, and traits that hinder play carry gold modifiers.", "latest": true } ], "provenance": { "title": "Pendragon", "year": 1985, "year_approx": false, "medium": "tabletop-rpg", "confidence": "low", "note": "The earliest documented use cited is Pendragon, whose 1985 boxed game a 1987 Space Gamer review describes: knights born in a stated year age, marry and beget heirs, and when they die the player continues with the heir along a 75-year timeline. The review does not say what the heir inherits, the 1985 rulebook is not cited, and earlier campaign rules with heirs remain unsurveyed. The earliest video use cited is Phantasy Star III (1990)." }, "established": null, "sources": [ { "key": "space-gamer-no-77-king-arthur-pendragon-and-the-pendragon-campaign-review-1987", "canonical": false, "title": "Space Gamer No. 77: King Arthur Pendragon and The Pendragon Campaign (review)", "author": "Steven A. List (Space Gamer)", "year": 1987, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/download/space-gamer-77/Space_Gamer_77_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "p. 25", "note": "Characters born in a specific year who age and are advised to marry and beget heirs so that play continues after their deaths; the 75-year timeline; the Love of Family passion; weddings, children and a family tree; Glory; no magic for players." }, { "key": "phantasy-star-iii-generations-of-doom-hint-book-1991", "canonical": false, "title": "Phantasy Star III: Generations of Doom Hint Book", "author": "Sega", "year": 1991, "year_approx": false, "type": "book", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/download/phantasy-star-iii-generations-of-doom-hint-book/Phantasy%20Star%20III%20Generations%20of%20Doom%20Hint%20Book_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Rhys's Wedding; Ayn's Wedding; Your Third-Generation Character; Traveling Companions", "note": "Three generations and seven characters, brides chosen at the end of each quest deciding the next son, four endings, companions staying with every generation, and Nial's strong start and slow levelling." }, { "key": "fire-emblem-seisen-no-keifu-instruction-booklet-1996", "canonical": false, "title": "Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu instruction booklet", "author": "Nintendo", "year": 1996, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/download/fireemblemgenealogyoftheholywar/fe4_instruction_booklet_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Story introduction; Special abilities (skills); Fortune teller", "note": "Units gaining experience and levels, falling in love and having children, play passing to the children in the second half with the protagonist changing from Sigurd to Seliph, personal skills inherited by children, and love levels between units." }, { "key": "crusader-kings-ii-manual-2012", "canonical": false, "title": "Crusader Kings II manual", "author": "Paradox Interactive", "year": 2012, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/download/crusader-kings-ii-pc-manual-english/PDX7605US_CK%20II_Onlinemanual_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "9.1 Succession Laws; 4.8 The Diplomacy Interface; 6.0 Winning the Game", "note": "The dynasty as the player's unit, inheritance laws and gender laws deciding who inherits lands and titles, matrilineal marriage ensuring the continuation of the bloodline and the game, and the score summing each ruler's Prestige at death." }, { "key": "rogue-legacy-steam-store-listing-2013", "canonical": false, "title": "Rogue Legacy (Steam store listing)", "author": "Cellar Door Games", "year": 2013, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://store.steampowered.com/api/appdetails?appids=241600&l=english", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "About This Game", "note": "A child succeeding the character at each death, unique children with traits, gold upgrading the manor for the next child, and a new castle with every life." }, { "key": "rogue-legacy-2-steam-store-listing-2022", "canonical": false, "title": "Rogue Legacy 2 (Steam store listing)", "author": "Cellar Door Games", "year": 2022, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://store.steampowered.com/api/appdetails?appids=1253920&l=english", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "About This Game", "note": "Persistent dead heirs, the parents' inheritance growing the family manor, children with their own traits and classes, heirlooms, and gold modifiers on traits." } ], "n_examples": 6, "n_sources": 6, "word_count": 543, "updated": "2026-10-30", "url": "/systems/generational-heirs" }, { "id": "injury-system", "name": "Injury System", "status": "unverified", "domain": "body", "driver": "player-action", "core": [ "status-effects" ], "parts": [ "treatment" ], "core_parts": [ "treatment" ], "definition": "Harm leaves named injuries on body parts, such as a broken limb, bleeding or a destroyed organ, that carry their own penalties and persist after the fight until treated with specific care, apart from or on top of hit points", "aliases": [ "lingering injuries", "crippled limbs", "limb damage" ], "media": [ "tabletop-rpg", "video" ], "mechanics": [ "critical-hits", "hit-location", "hit-points", "status-effects" ], "examples": [ { "title": "Phoenix Command", "year": 1986, "year_approx": false, "medium": "tabletop-rpg", "creator": "Barry Nakazono and David McKenzie (Leading Edge Games)", "components": [ "hit-location", "status-effects" ], "parts": [ "treatment" ], "note": "Each hit is placed on the Hit Location and Damage Table, and a disabling hit stops the use of that limb until it is fully healed. The running damage total sets a Critical Time Period for reaching first aid, an aid station, a field hospital or a trauma centre, then a recovery roll and a healing time in days.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Fallout", "year": 1997, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Interplay Productions", "components": [ "hit-location", "critical-hits", "status-effects", "action-points" ], "parts": [ "treatment" ], "note": "Critical hits, likelier on targeted shots, can cripple an arm or a leg or damage the eyes. A crippled leg raises the action-point cost of moving, a crippled arm bars two-handed weapons, and eye damage lowers Perception until healed at the Vault medical lab, by the Doctor skill or by trained medical staff.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater", "year": 2004, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Konami (Hideo Kojima)", "components": [ "hit-points", "status-effects" ], "parts": [ "treatment" ], "note": "Falls and powerful attacks leave wounds that lower the LIFE Gauge's maximum until treated in the Cure screen, where the player finds the wound on the body and applies the item it needs, such as a splint for a broken bone, a suture kit for a cut or the knife to dig out a bullet. Most wounds heal in time; some do not.", "latest": false }, { "title": "RimWorld", "year": 2018, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Ludeon Studios (Tynan Sylvester)", "components": [ "hit-location", "status-effects", "needs-and-moods" ], "parts": [ "treatment" ], "note": "Early access 2013. Wounds, infections, prosthetics and chronic conditions are tracked on each body part and lower the colonist's capacities, so eye injuries hamper shooting and surgery and wounded legs slow colonists, and being wounded weighs on mood. Lost parts can be replaced with prosthetics, bionics or harvested organs.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Escape from Tarkov", "year": 2025, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Battlestate Games", "components": [ "hit-location", "status-effects" ], "parts": [ "treatment" ], "note": "Characters suffer light and heavy bleeding, contusions, fractures and pain. Splints treat fractures and surgical kits restore destroyed body parts other than the head and thorax, and damage taken in a raid remains afterwards until healed, for money at the Therapist vendor.", "latest": true } ], "provenance": { "title": "Phoenix Command", "year": 1986, "year_approx": false, "medium": "tabletop-rpg", "confidence": "low", "note": "The earliest documented use cited is Phoenix Command, a man-to-man combat system for wargamers and role-players, whose rules (a printing copyrighted 1986, 1987 and 1989) disable limbs until healed and tie survival and healing time to the medical aid reached. Earlier role-playing rules remain unsurveyed for treatment: RuneQuest (1978) disables a limb whose location hit points reach zero, and critical tables naming body parts are reported in the Arduin Grimoire (1977). The title is the earliest cited rather than a defended origin." }, "established": null, "sources": [ { "key": "phoenix-command-1986", "canonical": false, "title": "Phoenix Command", "author": "Barry Nakazono and David McKenzie (Leading Edge Games)", "year": 1986, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/download/phoenix-command-1986/Phoenix_Command_1986_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "2.6 Hit Location and Damage; 2.7 Disabling Injuries and Knockout; 2.9 Medical Aid and Recovery, pp. 16–18", "note": "Disabling injuries that stop the use of a limb until fully healed, the Damage Total, Critical Time Period, Recovery Roll and Healing Time, and the four kinds of medical aid." }, { "key": "fallout-vault-dweller-s-survival-guide-1997", "canonical": false, "title": "Fallout: Vault Dweller's Survival Guide", "author": "Interplay Productions", "year": 1997, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/download/fallout-manual-english/Fallout_manual_English_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Skills: Doctor, p. 3-13; Current Medical Status and Table 4-1, Personal Damage Effects, pp. 4-18–4-19; Targeted Shots and Critical Hits, pp. 5-8–5-10", "note": "Crippled limbs and eye damage as critical-hit effects of targeted shots, their penalties, and their healing by the Vault medical lab, the Doctor skill or medical personnel." }, { "key": "metal-gear-solid-3-snake-eater-instruction-manual-2004", "canonical": false, "title": "Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater instruction manual", "author": "Konami", "year": 2004, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/download/ps2_Metal_Gear_Solid_3-_Snake_Eater_USA/Metal_Gear_Solid_3-_Snake_Eater_USA_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Life Gauge: Wounds, Poison/Disease, Rest, p. 17; Survival Viewer: Cure, p. 33; Items: medical items", "note": "Wounds that cap the LIFE Gauge until treated, wounds that do not heal without treatment, the treatment cursor, and the splint, suture kit, bandage, knife, styptic and disinfectant." }, { "key": "rimworld-steam-store-page", "canonical": false, "title": "RimWorld, Steam store page", "author": "Ludeon Studios", "year": null, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://store.steampowered.com/app/294100/RimWorld/", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Wounds, infections, prosthetics and chronic conditions tracked on each body part and their effects on capacities, being wounded affecting mood, and replacement parts." }, { "key": "escape-from-tarkov-how-to-heal-after-raids-2022", "canonical": false, "title": "Escape From Tarkov: How To Heal After Raids", "author": "Josh Davison (Game Rant)", "year": 2022, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://gamerant.com/escape-from-tarkov-how-to-heal-after-raids-guide/", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Light and heavy bleeding, contusions, fractures and pain, splints and surgical kits, and healing after a raid at the Therapist for money." } ], "n_examples": 5, "n_sources": 5, "word_count": 548, "updated": "2026-10-30", "url": "/systems/injury-system" }, { "id": "light-sources", "name": "Light Sources", "status": "unverified", "domain": "environment", "driver": "player-action", "core": [], "parts": [ "conditional-spawn", "escalation", "drain", "exposure" ], "core_parts": [ "drain" ], "definition": "Torches, lamps and fires that the player carries or places burn down with moves or time and are renewed from a limited stock, while the darkness beyond them slows, harms or reveals the party, so light is a supply spent to stay safe", "aliases": [ "light meter", "torch light" ], "media": [ "tabletop-rpg", "video" ], "mechanics": [ "exploration-procedures", "sanity", "stealth-detection" ], "examples": [ { "title": "Colossal Cave Adventure", "year": 1976, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Will Crowther, extended by Don Woods", "components": [ "lives-and-continues", "end-game-triggers" ], "parts": [ "drain", "exposure" ], "note": "In the 350-point version the lamp lasts 330 turns while switched on, warns when it grows dim, and takes fresh batteries bought with coins from a vending machine. Moving on from a pitch-dark place has a 35% chance of a fatal fall, after which a reincarnation is offered a limited number of times, and a spent lamp outside the cave ends the game.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Dungeons & Dragons (Basic Set rulebook, Holmes edition)", "year": 1977, "year_approx": false, "medium": "tabletop-rpg", "creator": "J. Eric Holmes, from Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson (TSR)", "components": [ "exploration-procedures", "stealth-detection" ], "parts": [ "conditional-spawn", "drain", "exposure" ], "note": "Dungeon turns are ten minutes. A torch burns for six turns and a flask of oil in a lantern for 24, each lighting 30 feet; without light humans and hobbits move at half speed or less, and artificial light attracts monsters and warns them of the party's approach.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Amnesia: The Dark Descent", "year": 2010, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Frictional Games", "components": [ "sanity", "stealth-detection" ], "parts": [ "drain", "exposure" ], "note": "The lantern burns oil and tinderboxes light candles and torches, both in limited supply. Sanity falls in darkness, shaking and blurring the view, but light makes the player easier for the monsters to spot, so hiding means waiting in the dark.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Don't Starve", "year": 2013, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Klei Entertainment", "components": [ "real-time", "resource-conversion", "hit-points", "sanity" ], "parts": [ "conditional-spawn", "drain" ], "note": "A torch crafted from grass and twigs lasts 75 seconds and burns faster in rain, and fires need fuel. In complete darkness Charlie attacks after 5 to 10 seconds and every 5 to 11 seconds after, each attack costing 100 health and 20 sanity, until the player finds or makes a light.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Darkest Dungeon", "year": 2016, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Red Hook Studios", "components": [ "exploration-procedures", "sanity", "loot-tables" ], "parts": [ "conditional-spawn", "escalation", "drain", "exposure" ], "note": "A light meter from 0 to 100 falls with each corridor step and rises when a torch is used or the party camps. In five bands down to Black as Pitch, lower light raises stress, the chance of the heroes being surprised and the chance of extra loot, and at zero a hallway battle may become a Shambler ambush.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Darkest Dungeon II", "year": 2023, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Red Hook Studios", "components": [ "status-effects", "relationship-systems" ], "parts": [ "conditional-spawn", "escalation", "drain", "exposure" ], "note": "The stagecoach's Flame, from 0 to 100, falls while travelling and in drawn-out battles and is restored by helping travellers, clearing lairs and an item. Its bands set round-start tokens such as Blind and how relationships between heroes go; below 30 the Shambler may ambush, and at zero cultists attack, restoring 40 Flame if beaten.", "latest": true } ], "provenance": { "title": "Dungeons & Dragons (Basic Set rulebook, Holmes edition)", "year": 1977, "year_approx": false, "medium": "tabletop-rpg", "confidence": "low", "note": "The definition is scoped to light that burns down and must be renewed, with darkness that changes play. The earliest documented use cited is the Holmes rulebook, which gives burning times in dungeon turns, a 30-foot radius, half speed or less without light, and light that draws monsters. Colossal Cave Adventure's lamp limit is documented in the 350-point Crowther and Woods version, whose date cannot be placed firmly before or after it; the lamp in Crowther's 1976 original remains unsurveyed. The 1974 Dungeons & Dragons rules already require a light source underground and let it negate surprise, but give no burning time; the supplements of 1975 and 1976 remain unsurveyed." }, "established": null, "sources": [ { "key": "dungeons-dragons-basic-set-rulebook-holmes-edition-1977", "canonical": false, "title": "Dungeons & Dragons (Basic Set rulebook, Holmes edition)", "author": "J. Eric Holmes, from Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson (TSR)", "year": 1977, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/download/holmes_basic/Holmes_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Time and Movement in the Dungeons; Light, p. 9", "note": "Ten-minute dungeon turns, a torch burning six turns and a flask of oil 24, a 30-foot radius, half speed or less without light, and light attracting monsters and warning them of the party." }, { "key": "advanced-dungeons-dragons-players-handbook-1978", "canonical": false, "title": "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Players Handbook", "author": "Gary Gygax (TSR)", "year": 1978, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/download/advanced-dungeons-dragons-players-handbook/Advanced%20Dungeons%20%26%20Dragons%20-%20Players%20Handbook_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Light; Infravision, p. 102", "note": "The table of light sources with radius and burning time (torch 40 feet for 6 turns, lantern 24 turns on a pint of oil, magic swords without limit), and infravision spoiled by a light source." }, { "key": "dungeons-dragons-volume-3-the-underworld-wilderness-adventures-1974", "canonical": false, "title": "Dungeons & Dragons, Volume 3: The Underworld & Wilderness Adventures", "author": "Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson (TSR)", "year": 1974, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/download/tsr02002bboxedsetvolume3underworldandwildernessadventuresocr/tsr02002B%20-%20boxed%20set%20-%20Volume%203%20-%20Underworld%20And%20Wilderness%20Adventures%20-%20OCR_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "The Underworld, light sources; Underworld Monsters, Surprise", "note": "A light source required underground, light letting monsters see the users so that they are never surprised, and torches blown out by wind, with no burning time." }, { "key": "colossal-cave-adventure-350-point-pdp-10-fortran-source-advent-for", "canonical": false, "title": "Colossal Cave Adventure, 350-point PDP-10 FORTRAN source (advent.for)", "author": "Will Crowther and Don Woods", "year": null, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://unbox.ifarchive.org/1h3v0zutgg/advent/advent.for", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "The lamp's lifetime of 330 turns counted down while lit, 2500 turns added by fresh batteries, the 35% chance of a fatal fall when moving in pitch darkness, limited reincarnations, and the game ended when the lamp is spent outside." }, { "key": "colossal-cave-adventure-350-point-data-file-advent-dat", "canonical": false, "title": "Colossal