Republic of Rome PBEM Rules

Version 5

by Roberto Ullfig

Changes from Version 4 in blue.

1. The GM handles all die/dice rolls and distributes all cards.

In ALL cases where the GM makes more die rolls than required by an event, the results will be used as listed from top to bottom. For example, for the Mortality Phase, six rolls are made and they are used as needed from top to bottom (in this case extra rolls are made in case of Draw Two results). Generally, the only time a reroll would ever be made is if the wrong sided die was rolled. [10/16/07]

2. All treasuries (Personal and Faction) are open; only cards in hand are kept secret.

3. Game Phases:

These are the phases of the game in which players are required to send the GM their orders. Except where noted, all phases are done by all players simultaneously and secretly. When the GM receives orders from all players, the phase ends and the next phase begins (after the GM resolves all game issues pertaining to the phase).

0. Initial Intrigue Phase

1. Play Concessions/Statesman
2. Governor Assignment & Term
3. Governor Corruption
4. Faction Leader Assignment

I. Mortality Phase

[GM Action: Mortality Roll]

II. Revenue Distribution Phase

1. Personal Income
2. Rebel Force Maintenance
3. Province Development
4. State Income, Maintenance and Contributions
5. Transfers between Senators and Faction Treasuries
6. Provincial Force Builds

[GM Action: Provincial Income and Development Rolls]

III. Forum Phase

For each Initiative:
1. Persuasion Attempt
2. Knights
3. Faction Leader or Games

Plus a special round of bidding before the 6th initiative.

Each player takes his initiative in order as in the original rules. Orders in advance are highly recommended especially when PersuasionAttempts are not an issue, in order to speed this phase.

[GM Action: Curia Rolls]

IV. Population Phase

[GM Action: Population Roll]

V. Senate Phase

For each Proposal:
1. Votes/Bribes/Vetoes

HRAO must specify a voting order with each proposal.

VI. Combat Phase

[GM Action: Combat Rolls]

VII. Revolution Phase

1. Revolution Declarations
2. Play Concessions/Statesman
3. Governor Corruption (including Increased Grain Concession income)

4. Persuasion Attempts

If the player wishes to make a Persuasion Attempt he announces to everyone (this is important so as to speed up diplomatic communication) which of his senators is attempting to persuade which other senator (aligned or unaligned) and how many talents he is initially spending. At the same time he secretly sends the GM the following information:

1. the maximum talents he is willing to spend
2. the minimum Base number he will spend extra talents for

Every other player secretly sends the GM the following information:

1. the maximum talents he is willing to spend
2. the senator he is supporting (if he is not directly involved)
3. the minimum (or maximum) Base number he will spend extra talents for

This should be enough information for the GM to go on and make a persuasion roll. If the persuader wishes to use a Blackmail or Seduction card everything is MUCH simpler and this procedure is not necessary.

EXAMPLE: Player A announces that his Cornelius will attempt to persuade Player C’s Fabius with an initial bribe of 3 Talents. Cornelius has 3 Oratory/20 Influence/10 Talents and Fabius has 9 Loyalty/1 Talent. Fabius’ value is 17 (9 Loy + 7 Align + 1T); Cornelius’ value is 26 (20 Inf + 3 Ora + 3T). At this point the base needed to persuade is 9 (the best he can do). At the same time that Player A announces his persuasion attempt he sends a private message to the GM stating that he will spend at most another 6 Talents if he can get the base to at least 8. Player B privately tells the GM he is not getting invloved. Player C privately tells the GM that he will be adding at most 5T from his faction treasury if he can get the base below 7. Player D tells the GM the he will help Player C and add at most 5T if he can get the base below 6. Player E tells the GM he will help Player A and add at most 5T if he can get the base to at least 7. The GM now figures it all out (extreme example):

1. Base starts out at 9
2. player B is not involved
3. player C adds 3T against to make the Base 6
4. player D adds 1T against to make the Base 5
5. player E adds 2T for to make the Base 7
6. player A adds 1T for to make the Base 8
7. player B is not involved
8. player C adds 2T against to make the Base 6
9. player D adds 1T against to make the Base 5
10. player E adds 2T for to make the Base 7
11. player A adds 1T for to make the Base 8
12. player B is not involved
13. player C does not add because he has spent all he was willing to spend
14. player D adds 3T against to make the Base 5
15. player E does not add because he must spend more than he was willing to spend to get to his 7
16. player A adds 3T to make the Base 8
17. player B is not involved
18. player C has spent all he was willing to
19. player D has spent all he was willing to
20. player E is happy with the base where it is
21. GM makes a persuasion roll of 9 so Fabius stays with Player C and is 22 talents richer! Player A probably should have stated that he would add talents to get at least a 9.

