Cohorts Game System

Game Rules
Follow this link to the detailed Rule Book section of this Wiki.

What is Cohorts?
Cohorts is a modular, massively multiplayer, turn based, computer moderated, role playing strategy game. Is it trying to be all things to all people? No, quite the opposite really. Much of Cohorts game concepts makes it unpalatable for many people. However, for those that like this style of game, we expect we’re going to make those people very, very happy. If we break down the description of Cohorts we get the following elements:

Modular
Cohorts is a game system that allows designers to create a world and storyline of their choosing. All modules will follow a core set of rules, but there can be an endless number of modifications to these core rules to meet the designer’s needs. For example, the first module being developed “Veil of Entropy” is set in a medieval fantasy realm where players will try to survive the coming of the end of the world. Another module might be created that is based in 18th century Earth or perhaps a module might be created to be based in the distant future and include galactic travel. The game system is quite open-ended, allowing for any number of concepts and features to be included in a module design.

Massively Multiplayer
Cohorts can have virtually any number of players participating in a single game. Depending on the module design, a game is made up of 2 or more factions and each faction is made up of 1 or more players. Veil of Entropy, the first module being developed for Cohorts, has seven factions of up to ten players per faction.

Turn Based
The root concept of Cohorts is based on the very old-school concept of “Play by Mail” games, where players would fill in order sheets and mail them to the game master. Depending on the sophistication of the game, the game master either hand moderated the outcome of the player’s orders or the orders would be captured into a game system and they’d be electronically processed. The results of the players orders would then be printed out and mailed back to the player. In general, a player would submit a set of orders once every two weeks. Cohorts implementation of this concept is much more current.

Cohorts is based loosely on this concept. Each player can perform a limited set of actions each turn. When the actions are used up, the player's turn is complete. They have to then wait until the end of the week for the next turn to start.

While players are running their turns, everyone playing in the game will see the updates happening in real time. Well, they'll see what they're able to see. Much of what their opposition will be done in secret unless a player takes steps to "spy" on their neighbour's assets.

Computer Moderated
When turns are processed by the game system, there is no human intervention. All orders, all die rolls, all battle outcomes, all everything - is moderated by the game system. What this means to the players is, they do not participate directly in combats. They prepare their army or party for battle, and send them into battle. As soon as the battle is complete, they get the results of the battle, along with anything else related to the combat.

Role Playing
The type of role playing that will be available to the player is heavily dependent on the module design. In all cases though, players will get to see the characters and military units change over the course of the game as they gain experience, become more powerful, learn new skills and powers and make ethical choices. Will your position fight for the side of good or for the side of evil? Will you follow the rules of the governing body or will you follow your own path, regardless what others think? Each game of Cohorts presents a player with a series of goals and aspirations that they need to achieve in order to “win” the game. However, players can choose to play a game of Cohorts for the sole purpose of exploration and personal glory. Ideally though, they should not be doing this to the detriment of their team.

Strategy Game
At the heart of it all, Cohorts is a strategy game. Each player will coordinate their actions with their teammates to try and complete their factional goals. They can choose to complete them by dominating and destroying all who would oppose them, or they can choose to take a more diplomatic approach and let their enemies destroy each other while they quietly go about completing all their faction’s victory conditions. Each module will present the player with a long list of choices of how they may complete their goals. Which choices they should use will be dictated by their specific goals and the actions of their enemies.

Visit the Website
Visit our website https://cohorts.mouchetsoftware.ca

Register Yourself with the Cohorts Game System
Registration is free. Once you are registered, you can start looking at what games are available. In order to see the details of the game, you'll need to download the game's assets to your computer. This can take a while, but once you've gone through this step you'll find things run so fast you'll find it hard to believe you're on a web site.

Join a Game
You can join into an existing game, if there is room, or you can wait to join into a new game. If joining into a new game, you’ll have to declare what faction you want to play for. If there is room in the faction, you’ll be added to the roster. Once you’ve been added to the roster, you’ll be able to communicate with your teammates through the game interface.

Make Your Characters
Every player manages at least one “Main Character”. This Character should be your best and most important asset in your game. The rules around what your main character means to your position is dependent upon the module you’re playing in. In Veil of Entropy, you will have five starting characters. Your first character is considered your Main Character and is the primary representative for your position.

Choose a Play Style
Cohorts allows players to follow a variety of paths on their way to victory. A player can choose to take the heroic path and have a stable of strong characters to smite their enemies or a player can choose to run a huge economic engine and crush their enemies under the weight of their war machine. Or, you can have both. Whether players want to run cities, armies and/or characters is entirely up to them. Choose what you like best and make it work for your faction.

Submit Your Setup
Once you’ve got your character(s) designed and tricked out, you're ready to go. Depending on whether you are joining an existing game or starting up in a new game, you’ll either be able start immediately or you'll have to wait for the official game launch.

Playing the Game
Well, this is a big topic, but here is a very brief synopsis. Game turns last one week. During that week, you can perform what actions you have available to you. When your characters, cities, stacks, etc. have exhausted your actions you have to wait until the start of the next turn before you can perform more actions. You can do mundane tasks, like transferring and equipping items at any time (except while production is being run) because this sort of activity requires no actions on the part of your characters, cities, stacks, etc.

Quests
Much of the game centers around the concept of completing quests. Quests typically come in two forms; Do a Deed or Fulfill a Requirement.

Do a Deed
Quests that require the player to "Do a Deed" are basically along the lines of:
 * 1) Visit a Quest Giver
 * 2) Build a suitable Stack for the Quest
 * 3) Go to a Location
 * 4) Vanquish the target, be it a monster, an army, a fleet or whatever
 * 5) Gain rewards, XP and Reputation.  In some cases, gain a new quest or quests.

Fulfill a Requirement
Quests that require a player to fulfill a requirement are typically along the lines of:
 * 1) Have a stack containing the correct combination of items, agents or characters with titles.
 * 2) Go to a Location.
 * 3) If your stack has the necessary components in it - fulfill the requirement and gain rewards, XP and Reputation.

Quest Examples
Here are the sorts of quests a player might encounter:

Rescue the Princess: travel to the Isle of Wonder. Defeat the evil dragon that dwells there and gain the love and loyalty of Princess Butterkup.

To complete this quest, you'd need to assemble a party of characters strong enough to defeat a dragon. When you attempt to complete the quest, a battle ensues. If the dragon is defeated, the quest is completed. The characters involved in the battle that did not die would get a portion of the XP for the combat, plus any bonus XP for having completed the quest. They would also get the dragon's loot. Most importantly, possibly, is that the player would gain a new character (Princess Butterkup) to join him in his faction's quest for world domination.

Defend the City: a band of evil Orcs riding Hell Hounds has been relentlessly attacking the City of Osgoode. Defeat this army of hellish warriors to win the loyalty of the Baron and increase your reputation in the Kingdom. To complete this quest, the player would assemble appropriate level Characters and Military Units, travel to the City of Osgoode and make war with the evil Orcs. For having shown your prowess on the field of battle, the baron swears fealty to you, giving you control over him and his city. You also gain significant favour with the Lord of the Territory, giving you access to new, more challenging quests.

Sway the Verdict: the Lord of Riverglen has decreed that the villian known as Robyn of the Hood has been found guilty of theft and is sentenced to hang. Send a level 20+ diplomat and 10,000 coins to Riverglen to convince the Lord to free the villian. Gain the character Robyn of the Hood and the title "Merry Outlaw" for your main character.