Cave Adventure, 350-point data file (advent.dat)", "author": "Will Crowther and Don Woods", "year": null, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://unbox.ifarchive.org/1h3v0zutgg/advent/advent.dat", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "The messages for pitch darkness, the dimming lamp, the vending machine that gives fresh batteries for coins, and the lamp running out of power." }, { "key": "amnesia-the-dark-descent-review-in-the-mouth-of-madness-2010", "canonical": false, "title": "Amnesia: The Dark Descent review: In the mouth of madness", "author": "Richard Mitchell (Engadget)", "year": 2010, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.engadget.com/2010-10-29-amnesia-the-dark-descent-review.html", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "The oil lantern and limited tinderboxes, sanity falling in darkness with its effects on breathing and vision, and light making the player easier to spot." }, { "key": "darkness-torch", "canonical": false, "title": "Darkness; Torch", "author": "Don't Starve Wiki", "year": null, "year_approx": false, "type": "wiki", "publisher": null, "url": null, "accessed": null, "locator": null, "note": "Charlie attacking in complete darkness for 100 health and 20 sanity at intervals of seconds, the light sources that prevent it, and the torch's recipe, 75-second burn and faster burning in rain." }, { "key": "light-meter", "canonical": false, "title": "Light Meter", "author": "Darkest Dungeon Wiki", "year": null, "year_approx": false, "type": "wiki", "publisher": null, "url": null, "accessed": null, "locator": null, "note": "The meter from 0 to 100, its fall per step in explored and new segments, torches and camping restoring it, the five light bands and their effects, and the Shambler ambush at zero light." }, { "key": "darkest-dungeon-light-level-and-its-influence-2023", "canonical": false, "title": "Darkest Dungeon: Light level and its influence", "author": "GamePressure", "year": 2023, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.gamepressure.com/darkestdungeon/light-level-and-its-influence/z28424", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Camping setting light to 100, the Shambler setting it to 0, and the stress, surprise, loot and critical chance of each light level." }, { "key": "flame", "canonical": false, "title": "Flame", "author": "Darkest Dungeon Wiki", "year": null, "year_approx": false, "type": "wiki", "publisher": null, "url": null, "accessed": null, "locator": null, "note": "The Flame from 0 to 100, what lowers and restores it, the bands' tokens and modifiers, the cultist ambush at zero that restores 40 Flame, and the Shambler below 30." }, { "key": "darkest-dungeon-2-exploration-and-flame-2021", "canonical": false, "title": "Darkest Dungeon 2: Exploration and Flame", "author": "GamePressure", "year": 2021, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.gamepressure.com/darkest-dungeon-ii/exploration-and-flame/zef0c5", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "The stagecoach's flame setting the level of danger, cultists attacking when it goes out and restoring 40 Flame when beaten, and relationships between heroes worsening at low Flame." }, { "key": "darkest-dungeon-ii-steam-store-page-2023", "canonical": false, "title": "Darkest Dungeon II (Steam store page)", "author": "Red Hook Studios", "year": 2023, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://store.steampowered.com/app/1940340/Darkest_Dungeon_II/", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "The release date of May 8, 2023 and four heroes and a stagecoach standing between darkness and salvation." }, { "key": "coverages-2014", "canonical": false, "title": "Coverages", "author": "Brendan (Necropraxis)", "year": 2014, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://necropraxis.com/?p=3645", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Torchbearer's light coverage by number of characters, dim light and darkness as factors in tests, and, quoting the book's page 61, candles, torches and lanterns lasting four, two and three turns." }, { "key": "opinion-a-look-at-the-tabletop-rpg-that-inspired-darkest-dungeon-2017", "canonical": false, "title": "Opinion: A look at the tabletop RPG that inspired Darkest Dungeon", "author": "Katherine Cross (Game Developer)", "year": 2017, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/opinion-a-look-at-the-tabletop-rpg-that-inspired-i-darkest-dungeon-i-", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "The writer's view that Torchbearer in part inspired Darkest Dungeon, light as a limited resource, and the penalty for dropping the torch." } ], "n_examples": 6, "n_sources": 14, "word_count": 557, "updated": "2026-10-30", "url": "/systems/light-sources" }, { "id": "nemesis-system", "name": "Nemesis System", "status": "unverified", "domain": "inhabitants", "driver": "player-action", "core": [], "parts": [ "world-clock", "escalation", "agent-memory", "rank-hierarchy" ], "core_parts": [ "agent-memory" ], "definition": "Enemies are generated as named individuals in a ranked hierarchy who remember their encounters with the player; one who kills the player is promoted and one who escapes returns for a rematch, so rivalries form out of play", "aliases": [], "media": [ "video" ], "mechanics": [ "fail-forward", "procedural-generation", "quests", "relationship-systems" ], "examples": [ { "title": "Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor", "year": 2014, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Monolith Productions", "components": [ "procedural-generation", "fail-forward", "quests" ], "parts": [ "agent-memory", "rank-hierarchy" ], "note": "Named Uruk are generated with their own appearance, personality, skills and power level and remember earlier fights. Dying to one may promote the slayer, who recalls the battle at the next meeting, and the rivals also surface as new missions on the map.", "latest": false }, { "title": "XCOM 2: War of the Chosen", "year": 2017, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Firaxis Games", "components": [ "status-effects", "income", "quests" ], "parts": [ "world-clock", "escalation", "agent-memory" ], "note": "Three Chosen recur across the campaign, dazing soldiers to interrogate or capture them for Knowledge and raiding the player's regions to cut income. They gain strengths as weeks pass, up to five, and Covert Actions with a rival faction reveal each one's stronghold.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Middle-earth: Shadow of War", "year": 2017, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Monolith Productions", "components": [ "relationship-systems", "base-building" ], "parts": [ "agent-memory", "rank-hierarchy" ], "note": "Orcs keep rivalries and bonds that decide whether a follower stays loyal or betrays the player, and a defeated orc can return having cheated death. A follower made overlord rules a captured region, whose fortress is upgraded against Sauron's counterattacks.", "latest": true } ], "provenance": { "title": "Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor", "year": 2014, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "confidence": "medium", "note": "The earliest documented use cited is Shadow of Mordor, whose generated orcs that remember the player, and the promotion of the orc who kills the player, are described in 2014 press and in Warner Bros.' patent on the system (priority 2015, granted 2021), which says a soldier may be promoted for killing the player avatar. Michael de Plater named recurring villains in tabletop role-playing, Batman's supervillains and sports commentary as inspirations. The patent's examiners reportedly cited Crusader Kings II and the Batman: Arkham games as prior art. Earlier generated rivals in video games remain unsurveyed." }, "established": { "title": "Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor", "year": 2014, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "confidence": "medium", "note": "The system is credited to Shadow of Mordor in reviews and in Warner Bros.' patent, and later games are measured against it: Game Informer likened Assassin's Creed Odyssey's mercenaries (2018) to Shadow of War's Nemesis system. The line from Shadow of Mordor to games outside its series is loosely documented." }, "sources": [ { "key": "nemesis-characters-nemesis-forts-social-vendettas-and-followers-in-computer-games-us-10-926-179-b2-2021", "canonical": false, "title": "Nemesis characters, nemesis forts, social vendettas and followers in computer games (US 10,926,179 B2)", "author": "Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.", "year": 2021, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://patents.google.com/patent/US10926179B2/en", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Description", "note": "Filed 2016 with 2015 priority and granted 23 February 2021; randomly named enemies generated for each playthrough in a hierarchy of overlords, warchiefs, captains and soldiers, a soldier promoted for killing the player avatar, and dialog that recalls past events." }, { "key": "meet-the-shadow-of-mordor-enemy-i-couldn-t-kill-2014", "canonical": false, "title": "Meet the Shadow of Mordor Enemy I Couldn't Kill", "author": "Tina Amini (Kotaku)", "year": 2014, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://kotaku.com/meet-the-shadow-of-mordor-enemy-i-couldnt-kill-1583013300", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "The design director on dynamically generated enemies that remember their interactions with the player, with generated appearance, personality, skills, abilities and power level." }, { "key": "middle-earth-shadow-of-mordor-review-2014", "canonical": false, "title": "Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor review", "author": "Matt Miller (Game Informer)", "year": 2014, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://gameinformer.com/games/middle-earth_shadow_of_mordor/b/pc/archive/2014/09/25/middle-earth-shadow-of-mordor-game-informer-review.aspx", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Named Uruk vying to rise through the ranks, the slayer promoted and recalling the battle, the burned foe demanding a rematch, weaknesses and immunities, and rivals surfacing as missions." }, { "key": "shadow-of-mordor-s-nemesis-system-draws-from-burnout-football-and-an-architecture-book-2015", "canonical": false, "title": "Shadow of Mordor's Nemesis system draws from Burnout, football, and an architecture book", "author": "GamesBeat", "year": 2015, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://gamesbeat.com/shadow-of-mordors-nemesis-system-draws-from-burnout-football-and-an-architecture-book/", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Michael de Plater's DICE 2015 talk on procedurally generated enemies, battle scars, and the tabletop recurring villain, Batman and Madden as inspirations." }, { "key": "six-big-takeaways-from-seeing-shadow-of-mordor-s-sequel-in-action-2017", "canonical": false, "title": "Six Big Takeaways From Seeing Shadow of Mordor's Sequel In Action", "author": "Kimberley Wallace (Game Informer)", "year": 2017, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://gameinformer.com/games/middle-earth_shadow_of_war/b/playstation4/archive/2017/03/12/six-big-takeaways-from-seeing-middle-earth-shadow-of-war-in-action", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Expanded memory in the nemesis system, orc bonds deciding loyalty or betrayal, overlords chosen from followers, fortresses upgraded against counterattacks, and an orc that cheated death." }, { "key": "xcom-2-war-of-the-chosen-review-2017", "canonical": false, "title": "XCOM 2: War of the Chosen review", "author": "Ben Reeves (Game Informer)", "year": 2017, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.gameinformer.com/games/xcom_2_war_of_the_chosen/b/pc/archive/2017/08/24/xcom-2-war-of-the-chosen-game-informer-review.aspx", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Three Chosen met several times in a campaign, who learn from encounters and gain new skills over time." }, { "key": "xcom-2-war-of-the-chosen-details-2017", "canonical": false, "title": "XCOM 2: War of the Chosen Details", "author": "ValH (GameBanshee)", "year": 2017, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.gamebanshee.com/kdawd", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "A recap of Jake Solomon's presentation; the dazed status, interrogation for Knowledge, raids that cut regional income, the attack on the Avenger, and Covert Actions that reveal each Chosen's stronghold." }, { "key": "xcom-2-war-of-the-chosen-combat-with-the-chosen-2017", "canonical": false, "title": "XCOM 2 War of the Chosen: Combat with The Chosen", "author": "Gamepressure", "year": 2017, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.gamepressure.com/xcom2/combat-with-the-chosen/zba145", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Two starting strengths rising to five over time, two fixed weaknesses, growth with each week of game time, and the Assassin abducting a soldier." }, { "key": "mercenaries-are-the-mvps-in-assassin-s-creed-odyssey-2018", "canonical": false, "title": "Mercenaries Are The MVPs In Assassin's Creed Odyssey", "author": "Jeff Cork (Game Informer)", "year": 2018, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://gameinformer.com/2018/08/10/mercenaries-are-the-mvps-in-assassins-creed-odyssey", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Fifty hand-crafted and randomly generated mercenaries ranked in tiers, drawn by the player's bounty and replaced when they fall, likened to Shadow of War's Nemesis system." } ], "n_examples": 3, "n_sources": 9, "word_count": 519, "updated": "2026-10-30", "url": "/systems/nemesis-system" }, { "id": "npc-schedules", "name": "NPC Schedules", "status": "verified", "domain": "inhabitants", "driver": "clock", "core": [], "parts": [ "world-clock", "exposure", "routines", "forecast" ], "core_parts": [ "world-clock", "routines" ], "definition": "Non-player characters keep daily routines keyed to the game clock, working, eating, sleeping and moving between places, so where a character can be found and whether a conversation, shop or quest is open depend on the hour", "aliases": [ "NPC routines", "daily schedules" ], "media": [ "video" ], "mechanics": [ "quests", "real-time", "relationship-systems", "stealth-detection" ], "examples": [ { "title": "The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask", "year": 2000, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Nintendo", "components": [ "time-loops", "quests" ], "parts": [ "world-clock", "routines", "forecast" ], "note": "Clock Town's people carry on daily routines through the three days and repeat them at the same times after each reset, and some stores open only late at night. The Bomber's Notebook charts up to 20 people's schedules and marks the tasks to perform again after the Song of Time returns Link to the first day.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Stardew Valley", "year": 2016, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "ConcernedApe", "components": [ "real-time", "relationship-systems" ], "parts": [ "world-clock", "routines" ], "note": "Villagers move between places by the hour and the day of the week and shops keep set hours, on a clock running 0.7 real seconds per game minute. Talking to a villager once a day and giving gifts build friendship, and at two hearts the villager's bedroom opens, making them easier to reach.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Kingdom Come: Deliverance II", "year": 2025, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Warhorse Studios", "components": [ "quests", "stealth-detection" ], "parts": [ "world-clock", "exposure", "routines" ], "note": "Nearly 2,400 persistent NPCs follow daily schedules, and many take part in quests that interact with them. Crimes committed under cover of darkness may go unpunished, but afterwards locals arm themselves, guards grow more vigilant and routines change, with people staying home and calling for more patrols.", "latest": true } ], "provenance": { "title": "Ultima V: Warriors of Destiny", "year": 1988, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "confidence": "medium", "note": "The earliest documented use cited is Ultima V, whose 1988 fact sheet from Origin Systems says individuals have their own daily routines, so the player must know whom to speak with and also where and when, and that shops close once their keepers go home. Jimmy Maher's history (2016) describes the same schedules, down to an innkeeper who rises at 9:00. Antecedents keep a timetable for a single evening rather than a repeating day: Infocom's Deadline (1982), whose characters move about with agendas of their own, and, by Maher's account, Scott Adams's The Count (1979). Earlier role-playing games remain unsurveyed for routines, so the title is the earliest cited rather than a defended origin." }, "established": null, "sources": [ { "key": "ultima-v-the-wait-is-over-product-fact-sheet-1988", "canonical": false, "title": "Ultima V: The Wait Is Over (product fact sheet)", "author": "Origin Systems", "year": 1988, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/download/Ultima_V_The_Wait_is_Over/Ultima_V_The_Wait_is_Over_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Individuals with their own daily routines, so the player must know whom to speak with and where and when, and shops unavailable at night after shopkeepers have gone home." }, { "key": "becoming-a-warrior-of-destiny-1988", "canonical": false, "title": "Becoming a \"Warrior of Destiny\"", "author": "Scorpia (Computer Gaming World, no. 47)", "year": 1988, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/download/Computer_Gaming_World_Issue_47/Computer_Gaming_World_Issue_47_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Ultima V review, pp. 12-14", "note": "Information gathered by talking to townspeople through keywords, and towns locking up for the evening after sunset." }, { "key": "ultima-v-2016", "canonical": false, "title": "Ultima V", "author": "Jimmy Maher (The Digital Antiquarian)", "year": 2016, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.filfre.net/2016/02/ultima-v/", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Characters following daily schedules instead of standing in one spot, the innkeeper Jeremy's day, guard shifts, drawbridges, and shops opening and closing." }, { "key": "deadline-2012", "canonical": false, "title": "Deadline", "author": "Jimmy Maher (The Digital Antiquarian)", "year": 2012, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.filfre.net/2012/07/deadline/", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Deadline's characters moving about with agendas of their own on a timed evening, Marc Blank's 1983 account of events happening at set times, and The Count (1979) as an earlier, more limited attempt." }, { "key": "the-legend-of-zelda-majora-s-mask-instruction-booklet-2000", "canonical": false, "title": "The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask instruction booklet", "author": "Nintendo", "year": 2000, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/download/Nintendo64Manuals_201812/Legend%20of%20Zelda%2C%20The%20-%20Majora%27s%20Mask%20%28USA%29.pdf", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Using the Bomber's Notebook, p. 35; The lives of the Terminians, p. 38; Track People's Schedules with the Notebook, p. 41", "note": "Routines repeated at the same times after each reset, stores open only late at night or with limited hours, the 72-hour period, and the notebook recording up to 20 people's schedules and the