This entire process only requires 1 public message from the persuader and 1 private message from each player (plus any diplomatic discussion before the private messages are sent).

5. Sixth Initiative Bidding

All bids for the sixth initiative are sent in at the same time by all players but are still resolved in HRAO order. Players can specify conditions for their bids using increments and maximum bids based on players who bid before them. Here is an example:

Player A has a Senator in Rome with 3 talents
Player B has a Senator in Rome with 2 talents
Player C has a Senator in Rome with 0 talents
Player D has a Senator in Rome with 6 talents
Player E has a Senator in Rome with 5 talents

The following "bids" are sent simultaneously and privately

Player A (HRAO) bids 2 talents
Player B states an increment of 1, max 2
Player C must state increment of 0, max 0
Player D states an increment of 2, max 5
Player E states an increment of 1, max 5

Now it's resolved:

Player A bids 2
Player B increments the current highest bid (i.e. 2) by 1 to 3, but 3 is above his max of 2 so his bid is only 2.
Player C increments the current highest bid (i.e. 2) by 0 to 2, but 2 is above his max of 0 so his bid is only 0
Player D increments the current highest bid (i.e. 2) by 2 to 4, 4 is not above his max so his bid is 4
Player E increments the current highest bid (i.e. 4) by 1 to 5, 5 is not above his max so his bid is 5 (and he wins the 6th initiative).

Basic Strategies:
The last player in the round (i.e. E) should never need to state an increment more than 1, because no one bids after him.

A player should never need to state a maximum that is greater than the largest possible bid by all players after him (in fact I will adjust a player's maximum down if a player should make this mistake). In the example above D could have set a max of 6 since he has 6 talents to spend but since E only has 5 talents to spend, D's maximum would be adjusted automatically down to 5. If D wanted to GUARANTEE winning the 6th initiative then he should have stated an increment of +5 and a max of 5. It never makes sense to state an increment greater than a maximum and the HRAO does not specify increments and maximums, he just bids a number.

Ties are still resolved in HRAO order of course.

6. Voting

Voting is done essentially the same as Persuasion Attempts and 6th Initiative Bidding. All players send in their orders at the same time and can specify any conditions they like. The conditions can be based on actions by players who are listed prior to him in the Voting Order specified by the HRAO. Obviously, the first player in the Voting Order cannot specify any conditions. Orders are sent to the GM in private or to all in public. [3/1/08]

Voting should work just the same as in a FTF game. These guidelines are primarily meant to speed the game along. If a player wishes he can request that players send in their votes one at a time - this should ideally be done only for "key" proposals - such as Consul for Life, etc...

7. Senate Phase Guidelines

a. The presiding magistrate sends everyone his proposal along with a Voting Order. Alternatively, he can send this info to the GM who will then announce it at the appropriate time. If Voting Order is not specified in the proposal then player order will be used starting with the player after the Presiding Magistrate. The initiator of the proposal is assumed to vote for passage of the proposal unless otherwise specified.

b. All orders are generally sent in simultaneously and secretly after a proposal is made. Everyone can make conditional bribes dependent on bribes or votes made by previous players in the Voting order. Players can either vote (with possible bribes), abstain, or veto (using a tribune). If a player so wishes he can announce his orders in public.. [3/1/08]

c. After all orders are received, they are resolved in Voting Order so if two players order a veto, the second player's is not resolved (he gets to keep his tribune). Same principle is applied to bribed votes.

d. A player can cancel an order or submit new orders at anytime before all players have sent in their orders. (Exception: Vetoes and Assassination Attempts).

e. All senators are assumed to vote (or abstain) the same way, unless otherwise specified. All senators are assumed to not bribe for votes, unless otherwise specified.

f. Abstaining senator's votes are not counted when determining a majority. (i.e. if 5 factions each have 10 votes and one faction abstains, then the number of votes required for passage is 21 instead of 26).

g. Assassination and Tribune Proposal Timing will be determined on a case by case basis with an attempt to keep to the original rules as close as possible.

h. If a Veto occurs during a vote, then all orders that have been sent in are resolved in Voting Order starting with the first player in the Voting Order and stopping at a player that has yet to send in his order. (in contrast to note "d" above). If the first player did not send in his order then no orders are resolved. If the Veto is cancelled, all non-resolved orders are rescinded and must be resent. For example, if the third player vetoes a proposal based on votes of the first two players preceding him in Voting Order then those votes are resolved and cannot be changed. This is important for instance in cases where the Veto is cancelled by Graft and the vote continues.

i. If an Assassination Attempt occurs during a vote, then all orders that have been sent in are resolved in Voting Order starting with the first player in the Voting Order and stopping at a player that has yet to send in his order. (in contrast to note "d" above). If the first player did not send in his order then no orders are resolved. All non-resolved orders are rescinded and must be resent. If the Presiding Magistrate dies during a vote, the new Presiding Magistrate may determine a new Voting Order for the players whose orders have yet to be resolved.

j. When the Presiding Magistrate calls for adjournment of the Senate, all players must send a confirmation message to the GM before the Senate actually adjourns.

