Intended Play

Rulers is intended to be a setting agnostic TTRPG system that can be played as a standalone game.

By default, Rulers is assumed to be played asynchronously with a campaign lasting at least several sessions of play, and open competition between players should they choose to pursue it.

This is not the only way to play Rulers, but many mechanics are designed with the assumption this is how the game will be played.

Ways to play

• Play-by-Post: Rulers can be played as Play-by-Post game (PBP) and in fact was often playtested this way. Players act on their turns asynchronously, when it’s convenient for them do so, writing up their actions and then submitting them to their GM. At a set date and time the GM then advances play to the next turn.
• Round table: Playing around one table together, all the players must be able to view and interact with a global map on a table between them. The GM announces the start of the next turn, each player declares when they are done with each phase in the turn, and the GM declares the end of the turn, and then repeats the process. All players should look for opportunities to engage with roleplay to expand the story of the game as appropriate during the turn. When communicating between players, physical notes and letters may be passed to one another, and the GM may take other players aside to communicate information secret to them alone.
• One-shot: Rulers can be played as a one-shot, where the story of the game is told over the course of one single session. It may be best to think of it as a “board game night with roleplay elements”. Rulers features simultaneous turns, heavy resource tracking, and needs a map that all players are able to see. In this way, it is somewhat similar to games like Scythe or Twilight Imperium, but with more rules for politics and an emphasis on roleplay.
• LARP: Rulers can also be used for a Live Action Roleplay (LARP) experience. Players can roleplay as their Rulers completely in-character, in a Model UN style of event, then step to the side to take their turns to detail their actions and expenditure of resources during a recess. The GM then advances the turn, before the players reconvene and continue to roleplay with their updated political and economic situation.
• Solo-game: Rulers could also be played by yourself as a solo-game. This can be a great exercise in worldbuilding, allowing you to quickly play out many years of history in your world as various factions. This can give you a sense of the broader geo-political events of the world in which your story is taking place, either for a another TTRPG or as a personal writing exercise.
• Competitive or co-operative: Rulers games can be pseudo-competitive. In the style of video game series like Civilization and Total War, players may conquer, annex or vassalize other players. While players may instead choose to co-operate, there is no guarantee that will be the case. If players want to have a purely co-operative game, then that should be discussed when setting up your game.

Communication in Play

Rulers can be played with a group at a table. Alternatively that group can be communicating online via voice or text, in real-time or asynchronously. Whatever your medium for discussion, in-character communication is intentionally limited to certain actions.

Communication that occurs between Rulers, must happen through the Send Messenger action. The ability for Rulers to freely speak to one another in real-time is limited to an Assembly 🕊️, which may only occur after the Announce Assembly action has been taken by a Ruler. Therefore, no amount of back and forth discussion of trade-deals or alliances is permitted in the medium through which the game is being hosted, without those players having followed the rules of the actions required to do so.

However, Rulers is still a roleplaying game. Everyone is encouraged to look for every opportunity to embellish moments with the emotion and to build the narrative of their Ruler and their Realm. These narrative moments should not constitute an attempt to communicate with another Ruler. There is also a certain amount of communication that needs to occur between players to resolve actions and turns, for these out-of-character discussions all players are allowed to freely speak, providing they respect the difference between player knowledge and character knowledge.

For example, a player may wish to open the Warfare phase by roleplaying as their Ruler giving an inspiring speech to their Armies, while other players at the table join in as respected commanders. But, if the content of this speech were to list the terms under which, perhaps they could be persuaded to end this war, and perhaps attack another rival target instead, should the opposing Ruler be able to hear them, that would not be respectful of the limitations on in-game communication.

Calling for Roleplay

Rulers is at its core a game of collaborative storytelling, but with its presumption on asynchronous play and intentional limitations of character-to-character communication it can be easy to forget to roleplay. The GM and the players should always be looking for opportunities to call for roleplay.

Moments to look for roleplay are when critical political or military decisions are being made, when secrets are revealed and when the stakes are high. As GM ask yourself: “Could this be a scene in Game of Thrones or Dune?”. That’s a great time to ask the other players to expand on that moment in a scene with roleplaying.

When asking a player to roleplay a scene as their Ruler, invite the other players to participate even if their Ruler is not present. Give them other characters in the scene to roleplay as, such as mentors, servants and family members in the Ruler’s court. Who do they look to for guidance when they are scared? Who do they speak to when they need to feel brave?