tasks to redo." }, { "key": "day-cycle", "canonical": false, "title": "Day Cycle", "author": "Stardew Valley Wiki", "year": null, "year_approx": false, "type": "wiki", "publisher": null, "url": null, "accessed": null, "locator": null, "note": "Villagers moving by time of day and day of the week, shops opening by their shop schedules, the day from 6am to 2am, and 0.7 real seconds per game minute." }, { "key": "friendship", "canonical": false, "title": "Friendship", "author": "Stardew Valley Wiki", "year": null, "year_approx": false, "type": "wiki", "publisher": null, "url": null, "accessed": null, "locator": null, "note": "Friendship from talking once a day and from gifts, daily decay without talk, and bedrooms opening at two hearts for easier talking and gifting." }, { "key": "the-elder-scrolls-iv-oblivion-interview-2005", "canonical": false, "title": "The Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion Interview", "author": "GameBanshee", "year": 2005, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.gamebanshee.com/k68pc", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Gavin Carter, quoted from Next Generation, on Radiant AI giving more than 1,000 NPCs 24-hour schedules of sleeping, eating, working and reading." }, { "key": "npc-daycycles-in-kingdom-come-deliverance-2-2024", "canonical": false, "title": "NPC Daycycles in Kingdom Come Deliverance 2", "author": "Martin Labuť (Warhorse Studios), Game Developers Session 2024", "year": 2024, "year_approx": false, "type": "talk", "publisher": null, "url": "https://2024.gdsession.com/index.php?action=kcd", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Nearly 2,400 persistent NPCs following daily schedules at all times, placed largely by hand, and many featured in quests that interact with their daycycles." }, { "key": "kingdom-come-deliverance-2-dev-talks-about-dynamic-npc-routines-and-emergent-storytelling-for-side-quests-2024", "canonical": false, "title": "Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 Dev Talks About Dynamic NPC Routines and Emergent Storytelling for Side Quests", "author": "Alessio Palumbo (Wccftech)", "year": 2024, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://wccftech.com/kingdom-come-deliverance-2-dev-talks-about-dynamic-npc-routines-and-emergent-storytelling-for-side-quests/", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Martin Ziegler, quoted from the Epic Games Store blog, on routines of breakfast, work, shopping and the pub that change after violence or theft, with people staying home, carrying weapons or calling for more patrols." }, { "key": "kingdom-come-deliverance-ii-shape-and-evolve-henry-your-way-2024", "canonical": false, "title": "Kingdom Come Deliverance II, Shape and evolve Henry your way", "author": "Warhorse Studios and PLAION", "year": 2024, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://steamstore-a.akamaihd.net/news/externalpost/steam_community_announcements/6350729003498379102", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Crimes under cover of darkness that may go unpunished, followed by armed locals, more vigilant guards and higher shop prices." }, { "key": "survival-instincts-cooking-hunting-and-staying-alive-in-kcd-ii-2024", "canonical": false, "title": "Survival Instincts: Cooking, Hunting and Staying Alive in KCD II", "author": "Warhorse Studios and PLAION", "year": 2024, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://steamstore-a.akamaihd.net/news/externalpost/steam_community_announcements/6146943657173937594", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Residents pursuing their own interests while Henry sleeps, and a player found where he should not be woken and fined or arrested." } ], "n_examples": 3, "n_sources": 12, "word_count": 553, "updated": "2026-10-30", "url": "/systems/npc-schedules" }, { "id": "pollution", "name": "Pollution", "status": "verified", "domain": "environment", "driver": "autonomous", "core": [], "parts": [ "world-clock", "conditional-spawn", "return-to-rest", "exposure", "propagation", "demand", "treatment", "forecast" ], "core_parts": [], "definition": "Industry, power and traffic emit pollution that builds up where it is made or on a shared track, lowering health, land value, yields or growth or bringing disaster, until it is cleaned up, absorbed or cut by cleaner production", "aliases": [ "Environmental Pollution", "Emissions" ], "media": [ "video", "board-card" ], "mechanics": [ "adjacency-bonuses", "base-building", "network-building", "upkeep", "victory-points" ], "examples": [ { "title": "SimCity", "year": 1989, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Will Wright (Maxis)", "components": [ "adjacency-bonuses", "network-building" ], "parts": [ "conditional-spawn" ], "note": "A pollution map tracks a nuisance level in every area, made mainly by industrial zones as they grow, by traffic and by coal plants. It lowers residential growth and land value and counts against the city score, high levels provoke monster attacks, and the remedies are dispersing industry and replacing roads with rails.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Civilization", "year": 1991, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Sid Meier and Bruce Shelley (MicroProse)", "components": [ "base-building", "upkeep", "victory-points" ], "parts": [ "conditional-spawn", "treatment", "forecast" ], "note": "A city's resources, and its population after the Automobile, give nearby squares a chance each turn of turning polluted, 1% per smokestack shown. A polluted square halves its yields and costs 10 points of score until Settlers clean it in four turns, improvements with upkeep cut the chance, and nine or more polluted squares risk global warming.", "latest": false }, { "title": "CO2: Second Chance", "year": 2018, "year_approx": false, "medium": "board-card", "creator": "Vital Lacerda (Giochix)", "components": [ "markets", "victory-points", "end-game-triggers", "semi-cooperative" ], "parts": [ "world-clock", "conditional-spawn", "demand" ], "note": "Each decade a region whose energy needs no green plant meets gets a fossil fuel plant, which raises the global CO2 track and costs a carbon permit or a fine at the market price. Cooperative players spend victory points to push the track down at a price rising each decade, and at 500 ppm every player loses.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Factorio", "year": 2020, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Wube Software", "components": [ "base-building", "resource-conversion", "difficulty-settings" ], "parts": [ "return-to-rest", "exposure", "propagation" ], "note": "Machines and boilers emit pollution into the chunk around them, and a chunk above 15 spreads 2% to each of its four neighbours every 64 ticks. Ground, water and trees absorb it, trees losing leaves where it is heavy, enemy nests absorb it to send attacks, and its settings are chosen at map generation.", "latest": true }, { "title": "Cities: Skylines II", "year": 2023, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Colossal Order", "components": [ "adjacency-bonuses", "network-building" ], "parts": [ "return-to-rest", "exposure", "propagation" ], "note": "Power plants, landfills, incinerators, industry and traffic emit air, ground, water and noise pollution that lowers citizens' health, and sick citizens cannot work. Polluted ground spreads to a whole groundwater deposit so pumps draw dirty water, and filters, traffic policies and siting downwind or away from homes reduce the harm.", "latest": false } ], "provenance": { "title": "SimCity", "year": 1989, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "confidence": "medium", "note": "The earliest documented use cited is SimCity, whose manual (copyright 1989) tracks pollution in every area of the city, made by industry, traffic and coal plants, lowering residential growth and land value, counting against the city score and provoking monster attacks. Earlier city and management games, and board games with a pollution track, remain unsurveyed, so the title is the earliest cited rather than a defended origin." }, "established": null, "sources": [ { "key": "simcity-the-city-simulator-user-documentation-dos-version-1991", "canonical": false, "title": "SimCity: The City Simulator, User Documentation, DOS Version", "author": "Maxis (Will Wright; documentation by Michael Bremer and Cliff Ellis)", "year": 1991, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/download/simcity_ibm_manual/SimCity%20-%20Manual_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Maps: Pollution Index Map; Graphs; Overall City Score; Disasters: Monster Attacks; How the Simulator Works: Pollution and Land Value, p. 45", "note": "Software and manual copyright 1989 and 1991. Pollution tracked in every area, its sources in industry, traffic and coal plants, its effect on residential growth, land value and the city score, monster attacks, and the remedies." }, { "key": "sid-meier-s-civilization-manual-1991", "canonical": false, "title": "Sid Meier's Civilization manual", "author": "Sid Meier and Bruce Shelley", "year": 1991, "year_approx": true, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": "MicroProse", "url": "https://archive.org/details/manual_Civilization", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "City display, pp. 68-69; City improvements, pp. 74-75; Environment indicator, p. 95; Civilization Score, p. 120; Planetary Caretaking, pp. 123-125", "note": "Smokestacks as a chance of pollution each turn, improvements that raise or cut it and their upkeep, halved yields, cleanup by Settlers, the score penalty, the sun indicator, and global warming at nine polluted squares." }, { "key": "co2-second-chance-rulebook-version-0-99-2018", "canonical": false, "title": "CO2: Second Chance rulebook (version 0.99)", "author": "Vital Lacerda (Giochix)", "year": 2018, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://c.tabletopia.com/games/co2-second-edition/rules/co2-rulebook-v0-99/en", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Building a power plant, p. 14; Energy Supply Phase, p. 17; Reducing pollution levels, p. 18; Competitive game: Overview and Events Phase, pp. 19-21", "note": "A pre-release version of the rules. Fossil fuel plants for unmet regional energy needs raising the global CO2 track, permits and fines at the market price, green plants replacing fossil ones, points spent to lower the track, loss at 500 ppm, and a second disaster each decade at 400 ppm." }, { "key": "factorio-wiki-pollution", "canonical": false, "title": "Factorio Wiki: Pollution", "author": "Official Factorio Wiki", "year": null, "year_approx": false, "type": "wiki", "publisher": null, "url": null, "accessed": null, "locator": null, "note": "Pollution per chunk, its spread at 2% per 64 ticks above 15, absorption by tiles, trees and spawners, damage to trees, emission rates per building, modules, and map-generation settings." }, { "key": "cities-skylines-ii-feature-highlight-5-city-services-2023", "canonical": false, "title": "Cities: Skylines II Feature Highlight #5: City Services", "author": "Paradox Interactive and Colossal Order", "year": 2023, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.paradoxinteractive.com/games/cities-skylines-ii/features/city-services-districts-policies", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Polluting power plants, landfills and incinerators sited downwind and away from homes, traffic policies and air filters that cut pollution, and pollution lowering citizens' health and so workplace efficiency." }, { "key": "cities-skylines-ii-feature-highlight-6-electricity-water-2023", "canonical": false, "title": "Cities: Skylines II Feature Highlight #6: Electricity & Water", "author": "Paradox Interactive and Colossal Order", "year": 2023, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.paradoxinteractive.com/games/cities-skylines-ii/features/electricity-water", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Ground pollution spreading to a whole groundwater deposit and its recovery, sewage outlets contaminating surface water, wastewater treatment, and polluting power plants and exhaust filters." } ], "n_examples": 5, "n_sources": 6, "word_count": 546, "updated": "2026-10-30", "url": "/systems/pollution" }, { "id": "population-cap", "name": "Population Cap", "status": "verified", "domain": "economy", "driver": "player-action", "core": [], "parts": [ "escalation", "capacity-load" ], "core_parts": [ "capacity-load" ], "definition": "Every unit a side fields takes room under a ceiling that its houses, farms, depots or held centres provide, so production stops at the ceiling until more housing is built or taken, and housing competes with the army for resources", "aliases": [ "Population Limit", "Unit Cap", "Supply Cap" ], "media": [ "board-card", "video" ], "mechanics": [ "base-building", "resource-gathering", "upkeep" ], "examples": [ { "title": "Diplomacy", "year": 1959, "year_approx": false, "medium": "board-card", "creator": "Allan B. Calhamer", "components": [ "area-control", "simultaneous-action-selection" ], "parts": [ "capacity-load" ], "note": "An antecedent: the ceiling is captured rather than built. Each power has as many armies and fleets as the supply centres it held after the last Fall turn; with fewer centres than units it must disband the excess, and with more it may build only in unoccupied home centres, all orders written and revealed at once.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Warcraft II", "year": 1995, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Blizzard Entertainment", "components": [ "base-building", "resource-gathering" ], "parts": [ "capacity-load" ], "note": "Each Town Hall supports one unit and each Farm provides food for four. Gathered gold and lumber pay for farms and units, a food indicator shows production against consumption, and a unit cannot be trained without free food, with the message \"Not Enough Food... Build More Farms\".", "latest": false }, { "title": "Age of Empires", "year": 1997, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Ensemble Studios (Microsoft)", "components": [ "base-building", "resource-gathering" ], "parts": [ "capacity-load" ], "note": "Each House, and the Town Center, supports four villagers, military units or boats, built from the stockpile of gathered food, wood, stone and gold. A unit cannot be made without a free place, a destroyed House leaves its units alive but blocks new ones, and no civilization may exceed 50.", "latest": false }, { "title": "StarCraft", "year": 1998, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Blizzard Entertainment", "components": [ "base-building", "resource-gathering" ], "parts": [ "capacity-load" ], "note": "Terran Supply Depots, Zerg Overlords and Protoss Pylons each provide room for that race's forces, shown as supplies, control or psi. Too few depots and training stops (\"Not Enough Supplies... Build More Supply Depots\"); a Zerg colony cannot grow beyond its Overlords' control, and Pylons also power buildings.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos", "year": 2002, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Blizzard Entertainment", "components": [ "base-building", "resource-gathering", "upkeep" ], "parts": [ "escalation", "capacity-load" ], "note": "Farms, Burrows, Ziggurats and Moon Wells supply the food that troops use. Blizzard's guide to the patched game sets food tiers that tax the gold workers mine, from no upkeep at 0-50 food to 70% income at 51-80 and 40% at 81-100, the maximum.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Age of Empires IV", "year": 2021, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Relic Entertainment (Xbox Game Studios)", "components": [ "base-building", "resource-gathering" ], "parts": [ "capacity-load" ], "note": "Villagers build Houses for 50 wood, each raising the maximum population, and units take different room (a villager 1, a mangonel 3). Malian Houses give 5 at half cost and Chinese Villages 40, at most three; a staff-acknowledged forum report gives 200 as the game's ceiling.", "latest": true } ], "provenance": { "title": "Warcraft: Orcs & Humans", "year": 1994, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "confidence": "medium", "note": "Provenance is scoped to the built form, in which the player raises the ceiling by constructing housing; Diplomacy (1959), whose ceiling is the supply centres a power holds, is an antecedent. The earliest documented built form cited is Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, whose manual says farms feed the populace and the armies and that the player must have enough food to supply all units. The manual as transcribed states no number per farm; Warcraft II (1995) prints four. Earlier real-time and turn-based strategy games remain unsurveyed for a housing ceiling." }, "established": null, "sources": [ { "key": "diplomacy-rules-2008-edition-2008", "canonical": false, "title": "Diplomacy rules (2008 edition)", "author": "Avalon Hill (Wizards of the Coast)", "year": 2008, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://media.wizards.com/2015/rules/diplomacy_rules.pdf", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Supply Centers, p. 4; 5. Gaining and Losing Units Phase (After Fall Turn), p. 18", "note": "Units equal to supply centres held after the Fall turn, disbanding the excess, building only in unoccupied home centres, and adjustments written and revealed simultaneously." }, { "key": "warcraft-orcs-humans-manual-1994", "canonical": false, "title": "Warcraft: Orcs & Humans manual", "author": "Blizzard Entertainment", "year": 1994, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": null, "accessed": null, "locator": "Building Descriptions: Farm (Human and Orc); Unit Descriptions: Peasant, Peon", "note": "Farms feeding the populace and the armies, enough food required to supply all units, and the effect of a farm's destruction on the food supply." }, { "key": "warcraft-ii-manual-pc-1995", "canonical": false, "title": "Warcraft II manual (PC)", "author": "Blizzard Entertainment", "year": 1995, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/download/Warcraft_II_-_Manual_-_PC/Warcraft_II_-_Manual_-_PC_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Getting Started: Resources; Establishing Your Settlement (training a Peasant, building a Farm); Human buildings: Farm; Orc buildings: Pig Farm", "note": "Food from Town Halls and Farms, the food indicator, the Not Enough Food message, and resources spent on units and buildings." }, { "key": "age-of-empires-manual-1997", "canonical": false, "title": "Age of Empires manual", "author": "Microsoft", "year": 1997, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/download/manual_Age_of_Empires/Age_of_Empires_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Chapter 1: Playing the game, Building your civilization; Chapter 2: Creating villagers, military units, and boats", "note": "Four units per House and Town Center, the maximum of 50, destroyed Houses, and the stockpile of gathered resources." }, { "key": "starcraft-manual-1998", "canonical": false, "title": "StarCraft manual", "author": "Blizzard Entertainment", "year": 1998, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/download/starcraft_202306/StarCraft_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Getting Started, pp. 15-16; Terran: Support, p. 35; Zerg: Control, p. 56; Protoss buildings and the Psionic Matrix, p. 80", "note": "Supply Depots, Overlords and Pylons, the supply display, and production stopping without enough supplies, control or psi. The scan may be a later