8. Default Orders

At times players will forget to specify things that they think are obvious so these are some defaults that the GM will apply at the appropriate time:

a. no contributions to state
b. no transfers to other players
c. provincial forces built evenly with excess money going to armies
d. no money spent to attract a knight
e. no new faction leader or games
f. no bribed votes or conditional votes
g. all senators vote the same way
h. the initiator of a proposal votes for passage of the proposal
i. voting order starts with the player after HRAO and proceeds in player order so that the HRAO votes last
j. senator will take personal income from a province if there is a possibility that he will gain at least 1 talent
k. no bids for 6th initiative
l. no counterbribes in persuasion attempts
m. senator will not take increased grain concession income during a drought.

It is always best to specify as much info as needed for each phase.

If a player has only one possible order for a phase (example: has no money in his faction treasury during someone else's persuasion attempt) the GM will consider his order automatically sent in.

Default Vote Orders

If needed while playing with a deadline: Faction will abstain from voting on all proposals except for Land Bills in which it will vote Yes. Faction will vote No on a proposal that will allow another faction to win the game by passage of that proposal.

9. Trading Guidelines

I. Private (Secret) Deals:

a. Trading Cards
Two or more players (three way trades are possible for example) can exchange Red Cards they hold at any time during the turn. Such trades are executed SIMULTANEOUSLY so there is no possibilty of deceit. To complete a trade each player involved sends mail to the GM stating which cards he is giving to which factions and which cards he expects in return from each faction. If the GM determines that the trade requests do not match, the trade is not completed and he notifies the factions involved. If the trade requests do match then he notifies the factions involved that the trade was successful and notifies all other players of the trade, though he does not tell the others what specific cards were traded. Traded cards cannot be played prior to the next Revolution Phase (this includes cards like Tribunes which could not be played until the next turn). Cards traded during the Revolution Phase can be played during that phase. Cards that have been traded can be traded again in the same turn. [Nothing really new here; except for maybe three-way trades I believe this works just like it is intended to in the original game.

b. Deals/Trades Involving Things Other Than Cards
ANYTHING else in a secret deal is "unenforcable", meaning that if you make a deal to give another player 5 talents for a card (even if you get the card during the Revenue phase) you are not REQUIRED to give the other player the money after you have received the card. This means that all private deals (except for exchange of red cards) occur SEQUENTIALLY. It is up to the players involved to determine the order (unless they just want to trust the other player) of exchange if necessary. If you wanted to give a player a red card in order to make him nominate one of your senators, you can either give it to him before the nomination (in which case he can just keep the card and NOT make the nomination) or afterwards (in which case you can keep the card and forget the deal). Same goes for transfering money in exchange for favors and everything else (other than red card trading).

c. Any exchange or gift of red cards or treasury must go through the GM first.

II. Open Deals

An Open Deal works like a Secret Deal except that all players are told of the specifics of the deal and the deal is totally enforceable within the rules of the game.

10. Combat

The Random Loss Chart will not be used in Combat. Each unit will be assigned a number and email dice will be rolled to see which units are lost.

The order that battles will be fought is determined by the moderator except that lower-numbered matching wars of a series are always fought first.

Provinces attack wars in random order resolving all of a province's wars before proceeding with the next province. Matching wars in a series are still attacked in order of their number.

Example: There are four active wars: Syrian, 2nd & 3rd Macedonian, and 1st Gallic. Illyricum is allied with the 2nd Macedonian War so the first three wars are attacking Greece while the Gallic war is attacking Gaul. Randomly determine order of province attacks. Gaul rolls a 7, Greece rolls a 6; the Gallic War is resolved first. Rolls for Syrian and Macedonian wars are 6 and 11 respectively, so Greece must attack the wars in this order: 1. 2nd Macedonian; 2. 3rd Macedonian; 3. Syrian. The example assumes that none of these wars were stalemated of standoffed by a Roman force during the current combat phase.

--- Official Notes (gathered from past e-mail messages)

I really think we should play with the Provincial Forces Rule (14.0). I have written up extensive errata for this and there are one or two changes in there as well.

We need to decide if we wish to play with the other 2 advanced rules: Pontifex Maximus and Legion Disbandment.

I have made a few changes to the province attack orders listed on the war cards. These are mainly historical or pseudo-historical in nature. The changes are listed on my web page (as well as everything else).