printing." }, { "key": "warcraft-iii-reign-of-chaos-manual-2002", "canonical": false, "title": "Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos manual", "author": "Blizzard Entertainment", "year": 2002, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/download/warcraft-iii-manual_202205/Warcraft%20III%20Manual_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Human buildings: Farm; Orc buildings: Burrow; Undead buildings: Ziggurat; Night Elf buildings: Moon Well", "note": "Food structures for each race supporting more troops." }, { "key": "warcraft-iii-basics-upkeep", "canonical": false, "title": "Warcraft III - Basics: Upkeep", "author": "Blizzard Entertainment (Battle.net)", "year": null, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "http://classic.battle.net/war3/basics/upkeep.shtml", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Upkeep as a tax on gold mining by food used, with the 0-50, 51-80 and 81-100 food tiers and 100%, 70% and 40% income." }, { "key": "aoe4-world-data-buildings-and-units", "canonical": false, "title": "AoE4 World data: buildings and units", "author": "AoE4 World", "year": null, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": null, "accessed": null, "locator": null, "note": "House cost and description, Malian Houses, Chinese Villages, and the population each unit takes." }, { "key": "multiple-campaign-scenarios-have-the-wrong-maximum-population-limit-or-the-wrong-hints-2025", "canonical": false, "title": "Multiple campaign scenarios have the wrong maximum population limit (or the wrong hints)", "author": "chai-Ka (Age of Empires Forum)", "year": 2025, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://forums.ageofempires.com/t/multiple-campaign-scenarios-have-the-wrong-maximum-population-limit-or-the-wrong-hints/275438", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "A player report that the actual maximum population is 200, which staff marked as tracked." } ], "n_examples": 6, "n_sources": 9, "word_count": 542, "updated": "2026-10-30", "url": "/systems/population-cap" }, { "id": "queue-management", "name": "Queue Management", "status": "verified", "domain": "inhabitants", "driver": "autonomous", "core": [ "base-building", "needs-and-moods" ], "parts": [ "exposure", "agent-needs", "population-change", "forecast", "capacity-load" ], "core_parts": [ "agent-needs" ], "definition": "Visitors or patients queue for rides, rooms or staff that serve a fixed number at a time, and the wait wears down their patience and comfort, so long queues lower satisfaction and send them out of the park or hospital", "aliases": [ "Queuing", "Waiting Lines" ], "media": [ "video" ], "mechanics": [ "base-building", "needs-and-moods", "upkeep" ], "examples": [ { "title": "Theme Park", "year": 1994, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Bullfrog Productions (Electronic Arts)", "components": [ "needs-and-moods", "base-building" ], "parts": [ "agent-needs", "capacity-load" ], "note": "Visitors join lines laid from a path to each ride, which takes a set number of riders per cycle. A larger capacity shortens the queue and keeps them happier, a shorter ride moves more through at a cost in satisfaction, and visitors who misjudge a long line become irritated by the wait and leave.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Theme Hospital", "year": 1997, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Bullfrog Productions", "components": [ "needs-and-moods", "base-building", "upkeep" ], "parts": [ "agent-needs", "population-change", "forecast", "capacity-load" ], "note": "Patients queue at reception desks and room doors, and the player can reorder them, move them to another room of the same type or set a maximum queue size (6 by default). Patients who cannot sit become fed up, one whose happiness bar falls too low leaves, and reputation sets how many come.", "latest": false }, { "title": "RollerCoaster Tycoon", "year": 1999, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Chris Sawyer (Hasbro Interactive)", "components": [ "needs-and-moods", "base-building", "upkeep" ], "parts": [ "agent-needs", "population-change", "capacity-load" ], "note": "Guests wait on queue lines laid from the path to a ride's entrance, sized to its popularity, load and cycle. A long wait makes them restless and unhappy, an entertainer paid monthly can work the line, and the remedies are more trains, wait-for-load settings, a longer queue or a higher price; unhappy guests leave.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Two Point Hospital", "year": 2018, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Two Point Studios (Sega)", "components": [ "needs-and-moods", "base-building" ], "parts": [ "agent-needs" ], "note": "Patients waiting between appointments grow bored, thirsty and hungry, and become uncomfortable without enough benches in the queue. When the boredom meter empties they rage quit at once, and a patient whose happiness reaches zero leaves; either way the hospital's reputation drops.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Planet Coaster 2", "year": 2024, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Frontier Developments", "components": [ "needs-and-moods", "base-building" ], "parts": [ "exposure", "agent-needs" ], "note": "Guests queuing for a favourite or well-themed ride become excited, and a long wait with poor scenery makes them bored, so they tire faster and leave sooner. Benches, heaters and shelters go along queues, families tolerate long queues less, and a paid Priority Pass lane is let on at a ratio the player sets.", "latest": true } ], "provenance": { "title": "Theme Park", "year": 1994, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "confidence": "medium", "note": "The earliest documented use cited is Theme Park, whose manual (copyright 1994) has visitors form lines for each ride, a ride capacity that sets how long they queue, visitors who become irritated by the wait and leave, and ride length and riders per cycle traded against their satisfaction. Earlier management and amusement-park games remain unsurveyed, so the title is the earliest cited rather than a defended origin." }, "established": null, "sources": [ { "key": "theme-park-pc-scanned-manual-1994", "canonical": false, "title": "Theme Park PC Scanned Manual", "author": "Bullfrog Productions (Electronic Arts)", "year": 1994, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/download/theme-park-scanned-manual/Theme%20Park%20Scanned%20Manual_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Forming a Line, p. 13; Tune-Up Icons, p. 21; Ride Purchaser, p. 32; Park Status and thoughts, pp. 46-47", "note": "Lines for rides, visitors irritated by the wait who leave, ride length and riders per cycle, maximum capacity shortening the queue, and the share of happy and unhappy visitors." }, { "key": "theme-hospital-manual-1997", "canonical": false, "title": "Theme Hospital manual", "author": "Bullfrog Productions", "year": 1997, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/stream/themehospitalmanualscan/Theme%20Hospital%20Manual%20Scan_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Dynamic Info Bar; Corridor items: Reception Desk, Benches; Queue Panel; Patient Information Panel; Policy; Questions and Answers", "note": "Queue sizes at each door, the maximum queue size of 6 by default, moving patients between queues, benches, the happiness bar that sends patients home, reputation drawing patients, and doctors' monthly pay." }, { "key": "rollercoaster-tycoon-manual-1999", "canonical": false, "title": "RollerCoaster Tycoon manual", "author": "Chris Sawyer (Hasbro Interactive; later Atari printing)", "year": 1999, "year_approx": true, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://rctv2.rctspace.com/downloads/RCTycoon%20Manual%2008311.pdf", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Tutorial; Footpaths: Queuing Lines, p. 24; Keeping Your Guests Happy, p. 33; Troubleshooting, p. 41; Entertainers, p. 44; Information Windows, p. 80", "note": "Queue lines laid as paving and sized to the ride, wait-for-load settings, guests restless and unhappy in long lines, entertainers working the line for a monthly salary, and unhappy guests leaving." }, { "key": "two-point-hospital-wiki-patients", "canonical": false, "title": "Two Point Hospital Wiki: Patients", "author": "Two Point Hospital Wiki (Fandom)", "year": null, "year_approx": false, "type": "wiki", "publisher": null, "url": null, "accessed": null, "locator": null, "note": "Patients bored, thirsty and hungry while waiting, discomfort without benches in the queue, rage quitting, and leaving with a loss of reputation." }, { "key": "planet-coaster-2-player-guides-keeping-guests-happy-guests-priority-pass", "canonical": false, "title": "Planet Coaster 2 player guides: Keeping Guests Happy; Guests; Priority Pass", "author": "Frontier Developments", "year": null, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.planetcoaster.com/player-guides/keeping-guests-happy", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Excited and bored guests by the queue they wait in, faster fatigue and earlier departure, benches, heaters and shelters along queues, lower tolerance of families, and the Priority Pass lane and its ratio (the Guests and Priority Pass guides are sibling pages)." }, { "key": "planet-coaster-2-hot-fix-2-2024", "canonical": false, "title": "Planet Coaster 2: Hot Fix 2", "author": "Frontier Developments", "year": 2024, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.planetcoaster.com/news/2024-11-21/hot-fix-2", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Guests tolerating longer queues within reason and using more of the queue path, and corrected queue times, from November 2024." } ], "n_examples": 5, "n_sources": 6, "word_count": 521, "updated": "2026-10-30", "url": "/systems/queue-management" }, { "id": "seasons-and-calendar", "name": "Seasons and Calendar", "status": "unverified", "domain": "environment", "driver": "clock", "core": [], "parts": [ "world-clock", "conditional-spawn", "exposure", "forecast" ], "core_parts": [ "world-clock" ], "definition": "The game keeps a calendar of days and seasons, and the season decides what grows, what can be gathered and which events and festivals occur, so work is planned across a year that ends or repeats on schedule", "aliases": [ "seasonal cycle", "in-game calendar" ], "media": [ "board-card", "video" ], "mechanics": [ "appointment-mechanics", "end-game-triggers", "relationship-systems", "resource-gathering", "upkeep" ], "examples": [ { "title": "Tactics II", "year": 1958, "year_approx": false, "medium": "board-card", "creator": "Charles S. Roberts (Avalon Hill)", "components": [ "random-tables", "grid-movement" ], "parts": [ "world-clock" ], "note": "An antecedent: in the 1961 optional rules each complete turn is a month checked off on a time record card, the first player chooses the starting season, and the season selects the column of the weather table, so the calendar changes conditions on the board without anything growing or being gathered.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Harvest Moon", "year": 1996, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Pack-In-Video", "components": [ "resource-gathering", "upkeep", "relationship-systems", "end-game-triggers" ], "parts": [ "world-clock", "conditional-spawn", "exposure", "forecast" ], "note": "Seasons last 30 days. Vegetables grow in spring and summer, grass lies under snow in winter so feed must be stored, and the mountains yield different wild goods each season. Festivals fall on fixed days, such as the Harvest Festival on the 12th of Fall, and the player has two and a half years to make the farm succeed.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Viticulture: Essential Edition", "year": 2015, "year_approx": false, "medium": "board-card", "creator": "Jamey Stegmaier, Alan Stone and Morten Monrad Pedersen (Stonemaier Games)", "components": [ "worker-placement", "income", "end-game-triggers" ], "parts": [ "world-clock" ], "note": "Each round is a year of four seasons. Wake-up times chosen in spring set the order of play, workers go on summer or winter action spaces, visitors are drawn in fall, each field is harvested once a year, and at year end grapes and wine age and residual payments are collected. The game ends with the year in which a player reaches 20 points.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Stardew Valley", "year": 2016, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "ConcernedApe", "components": [ "resource-gathering", "relationship-systems" ], "parts": [ "world-clock", "conditional-spawn" ], "note": "Four seasons of 28 days. Most crops, foraged items and fish are available only in their season, crops wither when a season ends unless they also grow in the next, and each season holds two to four festivals. A gift given on a villager's birthday earns eight times the usual friendship points.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Animal Crossing: New Horizons", "year": 2020, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Nintendo", "components": [ "appointment-mechanics", "resource-gathering" ], "parts": [ "world-clock", "conditional-spawn" ], "note": "The game clock is linked to real time, so the seasons and the time of day follow the player's own clock, with a Southern Hemisphere option added. The insects, sea creatures and fish to be found change with the season and the time of day.", "latest": true } ], "provenance": { "title": "Harvest Moon", "year": 1996, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "confidence": "low", "note": "The definition is scoped to a calendar that changes what grows, what can be gathered and which events occur. The earliest documented use cited is Harvest Moon, whose manual sets 30-day seasons with seasonal crops, seasonal wild goods and festivals on fixed days. Tactics II (1958) is an antecedent whose calendar of monthly turns sets only the weather odds. Earlier strategy and simulation games with seasonal turns remain unsurveyed, so the title is not defended as an origin." }, "established": { "title": "Harvest Moon", "year": 1996, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "confidence": "low", "note": "Eric Barone told NPR in 2025 that Stardew Valley was meant as a game inspired by those he played as a child, such as Harvest Moon, and Stardew Valley keeps seasonal crops and festivals on fixed days. The documented line runs to one later game." }, "sources": [ { "key": "harvest-moon-instruction-booklet-super-nes-us-1997", "canonical": false, "title": "Harvest Moon instruction booklet (Super NES, US)", "author": "Natsume", "year": 1997, "year_approx": true, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/download/snes_Harvest_Moon_USA/Harvest_Moon_USA_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "You Have 2 1/2 Years; Vegetables; Feeding; Seasonal fruits; Festivals; Other Happenings", "note": "Two and a half years of play, seasons of 30 days, vegetables by season, grass stored for winter, seasonal wild goods in the mountains, festivals on fixed days, and the summer hurricane season." }, { "key": "tactics-ii-instruction-manual-1961", "canonical": false, "title": "Tactics II instruction manual", "author": "Avalon Hill", "year": 1961, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/download/tactics_ii_board_game_1963_scan1/tactics_ii_instruction_manual_1961_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Optional Rules: Prepare for Play; Weather", "note": "The chosen starting season, monthly complete turns checked off on a time record card, and the die rolled under the season's column of the Weather Table." }, { "key": "viticulture-essential-edition-rulebook-2015", "canonical": false, "title": "Viticulture Essential Edition rulebook", "author": "Jamey Stegmaier, Alan Stone and Morten Monrad Pedersen (Stonemaier Games)", "year": 2015, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://cdn.1j1ju.com/medias/9f/c0/a5-viticulture-essential-edition-rulebook.pdf", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Object of the Game; Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter; Worker Placement; Harvesting Fields; Year End", "note": "The year of four seasons, the wake-up chart, seasonal action spaces, one harvest per field per year, ageing and residual payments at year end, and the game ending with the year in which a player reaches 20 points." }, { "key": "seasons-friendship", "canonical": false, "title": "Seasons; Friendship", "author": "Stardew Valley Wiki", "year": null, "year_approx": false, "type": "wiki", "publisher": null, "url": null, "accessed": null, "locator": null, "note": "Four seasons of 28 days, seasonal crops, foraging and fish, crops withering at the change of season, two to four festivals a season, and the eightfold birthday gift multiplier." }, { "key": "the-legacy-and-future-of-the-farming-game-stardew-valley-2025", "canonical": false, "title": "The legacy, and future, of the farming game Stardew Valley", "author": "Vincent Acovino and Juana Summers (NPR)", "year": 2025, "year_approx": false, "type": "interview", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.npr.org/2025/01/24/g-s1-44510/the-legacy-and-future-of-the-farming-game-stardew-valley", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Eric Barone's aim of making a game inspired by those he played as a child, like Harvest Moon." }, { "key": "animal-crossing-new-horizons-caters-for-players-in-the-southern-hemisphere-finally-2019", "canonical": false, "title": "Animal Crossing New Horizons caters for players in the Southern Hemisphere, finally", "author": "Liam Doolan (Nintendo Life)", "year": 2019, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2019/06/animal_crossing_new_horizons_caters_for_players_in_the_southern_hemisphere_finally", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Producer Hisashi Nogami on the game clock linked to real time, seasons and time of day following the player's clock, and the new Southern Hemisphere option." }, { "key": "animal-crossing-new-horizons-product-page", "canonical": false, "title": "Animal Crossing: New Horizons (product page)", "author": "Nintendo", "year": null, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/animal-crossing-new-horizons-switch/", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Explore your island", "note": "Different critters found depending on the season and time of day, and the March 20, 2020 release date." } ], "n_examples": 5, "n_sources": 7, "word_count": 505, "updated": "2026-10-30", "url": "/systems/seasons-and-calendar" }, { "id": "settlement-raids", "name": "Settlement Raids", "status": "unverified", "domain": "pacing", "driver": "adaptive", "core": [], "parts": [ "world-clock", "conditional-spawn", "escalation", "agent-memory", "intensity-reading", "forecast", "lasting-damage", "headcount-scaling", "capacity-load" ], "core_parts": [], "definition": "Attacks on the player's base or settlement come on a schedule or as it grows, with a size read from its wealth, population or the player's progress, so building up draws larger raids against the walls and defenders it pays for", "aliases": [ "base raids", "horde nights" ], "media": [ "video", "board-card" ], "mechanics": [ "base-building", "boss-encounters", "difficulty-settings", "experience-levels" ], "examples": [ { "title": "Dwarf Fortress", "year": 2006, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Tarn Adams and Zach Adams (Bay 12 Games)", "components": [ "base-building", "difficulty-settings" ], "parts": [ "escalation", "agent-memory", "intensity-reading", "lasting-damage" ], "note": "In the current version invasions follow the fortress's title, set by population, created wealth and exported wealth. Hamlets and villages draw only ambushes; from 80 dwarves sieges come, from 10 regulars up to 120 and 40 monsters. Hard difficulty roughly halves the thresholds, and invaders bring rams, miners and siege engineers against the walls.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Dead of Winter", "year": 2014, "year_approx": false, "medium": "board-card", "creator": "Jonathan Gilmour and Isaac Vega", "components": [ "push-your-luck", "semi-cooperative" ], "parts": [ "conditional-spawn", "capacity-load" ], "note": "Each colony phase adds one zombie at the colony per two survivors there, rounded up, one per survivor elsewhere, and one per noise token left by searching on a die roll of 3 or lower. Zombies fill the entrances in turn, a barricade stops one, and a full entrance kills the colony's lowest-influence survivor and lowers the shared morale.", "latest": false }, { "title": "RimWorld", "year": 2018, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Ludeon Studios (Tynan Sylvester)", "components": [ "base-building", "difficulty-settings" ], "parts": [ "conditional-spawn", "intensity-reading" ], "note": "The storyteller buys raiders with raid points computed from colony wealth (buildings at half value) and colonists, multiplied by the chosen threat scale, a factor easing the first 40 days, and an adaption factor that lightens raids after colonists die or fall. Cassandra Classic sends major threats in 4.6-day on phases and 6-day off phases from day 11.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Factorio", "year": 2020, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Wube Software", "components": [ "base-building", "difficulty-settings" ], "parts": [ "conditional-spawn", "escalation", "intensity-reading" ], "note": "Biters attack only when the factory's pollution cloud reaches their nests, which consume pollution to send attackers, mustered every 1 to 10 minutes. An evolution factor raised by time, total pollution produced and destroyed nests brings bigger biters and spitters, and its rates are set at world generation.", "latest": false }, { "title": "7 Days to Die", "year": 2024, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "The Fun Pimps", "components": [ "base-building", "experience-levels", "difficulty-settings", "cooperative-play" ], "parts": [ "world-clock", "conditional-spawn", "intensity-reading", "forecast", "headcount-scaling" ], "note": "A Blood Moon horde comes every seventh in-game day by default, 22:00 to 04:00, after a red warning on the day counter. Its waves and zombie types follow game stage, player level plus days survived times a difficulty factor, with party members counted at diminishing shares. Heat from workstations and generators draws Screamers who summon hordes.", "latest": true }, { "title": "Valheim", "year": 2026, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Iron Gate (Coffee Stain Publishing)", "components": [ "base-building", "boss-encounters" ], "parts": [ "conditional-spawn", "intensity-reading" ], "note": "Every 46 minutes there is a 20% chance of a raid on a player standing within 40 metres of at least three base structures, outside dungeons. Which raids can come depends on the bosses defeated, from boars and necks at the start to drakes, fulings and charred armies later, and most end when the player holds the area until a timer runs out.", "latest": false } ], "provenance": { "title": "Dwarf Fortress", "year": 2006, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "confidence": "low", "note": "The earliest documented use cited is Dwarf Fortress, whose August 2006 release gives two civilizations a siege token and one an ambush token in its raw files, so sieges on the fortress are in the first public version. The rule tying sieges to population and wealth is documented only for the current version. Earlier games with attacks on a player's base, such as hero invasions and real-time strategy attack waves, remain unsurveyed and may be scripted rather than sized by the base." }, "established": null, "sources": [ { "key": "siege", "canonical": false, "title": "Siege", "author": null, "year": null, "year_approx": false, "type": "wiki", "publisher": "Dwarf Fortress Wiki", "url": null, "accessed": null, "locator": null, "note": "Sieges against the fortress from 80 population, the fortress title thresholds of population, created and exported wealth with the invader counts for each, hard difficulty halving the triggers, rams, miners and siege engineers, and invaders remembering traps." }, { "key": "dwarf-fortress-0-21-101-19d-entity-default-txt-2006", "canonical": false, "title": "Dwarf Fortress 0.21.101.19d, entity_default.txt", "author": "Bay 12 Games", "year": 2006, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/download/dwarf-fortress-0.21.101.19d/df_21_101_19d.zip/raw%2Fobjects%2Fentity_default.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "ENTITY:MOUNTAIN, ENTITY:PLAINS, ENTITY:FOREST", "note": "The August 2006 release's raw files giving the mountain and plains civilizations the SIEGER token and the forest civilization the AMBUSHER token." }, { "key": "dead-of-winter-a-crossroads-game-rulebook-2014", "canonical": false, "title": "Dead of Winter: A Crossroads Game, rulebook", "author": "Jonathan Gilmour and Isaac Vega (Plaid Hat Games)", "year": 2014, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://media.plaidhatgames.com/old_images/games/dead-of-winter/rules.pdf", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Search, p. 9; Barricade, p. 10; Colony Phase, Add Zombies, p. 12; Adding Zombies, p. 13", "note": "Zombies added each round by survivors at the colony and other locations and by noise tokens, entrances filled in turn, barricades, overruns killing survivors and lowering morale, and the game's end at zero morale." }, { "key": "rimworld-steam-store-listing-2018", "canonical": false, "title": "RimWorld (Steam store listing)", "author": "Ludeon Studios", "year": 2018, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://store.steampowered.com/api/appdetails?appids=294100&l=english", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "About This Game", "note": "Raids dealt by an AI storyteller, the choice of storytellers, Cassandra Classic going for rising tension, and the game as inspired by Dwarf Fortress." }, { "key": "raid-points", "canonical": false, "title": "Raid points", "author": null, "year": null, "year_approx": false, "type": "wiki", "publisher": "RimWorld Wiki", "url": null, "accessed": null, "locator": null, "note": "Raid points as the storyteller's budget for raiders, computed from wealth points and pawn points times threat scale, starting factor and adaption factor, with buildings at half value and the threat scale of each difficulty." }, { "key": "cassandra-classic", "canonical": false, "title": "Cassandra Classic", "author": null, "year": null, "year_approx": false, "type": "wiki", "publisher": "RimWorld Wiki", "url": null, "accessed": null, "locator": null, "note": "The default storyteller's cycle of 4.6-day on and 6-day off phases from day 11, one or two major threats per on phase, and about 8.5 major threats a year." }, { "key": "enemies", "canonical": false, "title": "Enemies", "author": null, "year": null, "year_approx": false, "type": "wiki", "publisher": "Factorio Wiki", "url": null, "accessed": null, "locator": null, "note": "Attacks launched only when the factory's pollution reaches nests, pollution consumed to send attackers every 1 to 10 minutes, and the evolution factor raised by time, pollution and destroyed nests, with rates set at world generation." }, { "key": "7-days-to-die-steam-store-listing-2024", "canonical": false, "title": "7 Days to Die (Steam store listing)", "author": "The Fun Pimps", "year": 2024, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://store.steampowered.com/api/appdetails?appids=251570&l=english", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "About This Game", "note": "Forts designed with traps, turrets and defensive positions to survive the undead, and players building settlements together." }, { "key": "balancing-the-blood-moon", "canonical": false, "title": "Balancing the Blood Moon", "author": null, "year": null, "year_approx": false, "type": "wiki", "publisher": "7 Days To Die Wiki", "url": null, "accessed": null, "locator": null, "note": "The Blood Moon every seventh in-game day from 22:00 to 04:00, zombies scaled by game stage, the frequency, warning and enemy count settings, and party game stage counted at diminishing shares." }, { "key": "leveling-speedrun-1-100", "canonical": false, "title": "Leveling Speedrun: 1-100", "author": null, "year": null, "year_approx": false, "type": "wiki", "publisher": "7 Days To Die Wiki", "url": null, "accessed": null, "locator": null, "note": "Game stage as player level plus adjusted days alive times a difficulty factor of 1.2, and heat from player activity drawing Screamers who summon hordes." }, { "key": "events", "canonical": false, "title": "Events", "author": null, "year": null, "year_approx": false, "type": "wiki", "publisher": "Valheim Wiki", "url": null, "accessed": null, "locator": null, "note": "A 20% chance of a raid every 46 minutes for a player within 40 metres of three base structures, raids enabled and disabled by bosses defeated, and raids ending when the player holds the area until a timer runs out." } ], "n_examples": 6, "n_sources": 11, "word_count": 541, "updated": "2026-10-30", "url": "/systems/settlement-raids" }, { "id": "simulated-economy", "name": "Simulated Economy", "status": "verified", "domain": "economy", "driver": "autonomous", "core": [ "resource-conversion" ], "parts": [ "conditional-spawn", "agent-needs", "population-change", "demand" ], "core_parts": [ "demand" ], "definition": "Simulated producers and consumers in towns, factories or populations turn goods into other goods and use them up, so supply, demand and prices change without the player, who trades in, builds into or disrupts the running economy", "aliases": [ "Dynamic Economy" ], "media": [ "video" ], "mechanics": [ "markets", "pick-up-and-deliver", "resource-conversion", "resource-gathering" ], "examples": [ { "title": "Railroad Tycoon", "year": 1990, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Sid Meier (MicroProse)", "components": [ "pick-up-and-deliver", "resource-conversion" ], "parts": [ "population-change", "demand" ], "note": "An antecedent. In the complex economy a steel mill converts delivered coal into a supply of steel and a factory turns steel into goods a city wants, while new coal fields, a burnt factory or a growing city shift supply and demand. Freight is paid by delivery, not at a price that moves with supply.", "latest": false }, { "title": "The Patrician", "year": 1992, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "ASCON Software", "components": [ "markets", "resource-conversion", "pick-up-and-deliver" ], "parts": [ "population-change", "demand" ], "note": "The German manual says prices are not set arbitrarily but follow supply and demand in each town's economic structure, crockery output depends on the pig iron and leather in town and on population, which depends on food, and a player trading only luxuries can collapse the system. The player's fleet carries eighteen goods among sixteen towns.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Ultima Online", "year": 1997, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Origin Systems", "components": [ "resource-gathering", "resource-conversion", "markets" ], "parts": [ "conditional-spawn", "demand" ], "note": "Every object drew on a fixed bank of resources that returned to it on decay. Players mined, hunted and crafted, and NPC shopkeepers priced goods from inventory, sell-through and cash on hand. Hoarding drained the bank, and the closed loop gave way to resources created at a constant rate.", "latest": false }, { "title": "X3: Reunion", "year": 2005, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Egosoft", "components": [ "resource-conversion", "markets", "pick-up-and-deliver" ], "parts": [ "agent-needs", "demand" ], "note": "Factories turn primary resources such as Energy Cells into products and send their own freight ships to buy inputs. A well-stocked plant sells cheap and a short factory pays a premium, so a shortage ripples outward; the player hauls between them or builds factories of their own.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Victoria 3", "year": 2022, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Paradox Development Studio", "components": [ "resource-conversion", "markets" ], "parts": [ "agent-needs", "demand" ], "note": "Buildings staffed by pops produce and consume goods, and pops' own spending adds demand. Local production and consumption become a market's sell and buy orders, and the balance of orders moves each good's price around its base price.", "latest": true } ], "provenance": { "title": "The Patrician", "year": 1992, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "confidence": "medium", "note": "The earliest documented use cited is Der Patrizier, whose 1992 German manual says prices follow supply and demand in each town's economic structure and ties a town's production to its stocks of raw materials and its population, and population to food. Two antecedents are documented. In Sid Meier's Pirates! (1987) colonies gain or lose economic strength with trade, raids and disease, and a town's prices follow that strength, but no goods are produced or consumed. In Railroad Tycoon (1990) industries convert delivered cargo and supply and demand shift, but freight rates do not move with them. Earlier trading games such as M.U.L.E. (1983) remain unsurveyed, so the title is the earliest cited rather than a defended origin." }, "established": null, "sources": [ { "key": "der-patrizier-manual-1992", "canonical": false, "title": "Der Patrizier (manual)", "author": "ASCON Software GmbH", "year": 1992, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/download/patrician-the-1992-manual-de/Patrician%2C%20The%20%281992%29_manual-de_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Vorbemerkung, 1.1", "note": "Prices adapted to each town's economic structure by supply and demand within limits; crockery production depending on pig iron, leather and population, and population on food; the system able to collapse if a player trades only luxuries; sixteen towns and eighteen goods." }, { "key": "railroad-tycoon-manual-1990", "canonical": false, "title": "Railroad Tycoon (manual)", "author": "MicroProse Software", "year": 1990, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/download/railroadtycoonmanual/RailroadTycoon-Manual_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Reality Levels, p. 17; Train #2 example, p. 42; Railroad Stations, p. 58; Economic Climate, p. 103", "note": "The basic and complex economies; the steel mill converting coal into steel and the factory converting steel into goods; supply and demand changed by new coal fields, burnt factories and city growth; an economic climate that changes the supply of cargo." }, { "key": "sid-meier-s-pirates-manual-second-edition-1987", "canonical": false, "title": "Sid Meier's Pirates! manual, second edition", "author": "MicroProse (Sid Meier and Arnold Hendrick)", "year": 1987, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": null, "accessed": null, "locator": "p. 39, Local Merchants; The Rise & Fall of Colonies", "note": "Merchant communities proportional to a town's economic strength and population, with higher prices in strong towns; colonies growing with trade and declining with raids and disease." }, { "key": "the-in-game-economics-of-ultima-online-1999", "canonical": false, "title": "The In-game Economics of Ultima Online", "author": "Zachary Booth Simpson", "year": 1999, "year_approx": false, "type": "paper", "publisher": null, "url": "https://gwern.net/doc/economics/1999-04-07-simpson-theingameconomicsofultimaonline.html", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Chapter 4, The Macroeconomic Design; Chapter 5, Failure of NPC Shopkeeper Economy; Hoarding and The Failure Of The Closed Economy", "note": "The fixed resource bank recycled on decay, mining and hunting, NPC shopkeepers pricing from inventory, sell-through, resource value and cash on hand, hoarding, and the change to a constant inflow of resources." }, { "key": "x3-reunion-users-manual-2005", "canonical": false, "title": "X3 Reunion Users Manual", "author": "Egosoft and Enlight", "year": 2005, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/download/X3_REUNION/X3_REUNION_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "The X Universe Economy, pp. 31-34", "note": "Prices set by each station's stock, factories sending freight ships for inputs, shortages with knock-on effects, market saturation, and player-owned factories." }, { "key": "dev-diary-57-the-journey-so-far-2022", "canonical": false, "title": "Dev Diary #57 - The Journey So Far", "author": "Paradox Interactive", "year": 2022, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.paradoxinteractive.com/games/victoria-3/news/dev-diary-57-the-journey-so-far", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Buildings that produce and consume goods, staffed by pops paid wages, and pops' consumption driving demand." }, { "key": "victoria-3-s-dev-diary-9-tackles-national-markets-and-its-open-economic-model-2021", "canonical": false, "title": "Victoria 3's Dev Diary 9 Tackles National Markets and Its Open Economic Model", "author": "Bogdan Robert Mateș (GameWatcher)", "year": 2021, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.gamewatcher.com/victoria-3-dev-diary-9-national-markets-open-economic-model", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Quotes the developer diary on local production and consumption feeding buy and sell orders, and price set by their balance with the base price as a baseline." } ], "n_examples": 5, "n_sources": 7, "word_count": 453, "updated": "2026-10-30", "url": "/systems/simulated-economy" }, { "id": "spreading-blight", "name": "Spreading Blight", "status": "unverified", "domain": "environment", "driver": "autonomous", "core": [], "parts": [ "propagation", "treatment", "containment" ], "core_parts": [ "propagation" ], "definition": "A hostile substance or biome spreads over the map's ground by its own rule and turns what it reaches into its own kind, which stays turned, so the player builds, fights and digs to hold it back or cleanse it", "aliases": [ "biome spread", "spreading biomes" ], "media": [ "video", "board-card" ], "mechanics": [ "base-building", "end-game-triggers", "tower-defence" ], "examples": [ { "title": "Creeper World", "year": 2009, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Knuckle Cracker", "components": [ "base-building", "tower-defence" ], "parts": [ "propagation" ], "note": "An organic mass flows and creeps across the map, through valleys and around hills, until it surrounds the base, which the player expands through an energy collection network and defends with placed blasters, mortars and drone bombers.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Terraria", "year": 2011, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Re-Logic", "components": [ "boss-encounters", "procedural-generation" ], "parts": [ "propagation", "treatment", "containment" ], "note": "Defeating the Wall of Flesh places two strips of evil biome and Hallow at random, whose tiles then convert pure tiles up to three away. A gap three tiles wide or sunflowers stop them, the Clentaminator turns ground back, and Plantera's first defeat halves the rate.