We've also been playing that provinces aren't attacked by wars on the turn they are created. So, if the Gallic War is defeated, thereby creating Cisalpine Gaul, the 2nd Punic War (if active) won't attack the province until the following turn.

Also, unlike my other two games. In this game, players not involved in a persuasion attempt can only bribe to counter the attempt; they cannot bribe to aid the persuader. The first way slows down things too much because of the added scheming and diplomacy.

We have not been playing with time limits or default orders (I dislike default orders entirely) but if I don't hear from a player who I'm waiting on, for over a week I'll usually start looking for a replacement. There have been exceptions of course. The whole point being, if you're not going to be around (vacation, etc...), tell me.

I hope you all have www access, if not tell me and I can make some arrangements. All the rules, errata, manifests are on my web page. Note, that my PBEM rules are fairly different than AH's PBEM rules (and truer to the original game). Ideally, an uneventful turn could take as little as 2 weeks to play. Since the extended game _can_ go to 25 turns, that's at least 1 year of playing at the best speed possible, unless of course there is an earlier decision (more likely I would think). Game 2 ended in less than 2 weeks before the senate ever met! HRAO popularity is very important, especially in the late republic.

I'm ready to start when you are. The game is pretty much "rolled up" on my end. I used the email dice roller to generate most of the numbers needed. I shuffled the decks on my PC at home with a program I wrote (also on my page). Province income also gets generated on my PC with another program.

I'm sure there are some things I forgot to mention. So, first we need to decide on the rules, and also choose the faction names. Good luck!

Here is the initial status (your red cards going out shortly). The "status" is a complete snapshot of the game at the present time. It holds no info regarding past events. The "history" is a log of all events. Each turn has its own history file. The "deck status" shows what's currently in the deck and what has been discarded. All three of these are on my www page (anyone have any problems accessing it?). [ I wanted to use <> but html don't like that. ] Don't know how I'm going to show battle votes yet. There's a section called "report symbols" that lists all the symbols and the order they should appear in.

We are in:

Initial Intrigue Phase

1. Play Concessions/Statesman
2. Governor Corruption
3. Governor Assignment & Term
4. Faction Leader

2 and 3 don't apply of course. All orders for this phase are sent in simultaneously. After I receive orders from all I'll reveal the mortality chit, generate revenue (nothing much this turn) and then we'll move to the next phase which is revenue distribution. Card exchanges or gifts are done in "real time" and they should go through me (I think I wrote a section in the rules on this) since I am the only official source for everyone's cards. Note that you can't make a statesman a faction leader at the start unless you also have the family card for that statesman. Oh, my page is best viewed with a fixed-width font so that the status report lines up all nice and neat and easy to read. Good luck!

Something that should be in the PBEM rules...

The Presiding Magistrate can send me a list of proposals to make to the senate. _As soon as_ one proposal is over, the next one in queue is made, so if another player wishes to play a tribune to initiate his own proposal he must tell me during the current vote or else he may lose his chance. You can always give me any conditions for any orders. For example, "I will play this tribune to reserve the floor if the current proposal passes". Just a warning in how the game is paced.

Assassinations are in real time. I know this may be a disadvantage for players on the other side of the world but I don't think there's a good way to structure it otherwise without removing some of the flavor of the game.

Remember, I must have a voting order for each proposal or I will use the default which is clockwise order (from top to bottom) starting with the player _after_ the presiding magistrate. Votes should be sent to me in secret (though they can be broadcast to all if you like, though such a public vote is _not_ binding). I will assume your public vote is your actual vote unless I hear otherwise from you. Voting order is used to determine things like whose tribune veto gets played first and conditional votes like "I will bribe 6t if the player before me votes against". As with all other orders you can specify any conditions for your votes you like, but you can't specify conditions based on what players who vote after you (by the voting order) do. Basically, it works just like the FTF game.

It's best to make your proposals in public (including your voting order) to speed the vote, but if you want to send me a list of proposals you probably just want to send me the list in private and make the first proposal in public. Other default orders for proposals in case you are not specific enough in what you tell me:

f. no bribed votes or conditional votes
g. all senators vote the same way
h. the initiator of a proposal votes for passage of the proposal
i. voting order is clockwise order starting with player after presiding magistrate (a little different from what my rules say).

So, all votes/vetoes are sent to me at the same time by all players in secret but they are resolved in voting order.

clarification: a Pontifex Maximus may not assign himself a priest but a senator who already has a priest may be elected as Pontifex Maximus (and he gets to keep his priest). He can veto any proposal the rules normally allows him to.

Just to clarify,

Unofficial Errata on my page just refers to the fact that these weren't written up by Avalon Hill, but we are still playing with these "unofficial" errata.