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Spirit Island", "year": 2017, "year_approx": false, "medium": "board-card", "creator": "R. Eric Reuss (Greater Than Games)", "components": [ "cooperative-play", "end-game-triggers" ], "parts": [ "propagation" ], "note": "Invaders dealing 2 or more damage to a land add a blight there, and blight added to a blighted land also goes onto one adjacent land, destroying a spirit's presence wherever it lands. When the last blight leaves the Blight Card, its instructions usually lose the shared game.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Creeper World 4", "year": 2020, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Knuckle Cracker", "components": [ "base-building", "tower-defence" ], "parts": [ "propagation" ], "note": "A physics-based fluid floods across 3D terrain in waves while the player builds a base from energy and mined resources and places land, air and orbital weapons, with high ground extending their range.", "latest": true } ], "provenance": { "title": "Creeper World", "year": 2009, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "confidence": "low", "note": "The earliest documented use cited is Creeper World, which contemporary press of August 2009 describes as an enemy that creeps and flows across the map and surrounds the player's base. StarCraft (1998) is an antecedent: its manual has a creep that converts ground around Zerg structures and retreats only when its source is destroyed, but it stops at a fixed range and does not advance on the player. Command & Conquer's Tiberium (1995), Warcraft III's blight (2002) and earlier board and strategy games remain unsurveyed." }, "established": null, "sources": [ { "key": "creeper-world-demo-available-now-2009", "canonical": false, "title": "Creeper World Demo Available Now", "author": "Worthplaying", "year": 2009, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "http://worthplaying.com/article/2009/8/10/news/64193-creeper-world-demo-available-now/", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "The creeper flowing through valleys and around hills and surrounding the base, the energy collection network, blasters, mortars and drone bombers, and the 55 missions." }, { "key": "biome-spread", "canonical": false, "title": "Biome spread", "author": "Terraria Wiki", "year": null, "year_approx": false, "type": "wiki", "publisher": null, "url": null, "accessed": null, "locator": null, "note": "The evil biomes and the Hallow converting tiles within a 7 by 7 square in Hardmode, surface and underground rates, Plantera halving the rate, three-tile gaps, sunflowers and Chlorophyte stopping conversion, and the Clentaminator." }, { "key": "guide-maintaining-world-purity", "canonical": false, "title": "Guide: Maintaining world purity", "author": "Terraria Wiki", "year": null, "year_approx": false, "type": "wiki", "publisher": null, "url": null, "accessed": null, "locator": null, "note": "The strips placed at random after the Wall of Flesh, aggressive spread after it, tunnels around areas of interest, and the Steampunker selling the Clentaminator after a mechanical boss." }, { "key": "spirit-island-rulebook-2017", "canonical": false, "title": "Spirit Island rulebook", "author": "R. Eric Reuss", "year": 2017, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": "Greater Than Games", "url": null, "accessed": null, "locator": "Game Concepts: Blight, Removing Blight, Victory and Defeat; Invader Phase: Blighted Island, Ravage, Effects of Blight", "note": "Cooperative play, blight added by ravaging Invaders, blight cascading to an adjacent land, presence destroyed, the Blight Card and its loss. Read as hosted rules text on a rules site." }, { "key": "starcraft-manual-1998", "canonical": false, "title": "StarCraft manual", "author": "Blizzard Entertainment", "year": 1998, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/download/starcraft_202306/StarCraft_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Zerg: The Creep, p. 55; Hatchery and Creep Colony, pp. 63-64", "note": "Creep spreading from Hatcheries and Creep Colonies to a maximum range, Zerg structures needing it, and its retreat when its source is destroyed." }, { "key": "creeper-world-4-steam-store-page", "canonical": false, "title": "Creeper World 4 (Steam store page)", "author": "Knuckle Cracker", "year": null, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://store.steampowered.com/app/848480/Creeper_World_4/", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Waves of creeper flooding the 3D terrain, the base built from energy and mined resources, high ground, land, air and orbital weapons, and the release of 3 December 2020." }, { "key": "creeper-world-4", "canonical": false, "title": "Creeper World 4", "author": "Knuckle Cracker", "year": null, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://knucklecracker.com/creeperworld4/cw4.php", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "A physics-based flowing enemy with wave mechanics, flooding across 3D terrain." } ], "n_examples": 4, "n_sources": 7, "word_count": 517, "updated": "2026-10-30", "url": "/systems/spreading-blight" }, { "id": "survival-loop", "name": "Survival Loop", "status": "verified", "domain": "body", "driver": "clock", "core": [], "parts": [ "world-clock", "conditional-spawn", "drain", "exposure" ], "core_parts": [ "drain" ], "definition": "Needs such as hunger, thirst, warmth and rest drain with time, exertion and exposure, and the player finds or gathers food and water, crafts tools and builds shelter to refill them, so staying alive frames the rest of play", "aliases": [ "survival mechanics" ], "media": [ "board-card", "video" ], "mechanics": [ "base-building", "needs-and-moods", "resource-conversion", "resource-gathering", "upkeep" ], "examples": [ { "title": "Outdoor Survival", "year": 1972, "year_approx": false, "medium": "board-card", "creator": "Jim Dunnigan (Avalon Hill)", "components": [ "needs-and-moods", "grid-movement", "random-tables" ], "parts": [ "drain", "exposure" ], "note": "Each turn is a day. When a move fails to meet the day's food or water needs, as the scenario's Necessities chart sets them, the Food or Water Index drops a block, and crossing a trigger point lowers the Life Level, which cuts the hexes a person may move. Optional Wilderness Encounters add weather, wrecked shelters, fires and injuries.", "latest": false }, { "title": "The Oregon Trail", "year": 1985, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "MECC", "components": [ "upkeep", "resource-gathering", "random-tables", "exploration-procedures" ], "parts": [ "world-clock", "conditional-spawn", "drain", "exposure" ], "note": "The party eats from a shared food stock at a chosen ration each day. One party health value worsens with weather, pace, short rations and missing winter clothing, and poor health raises the daily chance, up to 40 per cent, of disease or injury. Hunting refills the stock at the cost of a day, with no more than 100 pounds carried back.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater", "year": 2004, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Konami (Hideo Kojima)", "components": [ "needs-and-moods", "resource-gathering", "status-effects" ], "parts": [ "drain" ], "note": "A Stamina Gauge falls as Snake acts and, when low, hurts his performance and slows the recovery of his LIFE. He refills it by eating rations or by food capture, killing or catching jungle plants and animals, with up to three kept alive in cages. Untreated colds and leeches drain the gauge.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Minecraft", "year": 2011, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Mojang (Markus Persson)", "components": [ "needs-and-moods", "resource-gathering", "resource-conversion", "base-building" ], "parts": [ "drain" ], "note": "Hunger, added in Beta 1.8 in 2011, drains with exertion and healing; at 18 of 20 points or more health regenerates, it decides whether the player can sprint, and at zero starvation damage can kill on Hard. In Survival mode players break blocks with tools, craft items at a crafting table and build shelters.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Robinson Crusoe: Adventures on the Cursed Island", "year": 2012, "year_approx": false, "medium": "board-card", "creator": "Ignacy Trzewiczek (Portal Games)", "components": [ "upkeep", "base-building", "hit-points" ], "parts": [ "drain", "exposure" ], "note": "In the night phase every character must eat one food or suffer two wounds, and all food except the non-perishable is then discarded. Without a built Shelter or a natural shelter on the camp's tile, each character suffers a further wound.", "latest": false }, { "title": "The Long Dark", "year": 2017, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Hinterland Studio", "components": [ "needs-and-moods", "resource-gathering", "permadeath" ], "parts": [ "drain", "exposure" ], "note": "Survival Mode tracks Hunger, Thirst, Fatigue and Cold, and every action costs calories. Players hunt, fish and trap and search for food and gear, risking hypothermia, frostbite and dysentery, and a death deletes the save. Playable in early access from 2014.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Valheim", "year": 2026, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Iron Gate (Coffee Stain Publishing)", "components": [ "needs-and-moods", "resource-gathering", "resource-conversion", "base-building", "status-effects" ], "parts": [ "drain" ], "note": "Up to three foods at once raise maximum health and stamina for a time, and an unfed Viking has 25 health. A roofed shelter with a fire grants Rested, faster regeneration for a time set by the comfort of nearby furniture, all crafted from gathered resources that respawn. Playable in early access from 2021.", "latest": true } ], "provenance": { "title": "Outdoor Survival", "year": 1972, "year_approx": false, "medium": "board-card", "confidence": "medium", "note": "The earliest documented use cited is Outdoor Survival, whose rules (second printing, March 1973) move a Food Index and a Water Index down for each day's unmet need, lower a Life Level that cuts movement, and bring weather, shelter and fire through optional encounters. OREGON, reportedly written in 1971 and, according to MECC's 1985 manual, released on the MECC Time Share System in 1975, is a reported antecedent whose early text is not cited. Wargame supply rules are older but charge units rather than a body's needs." }, "established": null, "sources": [ { "key": "outdoor-survival-rules-of-play-1973", "canonical": false, "title": "Outdoor Survival, Rules of Play", "author": "Avalon Hill", "year": 1973, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://lehi-innovation.github.io/boardgame-rules/extracted/outdoor-survival-rules.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Sequence of Play, steps 4–5; How to Use the Life Level Index Chart; Optional Rules: Wilderness Encounter Chart, Life Level Index Counter", "note": "The second printing of March 1973; the daily Food and Water Indexes, trigger points that lower the Life Level and its movement allowance, and the encounter chart's weather, shelters, fires and injuries." }, { "key": "the-oregon-trail-manual-mecc-a157-1985", "canonical": false, "title": "The Oregon Trail manual (MECC-A157)", "author": "MECC", "year": 1985, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/download/MECC_A157_The_Oregon_Trail_Manual/MECC_A157_The_Oregon_Trail_Manual_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Program Preview; Appendix A, Credits; Appendix B, Summary of the Underlying Model, pp. 35–36", "note": "Rations, pace and rest, hunting, the 0 to 140 party health value and its daily factors, the daily disease and injury odds, and OREGON's 1975 release on the MECC Time Share System." }, { "key": "metal-gear-solid-3-snake-eater-instruction-manual-2004", "canonical": false, "title": "Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater instruction manual", "author": "Konami", "year": 2004, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/download/ps2_Metal_Gear_Solid_3-_Snake_Eater_USA/Metal_Gear_Solid_3-_Snake_Eater_USA_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Life Gauge: Poison/Disease, p. 17; Stamina and Eating, p. 18; Food Capture", "note": "The Stamina Gauge, its effect on performance and LIFE recovery, food capture of plants and animals, live capture in three cages, and colds and leeches draining stamina." }, { "key": "food-survival", "canonical": false, "title": "Food; Survival", "author": "Minecraft Wiki", "year": null, "year_approx": false, "type": "wiki", "publisher": null, "url": null, "accessed": null, "locator": null, "note": "The hunger value, its regeneration threshold, sprinting and starvation by difficulty, hunger's addition in Beta 1.8, and gathering, crafting and building in Survival mode." }, { "key": "robinson-crusoe-6-night-phase", "canonical": false, "title": "Robinson Crusoe, 6. Night Phase", "author": "Dized Rules", "year": null, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://rules.dized.com/game/eRQuAkuRQH6gRouwj4U-rw/4picV5agTfy9-ogCbHxGCQ/6-night-phase", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "One food per character or two wounds, the discarding of perishable food, and a wound for each character without a Shelter." }, { "key": "the-long-dark-steam-store-page", "canonical": false, "title": "The Long Dark, Steam store page", "author": "Hinterland Studio", "year": null, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://store.steampowered.com/app/305620/The_Long_Dark/", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Hunger, Thirst, Fatigue and Cold, calories, hunting, fishing and trapping, afflictions, the save deleted on death, and the 2014 Steam launch of Survival Mode." }, { "key": "valheim-beginner-s-guide-eight-tips-i-wish-i-knew-when-i-started-my-viking-journey-2021", "canonical": false, "title": "Valheim Beginner's Guide: Eight Tips I Wish I Knew When I Started My Viking Journey", "author": "Nicolas Perez (The A.V. Club)", "year": 2021, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.avclub.com/valheim-beginners-guide-tips-and-tricks", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Three foods raising health and stamina, 25 health when unfed, resources that respawn, crafting, and Rested from shelter and fire with comfort lengthening it." }, { "key": "valheim-a-guide-to-comfort-levels-and-maximizing-rested-2021", "canonical": false, "title": "Valheim: A Guide To Comfort Levels And Maximizing Rested", "author": "GINX TV", "year": 2021, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.ginx.tv/en/valheim-comfort-guide", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "The Wet, Shelter, Fire, Rested and Comfort icons, and a roof, bed and fire giving a small comfort level and a short Rested time." } ], "n_examples": 7, "n_sources": 8, "word_count": 540, "updated": "2026-10-30", "url": "/systems/survival-loop" }, { "id": "systemic-elements", "name": "Systemic Elements", "status": "unverified", "domain": "environment", "driver": "autonomous", "core": [], "parts": [ "exposure", "propagation", "lasting-damage", "containment" ], "core_parts": [ "propagation" ], "definition": "Elements such as fire, water and wind are held as states of the world's terrain and materials and spread from place to place by rule, so where a fire runs and what it consumes follow from the simulation rather than a script", "aliases": [ "Fire Propagation", "Elemental Simulation", "Chemistry Engine" ], "media": [ "board-card", "video" ], "mechanics": [ "base-building", "physics-puzzles", "status-effects", "stealth-detection" ], "examples": [ { "title": "SimCity", "year": 1989, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Will Wright (Maxis)", "components": [ "base-building", "upkeep" ], "parts": [ "propagation", "containment" ], "note": "Fires spread fairly rapidly through forests and buildings, more slowly over roads, and never across water or clear land, and floods spread gradually. Placed fire stations put out fires within a radius set by their yearly funding, and the player can bulldoze firebreaks.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Far Cry 2", "year": 2008, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Ubisoft Montreal", "components": [ "status-effects", "stealth-detection" ], "parts": [ "exposure", "propagation" ], "note": "The official guide says wind carries fire quickly through dry grass, that fire is weaker in green or wet places and a wildfire nearly impossible after rain, that set-alight enemies die of burns within seconds, and that a fire on one side of a camp draws guards away.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Flash Point: Fire Rescue", "year": 2011, "year_approx": false, "medium": "board-card", "creator": "Kevin Lanzing (Indie Boards & Cards)", "components": [ "action-points", "clocks", "cooperative-play" ], "parts": [ "propagation" ], "note": "After each player's actions a die roll places smoke on the board, smoke beside fire becomes fire and fire on fire explodes, and the building collapses when all 24 damage markers are placed. Players, winning or losing together, spend 2 action points to remove a fire marker.", "latest": false }, { "title": "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild", "year": 2017, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Nintendo", "components": [ "physics-puzzles", "status-effects" ], "parts": [ "exposure", "propagation" ], "note": "A chemistry engine treats fire, water, ice, electricity and wind as elements and trees, rocks and the player as materials: elements change materials' states and each other's, materials cannot change each other's, so fire sets a tree alight and water puts it out.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Noita", "year": 2020, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Nolla Games", "components": [ "procedural-generation", "status-effects" ], "parts": [ "exposure", "propagation", "lasting-damage" ], "note": "Every pixel of a procedurally generated world is a simulated material. A burning pixel tries to ignite a random neighbour, so fire runs through oil, stops at water and turns it to steam, and an enemy drenched in oil can be set alight.", "latest": true } ], "provenance": { "title": "SimCity", "year": 1989, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "confidence": "low", "note": "The earliest documented use cited is SimCity, whose manual describes fires that spread at rates set by the terrain and stop at water and clear land, and floods that spread. Fire rules in board wargames of the 1970s, and computer games before 1989, remain unsurveyed, and an earlier use is likely, so confidence is low." }, "established": null, "sources": [ { "key": "simcity-user-documentation-amiga-text-edition", "canonical": false, "title": "SimCity user documentation (Amiga, text edition)", "author": "Maxis", "year": null, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://discmaster.textfiles.com/view/2217/ACE%20CD%201.iso/files/docs/simcityd.lha/SimCity.doc", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "User Reference: Disasters; Fire Departments; Funding Levels; Maps/Graphs Window", "note": "Fire spreading through forests and buildings, slower over roads, not across water or clear land; firebreaks made with the bulldozer; spreading floods; fire stations' radius, cost, maintenance and funding." }, { "key": "far-cry-2-prima-official-game-guide-2008", "canonical": false, "title": "Far Cry 2: Prima Official Game Guide", "author": "David Knight", "year": 2008, "year_approx": false, "type": "book", "publisher": "Prima Games", "url": "https://archive.org/download/Far_Cry_2_Official_Game_Guide/Far_Cry_2_Official_Game_Guide_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Key Locations, fire tip; Weapons: Flare Pistol, LPO-50 Flamethrower, Molotov Cocktail", "note": "Wind carrying fire through dry grass, fire weaker in green or wet places and after rain, enemies dying of burns, fire as a force multiplier, and fires drawing guards' attention." }, { "key": "flash-point-fire-rescue-rulebook-2011", "canonical": false, "title": "Flash Point: Fire Rescue rulebook", "author": "Kevin Lanzing (Indie Boards & Cards)", "year": 2011, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": null, "accessed": null, "locator": "1. Take Action: Actions; 2. Advance Fire: Explosions, Secondary Effects; Game End", "note": "Smoke placed on a rolled space, smoke beside fire turned to fire, explosions and shockwaves, flashover, 2 action points to remove a fire, collapse at 24 damage markers, and players winning or losing together." }, { "key": "change-and-constant-breaking-conventions-with-the-legend-of-zelda-breath-of-the-wild-2017", "canonical": false, "title": "Change and Constant: Breaking Conventions with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild", "author": "Hidemaro Fujibayashi, Satoru Takizawa and Takuhiro Dohta (Nintendo), Game Developers Conference", "year": 2017, "year_approx": false, "type": "talk", "publisher": null, "url": null, "accessed": null, "locator": null, "note": "The talk that set out the chemistry engine, cited through the reports below." }, { "key": "breath-of-the-wild-science-and-clever-little-lies-2017", "canonical": false, "title": "Breath of the Wild, science, and clever little lies", "author": "Daniel New (Thumbsticks)", "year": 2017, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.thumbsticks.com/gdc-17-breath-of-the-wild-science-lies", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Fire, water, ice, electricity and wind as elements and trees, rocks and the player as materials; the three rules; the engine adopted so that puzzles could reference the way the real world works." }, { "key": "the-legend-of-zelda-breath-of-the-wild-makes-chemistry-just-as-important-as-physics-2017", "canonical": false, "title": "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild makes chemistry just as important as physics", "author": "Mike Minotti (GamesBeat)", "year": 2017, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://gamesbeat.com/the-legend-of-zelda-breath-of-the-wild-makes-chemistry-just-as-important-as-physics/", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "The three rules, fire setting a tree alight and water putting out fire." }, { "key": "noita-a-game-based-on-falling-sand-simulation-2019", "canonical": false, "title": "Noita: a Game Based on Falling Sand Simulation", "author": "Daria Loginova (80.lv), interviewing Petri Purho", "year": 2019, "year_approx": false, "type": "interview", "publisher": null, "url": "https://80.lv/articles/noita-a-game-based-on-falling-sand-simulation/", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "A burning pixel testing a random neighbour, fire spreading in oil and stopping at water, water turned to steam, gases as inverted liquids, burning wood destroyed after a time." }, { "key": "road-to-the-igf-nolla-games-noita-2019", "canonical": false, "title": "Road to the IGF: Nolla Games' Noita", "author": "Joel Couture (Game Developer)", "year": 2019, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.gamedeveloper.com/game-platforms/road-to-the-igf-nolla-games-i-noita-i-", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Every pixel simulated, oil set alight, an oil-drenched enemy killed by fire, and Purho's account of the simulation as emergence-generating machinery." }, { "key": "noita-steam-store-page", "canonical": false, "title": "Noita (Steam store page)", "author": "Nolla Games", "year": null, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://store.steampowered.com/app/881100/Noita/", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Every pixel physically simulated in a procedurally generated world; the full release of 15 October 2020." }, { "key": "q-a-dissecting-the-development-of-dwarf-fortress-with-creator-tarn-adams-2019", "canonical": false, "title": "Q&A: Dissecting the development of Dwarf Fortress with creator Tarn Adams", "author": "John Harris (Game Developer)", "year": 2019, "year_approx": false, "type": "interview", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/q-a-dissecting-the-development-of-i-dwarf-fortress-i-with-creator-tarn-adams", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Active fires handled, fluids advanced and temperature updated in each pass of the world." } ], "n_examples": 5, "n_sources": 10, "word_count": 528, "updated": "2026-10-30", "url": "/systems/systemic-elements" }, { "id": "traffic-simulation", "name": "Traffic Simulation", "status": "verified", "domain": "economy", "driver": "autonomous", "core": [ "network-building" ], "parts": [ "conditional-spawn", "population-change", "capacity-load" ], "core_parts": [], "definition": "Simulated trips or vehicles travel over the roads and rails the player lays, each stretch carries a limited load, and the congestion that forms slows or fails trips, which feeds back into growth, ratings or defeat", "aliases": [ "Traffic Flow", "Trip Generation" ], "media": [ "video" ], "mechanics": [ "network-building", "pick-up-and-deliver", "upkeep" ], "examples": [ { "title": "SimCity", "year": 1989, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Will Wright (Maxis)", "components": [ "network-building", "upkeep" ], "parts": [ "population-change", "capacity-load" ], "note": "Each populated zone generates trips that drive along roads to a proper destination within a limited range. Each road has a limited capacity, jams lower it further, heavy traffic shortens the range, and repeated failed trips make the Sims move out; unpaid road maintenance lets roads decay.", "latest": false }, { "title": "SimCity 2000", "year": 1993, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Maxis", "components": [ "network-building", "upkeep" ], "parts": [ "capacity-load" ], "note": "Each building generates trips to the other zone types within a time limit, avoiding heavy traffic and taking any mass transit it meets on a 50/50 chance. Roads carrying over 88 cars a minute have heavy traffic; buses, highways, rails and subways carry more, and tunnels and subways cost more to maintain.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Transport Tycoon Deluxe", "year": 1995, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Chris Sawyer (MicroProse)", "components": [ "network-building", "pick-up-and-deliver" ], "parts": [], "note": "The player's vehicles carry cargo and passengers between stations and earn more the further they go. Trains stop at red signals, and old vehicles' breakdowns and roadworks cause traffic jams and detours, which lower station ratings so that less cargo and fewer passengers wait for that service.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Mini Motorways", "year": 2021, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Dinosaur Polo Club", "components": [ "network-building", "upgrade-offers", "end-game-triggers" ], "parts": [ "population-change" ], "note": "Houses and destinations appear over time, and cars drive from houses to destinations of their colour along roads drawn from a limited stock of tiles. Each week the player chooses tools such as roundabouts, traffic lights or motorways, and a destination that backs up for too long ends the game.", "latest": true }, { "title": "Cities: Skylines II", "year": 2023, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Colossal Order", "components": [ "network-building", "pick-up-and-deliver" ], "parts": [ "conditional-spawn" ], "note": "Citizens choose routes by time, comfort, money and behaviour, using every lane and switching lanes around jams. Accidents rolled per road segment block lanes until cleared, slow service vehicles let fires spread, and delivery vehicles' costs rise with distance.", "latest": false } ], "provenance": { "title": "SimCity", "year": 1989, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "confidence": "medium", "note": "The earliest documented use cited is SimCity, whose manual (copyright 1989) generates trips from each populated zone, limits each road's capacity, lowers it further in jams, shortens the trip range in heavy traffic, and moves Sims out after repeated failed trips. Earlier city, transport and traffic games remain unsurveyed, so the title is the earliest cited rather than a defended origin." }, "established": null, "sources": [ { "key": "simcity-the-city-simulator-user-documentation-dos-version-1991", "canonical": false, "title": "SimCity: The City Simulator, User Documentation, DOS Version", "author": "Maxis (Will Wright; documentation by Michael Bremer and Cliff Ellis)", "year": 1991, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/download/simcity_ibm_manual/SimCity%20-%20Manual_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Maps: Traffic Density; Scenarios: Bern; How the Simulator Works: Transportation Department and Transportation, Traffic, pp. 44-45", "note": "Software and manual copyright 1989 and 1991. Trip generation, the trip range, road capacity and jams, Sims moving out after failed trips, traffic pollution, road maintenance, and the traffic scenario." }, { "key": "simcity-2000-user-manual-1993", "canonical": false, "title": "SimCity 2000 User Manual", "author": "Michael Bremer (Maxis)", "year": 1993, "year_approx": true, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://classicreload.com/sites/default/files/sim-city-2000-manual.pdf", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Graphs, pp. 94-95; Roads, Mass Transit and trip generation, pp. 106-108", "note": "Traffic thresholds in cars per minute, buses, highways, rails and subways, trip generation with a time limit and a 50/50 chance of mass transit, and the congestion graph." }, { "key": "transport-tycoon-deluxe-manual-1995", "canonical": false, "title": "Transport Tycoon Deluxe manual", "author": "Chris Sawyer (MicroProse)", "year": 1995, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/download/TRANSPORT_TYCOON_DELUXE/TRANSPORT_TYCOON_DELUXE_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Game-Playing Notes: Using Railway Signals; Cargo and passenger distribution to stations; Fund Road Reconstruction; Hints and tips 4-5", "note": "Signals holding trains, station ratings falling when cargo waits, road reconstruction causing traffic jams and detours, and breakdowns of old vehicles causing jams." }, { "key": "mini-motorways-2021", "canonical": false, "title": "Mini Motorways", "author": "Dinosaur Polo Club (Steam store page)", "year": 2021, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://store.steampowered.com/app/1127500/Mini_Motorways/", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Release on 20 July 2021, building a road network one road at a time, and redesigning the city to keep traffic flowing." }, { "key": "mini-motorways-review-less-chill-than-it-seems-2021", "canonical": false, "title": "Mini Motorways review: less chill than it seems", "author": "Catherine Dellosa (Pocket Gamer)", "year": 2021, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.pocketgamer.com/mini-motorways/review-less-chill-than-it-seems", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Cars and destinations appearing over time, pins showing how many cars must reach a destination, limited road tiles, congestion, and too many pins ending the game." }, { "key": "mini-motorways-review-contemplative-commute-2022", "canonical": false, "title": "Mini Motorways review: contemplative commute", "author": "Brian Shea (Game Informer)", "year": 2022, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://gameinformer.com/review/mini-motorways/contemplative-commute", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Houses and destinations matched by colour, a weekly choice of tools such as roundabouts, traffic lights and motorways, and a backed-up destination ending the run." }, { "key": "cities-skylines-ii-feature-highlight-2-traffic-ai-2023", "canonical": false, "title": "Cities: Skylines II Feature Highlight #2: Traffic AI", "author": "Paradox Interactive and Colossal Order", "year": 2023, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.paradoxinteractive.com/games/cities-skylines-ii/features/traffic-ai", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Route choice by time, comfort, money and behaviour, lane use and changing, accidents per road segment, parking, emergency vehicles, and delivery costs rising with distance." } ], "n_examples": 5, "n_sources": 7, "word_count": 515, "updated": "2026-10-30", "url": "/systems/traffic-simulation" }, { "id": "utility-networks", "name": "Utility Networks", "status": "verified", "domain": "economy", "driver": "autonomous", "core": [ "network-building" ], "parts": [ "world-clock", "propagation", "population-change", "capacity-load" ], "core_parts": [ "capacity-load" ], "definition": "Power, water or fluid travels from producing buildings to consuming ones through lines and pipes the player lays, and the simulation weighs supply against consumption on each network, so buildings work, slow or fail as capacity allows", "aliases": [ "Utility Grid", "Power Networks" ], "media": [ "video", "board-card" ], "mechanics": [ "network-building", "resource-conversion", "supply-lines" ], "examples": [ { "title": "SimCity", "year": 1989, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Will Wright (Maxis)", "components": [ "network-building", "supply-lines" ], "parts": [ "propagation", "population-change", "capacity-load" ], "note": "Power lines cost $5 a section and carry power from coal or nuclear plants, which supply about 50 or 150 zones. A periodic check marks zones connected to a plant as powered, too many zones on one plant cause brownouts, and zones cut off by fire, disaster or bulldozing stop developing and decline to empty land.", "latest": false }, { "title": "SimCity 2000", "year": 1993, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Maxis", "components": [ "network-building", "supply-lines" ], "parts": [ "world-clock", "capacity-load" ], "note": "Developed land needs about one megawatt for three tiles, plants collapse after 50 years, and overloading a plant causes brownouts. A second network of pipes carries water from pumps that need power and yield less in the dry season, and towers store water against summer shortages.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Power Grid", "year": 2004, "year_approx": false, "medium": "board-card", "creator": "Friedemann Friese", "components": [ "network-building", "resource-conversion", "markets", "income" ], "parts": [ "capacity-load" ], "note": "Each plant burns a fixed number of fuel tokens bought from the market to power a fixed number of cities, and stores at most twice its fuel. Players connect cities to their networks and are paid each round only for the cities they power; surplus electricity is wasted.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Oxygen Not Included", "year": 2019, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Klei Entertainment", "components": [ "network-building", "resource-conversion" ], "parts": [ "capacity-load" ], "note": "Generators burn coal or hydrogen, or are pedalled by hand, and wires carry their power to machines. A circuit that draws more than its wire carries (1 kW for a plain wire) overloads and damages the wire, so transformers split the base into sections, and batteries hold power for the night and slowly leak it.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Factorio", "year": 2020, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Wube Software", "components": [ "network-building", "supply-lines", "resource-conversion" ], "parts": [ "world-clock", "capacity-load" ], "note": "Boilers burn fuel and water to drive steam engines, solar panels work only by day, and poles link machines into a network. When generation falls short, the power is shared and every machine slows in proportion; accumulators charge from surplus and discharge in a shortfall.", "latest": true }, { "title": "Cities: Skylines II", "year": 2023, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Colossal Order", "components": [ "network-building", "supply-lines" ], "parts": [ "propagation", "population-change", "capacity-load" ], "note": "Low-voltage cables and high-voltage lines carry power through transformer stations of limited capacity, and a bottleneck leaves buildings without power. Without power or water, citizens' well-being falls until they leave and businesses lose efficiency; batteries cover spikes and a deficit is bought from neighbouring cities.", "latest": false } ], "provenance": { "title": "SimCity", "year": 1989, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "confidence": "medium", "note": "The earliest documented use cited is SimCity, whose manual (copyright 1989) sets plants of fixed capacity, power lines laid by the section, a periodic check of each zone's connection, brownouts when too many zones are connected, and the decline of unpowered zones. Earlier city and management games, and industrial board games with a counted capacity, remain unsurveyed, so the title is the earliest cited rather than a defended origin." }, "established": null, "sources": [ { "key": "simcity-the-city-simulator-user-documentation-dos-version-1991", "canonical": false, "title": "SimCity: The City Simulator, User Documentation, DOS Version", "author": "Maxis (Will Wright; documentation by Michael Bremer and Cliff Ellis)", "year": 1991, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/download/simcity_ibm_manual/SimCity%20-%20Manual_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Icons: Power Lines, p. 25, and Power Plants, p. 27; Maps; Disasters; How the Simulator Works: Power, p. 44", "note": "Software and manual copyright 1989 and 1991. Power lines, plant capacity in zones, brownouts, the periodic check for a connection, blackouts from disasters, the decline of unpowered zones, and meltdowns." }, { "key": "simcity-2000-user-manual-1993", "canonical": false, "title": "SimCity 2000 User Manual", "author": "Michael Bremer (Maxis)", "year": 1993, "year_approx": true, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://classicreload.com/sites/default/files/sim-city-2000-manual.pdf", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Water System tool, p. 62; Graphs, pp. 94-95; Power, pp. 102-104; The Water System, pp. 109-110", "note": "Power lines, consumption per tile, brownouts, the 50-year life of plants, the remaining-capacity graphs, and the water system of pumps, pipes, towers and treatment plants with seasonal shortages." }, { "key": "power-grid-deluxe-rules-2014", "canonical": false, "title": "Power Grid Deluxe rules", "author": "Friedemann Friese (2F-Spiele and Rio Grande Games)", "year": 2014, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.riograndegames.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Power-Grid-Deluxe-Rules.pdf", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "The power plant cards, p. 4; Phase 3: Buy Resources, p. 6; Phase 4: Build Generators, pp. 6-7; Phase 5: Bureaucracy, p. 8", "note": "Fuel per plant, storage of twice the fuel, cities supplied per plant, connecting cities to a network, and payment only for cities powered, with surplus wasted." }, { "key": "power-in-oxygen-not-included", "canonical": false, "title": "Power in Oxygen Not Included", "author": "Gamepressure", "year": null, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.gamepressure.com/oxygen-not-included/power/z39d4b", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Manual, coal and hydrogen generators, wires and heavy wire, transformers protecting the grid from overloading, and batteries storing power for the night." }, { "key": "oxygen-not-included-wiki-wire-power", "canonical": false, "title": "Oxygen Not Included Wiki: Wire; Power", "author": "Oxygen Not Included Wiki (wiki.gg)", "year": null, "year_approx": false, "type": "wiki", "publisher": null, "url": null, "accessed": null, "locator": null, "note": "A plain wire's 1 kW limit, the overload that damages a circuit, and battery discharge." }, { "key": "factorio-wiki-electric-system", "canonical": false, "title": "Factorio Wiki: Electric system", "author": "Official Factorio Wiki", "year": null, "year_approx": false, "type": "wiki", "publisher": null, "url": null, "accessed": null, "locator": null, "note": "Even distribution of power, the proportional slowdown in a shortfall, accumulators, solar panels by daylight, pole coverage and wire reach, and the satisfaction bar." }, { "key": "friday-facts-416-fluids-2-0-2024", "canonical": false, "title": "Friday Facts #416: Fluids 2.0", "author": "raiguard (Wube Software)", "year": 2024, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://factorio.com/blog/post/fff-416", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "The old pipe flow whose throughput fell with distance, and its 2024 replacement by fluid segments from which machines draw in proportion to how full the segment is." }, { "key": "cities-skylines-ii-feature-highlight-6-electricity-water-2023", "canonical": false, "title": "Cities: Skylines II Feature Highlight #6: Electricity & Water", "author": "Paradox Interactive and Colossal Order", "year": 2023, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.paradoxinteractive.com/games/cities-skylines-ii/features/electricity-water", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Low- and high-voltage capacity, transformer bottlenecks, emergency batteries, imported electricity, groundwater and sewage, and the effects of shortage on citizens and businesses." } ], "n_examples": 6, "n_sources": 8, "word_count": 535, "updated": "2026-10-30", "url": "/systems/utility-networks" }, { "id": "wanted-level", "name": "Wanted Level", "status": "unverified", "domain": "society", "driver": "player-action", "core": [], "parts": [ "conditional-spawn", "escalation", "return-to-rest", "paid-reset" ], "core_parts": [], "definition": "Crimes the authorities see or learn of raise a level held in tiers, each tier sends a stronger response up to an elite unit, and the level clears when the player escapes notice, pays, or is arrested at a price", "aliases": [ "wanted system" ], "media": [ "tabletop-rpg", "video" ], "mechanics": [ "boss-encounters", "death-penalty", "stealth-detection" ], "examples": [ { "title": "Elite", "year": 1984, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "David Braben and Ian Bell", "components": [ "markets", "reputation-factions" ], "parts": [ "escalation", "paid-reset" ], "note": "Legal status, a Galactic Police record, moves from Clean to Offender to Fugitive when the player attacks police ships or trades in contraband, with no witness rule. Offenders and fugitives are likely to be attacked by police Vipers, bounty hunters bother only fugitives, and abandoning ship in an escape capsule clears the record.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Grand Theft Auto", "year": 1997, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "DMA Design", "components": [ "victory-points", "death-penalty" ], "parts": [ "escalation", "paid-reset" ], "note": "A Wanted Level indicator rises the more crimes the player commits. Arrest resets it to zero in exchange for all weapons and half the Bonus Multiplier that scales every point scored, where death costs only the weapons, and a Police Bribe crate cancels it at once. The manual gives no rule for how the police learn of a crime.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Driver", "year": 1999, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Reflections Interactive (GT Interactive)", "components": [ "stealth-detection", "map-markers" ], "parts": [ "escalation", "return-to-rest" ], "note": "The Felony bar rises when the player speeds or drives recklessly inside a police car's field of view, drawn on the radar as a cone. A chase follows, headquarters sends more cars, their vision widens and their aggression rises with the felony rating, and the radar flashes until the pursuers are lost.", "latest": false }, { "title": "The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind", "year": 2002, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Bethesda Game Studios", "components": [ "stealth-detection", "death-penalty" ], "parts": [ "paid-reset" ], "note": "Crimes the player is detected or seen committing add money to a Bounty, and guards anywhere then try to arrest. The player pays it off and loses any stolen goods, resists and raises it, or goes to jail, where skills degrade with the time served.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Blades in the Dark", "year": 2017, "year_approx": false, "medium": "tabletop-rpg", "creator": "John Harper", "components": [ "downtime-phases", "random-tables", "dice-pool" ], "parts": [ "conditional-spawn", "escalation", "paid-reset" ], "note": "After each score the crew takes 0 to 6 heat by its exposure, plus more for killing or a well-connected target. At 9 heat it gains a wanted level, and the GM rolls dice equal to that level on the heat column of the entanglements table, which reaches Arrest. Only an incarceration lowers the level.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Cyberpunk 2077", "year": 2020, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "CD Projekt Red", "components": [ "stealth-detection", "boss-encounters" ], "parts": [ "escalation", "return-to-rest" ], "note": "Update 2.0 (September 2023) has the NCPD chase crimes on foot or by car, with units and behaviour set by a Wanted Level shown as Heat of up to five stars. Five stars brings a MaxTac mini-boss. The player escapes by leaving the scene and staying out of sight, and the police take neither bribes nor surrender.", "latest": true } ], "provenance": { "title": "Elite", "year": 1984, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "confidence": "low", "note": "The earliest documented use cited is Elite, whose 1984 manual grades a Galactic Police record as Clean, Offender or Fugitive, raises it for attacks on police and trade in contraband, has police Vipers attack offenders and fugitives and bounty hunters pursue fugitives, and clears it when the player abandons ship. It has no witness rule. Police pursuit in earlier arcade and computer games remains unsurveyed, so the title is the earliest cited rather than a defended origin." }, "established": { "title": "Grand Theft Auto", "year": 1997, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "confidence": "low", "note": "The Grand Theft Auto manual names the Wanted Level, the term Cyberpunk 2077's 2023 patch notes use for its own police system, and the series' third game lists a response running from the police to SWAT teams and the FBI. No cited source credits the series with setting the form, so the claim rests on the shared name." }, "sources": [ { "key": "space-traders-flight-training-manual-elite-1984", "canonical": false, "title": "Space Traders Flight Training Manual (Elite)", "author": "Acornsoft", "year": 1984, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://worldofspectrum.org/pub/sinclair/games-info/e/Elite(Acorn).pdf", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "pp. 10-11, 25, 27-28, 36", "note": "Legal status as a Galactic Police record graded Clean, Offender and Fugitive; attacks on police ships and contraband raising it; police attacking offenders and fugitives; bounty hunters and fugitives; the escape capsule clearing the record." }, { "key": "grand-theft-auto-manual-playstation-1998", "canonical": false, "title": "Grand Theft Auto manual (PlayStation)", "author": "Take-Two Interactive (Sony classic manuals)", "year": 1998, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://secure.cdn.us.playstation.com/manuals/classic/games/grand-theft-auto-manual-en.pdf", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Death or Glory; Wanted Level; Crate", "note": "The Wanted Level indicator rising with crimes, arrest resetting it for all weapons and half the Bonus Multiplier against death costing the weapons, and the Police Bribe that cancels it." }, { "key": "xbox-manual-grand-theft-auto-iii-2003", "canonical": false, "title": "XBOX Manual: Grand Theft Auto III", "author": "Rockstar Games", "year": 2003, "year_approx": true, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/download/xboxmanual_Grand_Theft_Auto_III/Grand_Theft_Auto_III_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Spray Shops", "note": "A law enforcement system ranging from the LCPD to SWAT teams and the FBI, and spray shops that get rid of unwanted legal attention." }, { "key": "driver-manual-pc-1999", "canonical": false, "title": "DRIVER manual (PC)", "author": "Reflections Interactive (GT Interactive)", "year": 1999, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/download/driver-game-cd-manual/driver-game-cd-manual_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Felony; Radar, p. 8", "note": "The Felony bar rising with crimes in a cop's field of view, the vision cones on the radar, headquarters dispatching more cops whose vision expands, aggression rising with the felony rating, and the radar returning to normal once pursuers are lost." }, { "key": "the-elder-scrolls-iii-morrowind-manual-2002", "canonical": false, "title": "The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind manual", "author": "Bethesda Softworks", "year": 2002, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/download/morrowind-manual/Morrowind%20-%20Manual_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Stats Menu, Bounty; Sneaking; Picking Pockets; Crime and Jail, p. 44", "note": "The bounty as the price for crimes the player has been seen committing, detection reporting a crime, guards arresting anywhere, and the choice of paying, resisting or jail with degraded skills." }, { "key": "blades-in-the-dark-srd-heat-and-wanted-level-2017", "canonical": false, "title": "Blades in the Dark SRD: Heat and Wanted Level", "author": "John Harper", "year": 2017, "year_approx": true, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://bladesinthedark.com/heat", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Heat; Wanted Level; Incarceration", "note": "Heat from 0 to 6 by exposure with modifiers, a wanted level gained at 9 heat, wanted level feeding the severity of entanglements, and incarceration as the only way to reduce it." }, { "key": "blades-in-the-dark-srd-entanglements-2017", "canonical": false, "title": "Blades in the Dark SRD: Entanglements", "author": "John Harper", "year": 2017, "year_approx": true, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://bladesinthedark.com/entanglements", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Entanglements", "note": "The heat column chosen by current heat, dice equal to the wanted level, and the Usual Suspects, Questioning, Interrogation and Arrest results." }, { "key": "what-s-coming-in-update-2-0-revamped-police-2023", "canonical": false, "title": "What's coming in Update 2.0: Revamped Police", "author": "CD PROJEKT RED", "year": 2023, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://cyberpunk.net/en/news/48766/whats-coming-in-update-2-0-revamped-police", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Heat shown in the interface, a MaxTac mini-boss at the maximum of five stars, car chases and roadblocks, escape by leaving the scene and staying out of sight, and no bribes or surrender." }, { "key": "cyberpunk-2077-s-big-version-2-0-update-is-out-gets-full-patch-notes-2023", "canonical": false, "title": "Cyberpunk 2077's big Version 2.0 update is out, gets full patch notes", "author": "Chris Scullion (Video Games Chronicle)", "year": 2023, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/cyberpunk-2077s-big-version-2-0-update-is-out-gets-full-patch-notes", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Combat, New Police System", "note": "The NCPD chasing crimes on foot or in vehicles, pursuit units and behaviour depending on the NCPD Wanted Level, and MaxTac arriving in AVs." } ], "n_examples": 6, "n_sources": 9, "word_count": 534, "updated": "2026-10-30", "url": "/systems/wanted-level" }, { "id": "zoning-demand", "name": "Zoning Demand", "status": "verified", "domain": "economy", "driver": "autonomous", "core": [ "income", "network-building" ], "parts": [ "propagation", "population-change", "demand", "forecast" ], "core_parts": [ "population-change", "demand" ], "definition": "The player designates land for kinds of use instead of placing buildings, and simulated demand for homes, shops and jobs decides what grows there, while roads, utilities, neighbours and taxes feed back into that demand", "aliases": [ "RCI Demand", "Zone Demand" ], "media": [ "video" ], "mechanics": [ "adjacency-bonuses", "income", "network-building", "supply-lines", "upkeep" ], "examples": [ { "title": "SimCity", "year": 1989, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Will Wright (Maxis)", "components": [ "network-building", "supply-lines", "adjacency-bonuses", "income", "upkeep" ], "parts": [ "population-change", "demand", "forecast" ], "note": "The player zones residential, commercial and industrial land at $100 a plot and the Sims build on it, while a demand indicator shows which zone types they need. Zones develop only when powered and reached by road, parks raise and pollution lowers nearby value, the tax rate speeds or slows growth, and unpaid road upkeep lets roads decay.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Caesar III", "year": 1998, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Impressions Games (Sierra)", "components": [ "network-building", "adjacency-bonuses", "income" ], "parts": [ "population-change", "demand" ], "note": "The player designates land for housing rather than building houses. Immigrants arrive while there are jobs, food and empty housing and taxes and wages are tolerable, and homes evolve from tents toward villas, which pay more tax, as services walk to them along roads and neighbours raise desirability.", "latest": false }, { "title": "Cities: Skylines II", "year": 2023, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "creator": "Colossal Order", "components": [ "network-building", "supply-lines", "income", "upkeep" ], "parts": [ "propagation", "population-change", "demand" ], "note": "New citizens raise residential demand, manufacturing raises commercial demand, and unemployment lowers residential demand. Roadside buildings join the power and water networks automatically, taxes set from -10% to 30% steer demand and production, and a building whose rent cannot cover its upkeep decays and is abandoned.", "latest": true } ], "provenance": { "title": "SimCity", "year": 1989, "year_approx": false, "medium": "video", "confidence": "medium", "note": "The earliest documented use cited is SimCity, whose manual (copyright 1989) has the player zone residential, commercial and industrial land for the Sims to build on, shows their need for each in a demand indicator, and drives growth from an external market the player cannot change. City-building and management games before 1989 remain unsurveyed, so the title is the earliest cited rather than a defended origin." }, "established": null, "sources": [ { "key": "simcity-the-city-simulator-user-documentation-dos-version-1991", "canonical": false, "title": "SimCity: The City Simulator, User Documentation, DOS Version", "author": "Maxis (Will Wright; documentation by Michael Bremer and Cliff Ellis)", "year": 1991, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/download/simcity_ibm_manual/SimCity%20-%20Manual_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Edit Window Gadgets: Demand Indicator; Icons, pp. 26-27; How the Simulator Works and Strategies for Using It, pp. 42-45", "note": "Software and manual copyright 1989 and 1991. The demand indicator, zone costs and growth factors, the external and internal markets, the tax rate, department funding and road maintenance, power connection, trip generation, pollution and land value." }, { "key": "caesar-iii-manual-1998", "canonical": false, "title": "Caesar III manual", "author": "Impressions Games (Sierra)", "year": 1998, "year_approx": false, "type": "rulebook", "publisher": null, "url": "https://archive.org/download/Caesar_III_Manual/Caesar_III_Manual_djvu.txt", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": "Roman Cities, and How to Build Them; Housing and Desirability, pp. 41-45; People, Employment and Migration, pp. 49-52", "note": "Designating areas for housing rather than building houses, immigration on jobs, food, housing space, taxes and wages, housing evolution on goods, services and desirability, and walkers delivering services along roads." }, { "key": "cities-skylines-ii-feature-highlight-4-zones-signature-buildings-2023", "canonical": false, "title": "Cities: Skylines II Feature Highlight #4: Zones & Signature Buildings", "author": "Paradox Interactive and Colossal Order", "year": 2023, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.paradoxinteractive.com/games/cities-skylines-ii/features/zones-signature-buildings", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Zone types, the symbiotic demand between zones, land value spreading through roads, building levels, upkeep, deterioration and abandonment." }, { "key": "cities-skylines-ii-feature-highlight-6-electricity-water-2023", "canonical": false, "title": "Cities: Skylines II Feature Highlight #6: Electricity & Water", "author": "Paradox Interactive and Colossal Order", "year": 2023, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.paradoxinteractive.com/games/cities-skylines-ii/features/electricity-water", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Roadside buildings connected to the grid and pipes automatically, and reduced well-being, departures and lower efficiency without electricity or water." }, { "key": "cities-skylines-ii-feature-highlight-9-economy-production-2023", "canonical": false, "title": "Cities: Skylines II Feature Highlight #9: Economy & Production", "author": "Paradox Interactive and Colossal Order", "year": 2023, "year_approx": false, "type": "website", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.paradoxinteractive.com/games/cities-skylines-ii/features/economy-production", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Companies converting resources into goods, taxes from -10% to 30% used to curb excess production while raising tax income, and service upkeep." }, { "key": "cities-skylines-developers-write-about-zoning-2014", "canonical": false, "title": "Cities: Skylines Developers Write About Zoning", "author": "GamingOnLinux", "year": 2014, "year_approx": false, "type": "article", "publisher": null, "url": "https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2014/10/cities-skylines-developers-write-about-zoning", "accessed": "2026-10-30", "locator": null, "note": "Summarises Colossal Order's zoning diary for Cities: Skylines (2015), with zones painted by brush and building levels set by education, land value and nearby services." } ], "n_examples": 3, "n_sources": 6, "word_count": 464, "updated": "2026-10-30", "url": "/systems/zoning-demand" } ] }