The Spirit of Nations

To play, you will need:
- A whole bunch of dice of different sizes (d4 through d12)
- A pile of tokens such as glass beads or poker chips
- Pencils and scratch paper
- A copy of the Nation sheet for each player

The Spirit of Nations recounts the history of The People, a cluster of several Nations with related but distinct cultures facing an invasion by the powerful Conquerors, who wish to seize their land and destroy their culture.  2-5 players take on the role of lorekeepers each trying to preserve their Nation's values in face of the invasion. The Conquerors are controlled by an additional person, the GM.

Setup

To begin, the players must first decide what values are the defining core of their Nation. Values should be broad principles, able to be interpreted and lived out in many different ways. Individualism, Connection with Nature, or Respect for the Ancestors are examples of values that might define a culture. The players collectively choose one value shared by all of The People. Then each player picks two more values specific to their Nation. They should write these at the top of their Nation sheet.

Place a blank sheet of paper in the middle of the playing area. The GM should draw a coastline along at least one side of it – this is the ocean, across which the Conquerors have come. Each player should write the name of their Nation somewhere on the map, and add one geographical feature (another water body, a mountain range, a river, etc.) The GM should then add the main outpost of the Conquerors to the map.

For each value, player comes up with four Traditions that express that value, linked to four resource domains:
- People – the population, its health and vigor, and community spirit and trust
- Earth – the productivity of the natural world
- Spears – ability to physically resist domination, through war, geographic isolation, etc
- Trade – material wealth, interaction with others
Traditions may be laws, specific practices, social institutions, religious or philosophical beliefs.

Here is an example Nation sheet, partially filled out:

	Individualism	Respect for Ancestors	Anti-Authoritarianism	
People [d10]			A new chief is chosen each year by casting dice – nobody can hold the office permanently	
Earth [d8]		A field is believed to be most productive when worked by the same family for generations – moving to a new place, on the other hand, will bring bad harvests	There is no private property in land	
Spears [d6]	Warriors are highly motivated and do not fear death because of the renown they can win for glorious deeds in battle	One of the most highly respected ancestors is Humawaka, who was a mighty warrior		
Trade   [d8]		The ancestors must be placated with a tithe from any money earned in trade	It is considered very rude to openly display your wealth or show off your poverty	

Each resource is represented by a die between d12 and d4. Smaller values are better when rolling dice to resolve conflicts, so a smaller die represents a better status for that resource. To begin, each Nation will have one resource at a d6, two at a d8, and one at a d10. 

Go around the table and have each player assign one die to a resource. They should describe what this means for their Nation. For example, if you assign a d10 to People, you might talk about how your Nation has a very small population, or if you assign a d6 to Spears, you might indicate that your territory lies in a difficult-to-access mountain range. Draw any relevant features on the map. After the players have assigned all of their dice, the GM should add a feature relevant to each Nation that negatively impacts one of its resources. After doing this, the player must take their relevant die down one level – e.g. from a d6 to a d8. (Note that dice can never go above a d4 or below a d12).

The GM takes three d6's and one d4 to represent the Conquerors' resources.

Finally, give each player 3 tokens, known as “lines” (as in lines in a history book). The GM should hold onto the remaining lines (a theoretically infinite stock).

Playing Chapters

Play proceeds in a series of “chapters.” In each chapter, the goal of the GM is to have the Conquerors come to dominate the Nations on every level. The Conquerors should be ruthless in their methods and self-righteous about the correctness of what they are doing. Philosopher Iris Marion Young's five categories of domination can be taken as a rough guide to the kinds of things the Conquerors may try to do:
1) exploitation: taking things of value from another without fair compensation
2) marginalization: exclusion from useful participation in deciding their own fate
3) powerlessness: lack of autonomy and scope for creativity
4) cultural imperialism: assertion of the superiority of one group's way of life over another
5) violence: threat of physical harm
The players' goal is to resist these forms of domination, ultimately leading the Conquerors to give up and abandon their plans to dominate the People. In game terms, the GM and players are trying to destroy or protect the cultural traditions listed on the character sheet, by employing the four resources represented by dice.

Each chapter may be initiated either by a player or the GM, by giving the other a line. 

GM initiates – threats

If the GM gives a player a line, they are proposing that in this chapter, something will happen that challenges a tradition of that Nation. The threats may be deliberate actions or policies, or unintended side effects of the Conquerors' presence. For example, the GM may propose that the Conquerors have passed a law requiring the Nation's people to move from their traditional fields to a centralized village, threatening the tradition of offering sacrifices to the spirits of specific sacred places. Or perhaps a disease inadvertently introduced by the Conquerors has broken out among the Nation, threatening their annual solstice ceremony (since a major gathering like that would be a good place to spread the disease).

The player then frames a scene in which their Nation does something to respond to the threat. The player and the GM roleplay out the scene, calling on other players to take on additional roles as necessary. Eventually, the scene will reach a key decision point or crossroads. At this point, the player and GM roll dice to determine the outcome.

The GM decides which of the Conqueror's resources is most crucial to the threat. In the examples given above, the forced villagization program might be backed by the Conquerors' Spears (because they are using military force to implement it), while the disease might be an effect of the Conquerors' People (since the disease was brought by their own infected citizens). They will roll the die associated with that resource.

At the same time, the player decides which resource their Nation is drawing on to resist the threat. Perhaps they want to resist the forced villagization with Trade by bribing the Conquerors' soldiers, or they want to resist the disease with their own People in the form of native healing practices. The player will roll the die associated with that resource. A player may also identify one tradition that their Nation has which could be helpful in aiding their resistance to the threat. If they have one such tradition, they may give one line to the GM and roll a die one step higher than the one associated with that resource (e.g. a d8 instead of a d10).

The player and GM roll their dice at the same time. If the player rolls less than or equal to the GM, their Nation is successful at holding off the threat. If they roll more than the GM, they are not successful. The players should roleplay out the resolution of the scene, taking it in the direction established by the dice result.

If the player succeeds, the tradition is safe. The GM should give them an additional line.

If a player fails, they then have a choice to either assimilate or lose the threatened tradition. To assimilate, the player pays the GM one line, and alters the tradition to something that still expresses the core value, but is compatible with the new social order and culture introduced by the Conquerors. Re-write the tradition on the Nation sheet, and note that it is Assimilated. An Assimilated tradition cannot be used to improve a die roll. It can still be threatened, and if a player fails to protect an Assimilated tradition from a threat, it is lost. If a tradition is lost, cross it off the Nation sheet.

Each time a tradition assimilated, that counts as a point of damage to the corresponding resource, while a lost tradition counts as two points of damage. When a resource takes three points of damage (cumulatively across all traditions associated with it), the player's base die for that resource is taken down one step (e.g. from a d6 to a d8), or the Conqueror's corresponding resource die is raised one step (that is, the die for the same kind of resource being threatened – not the resource used to carry out the threat). If a resource is reduced below a d12, the player's Nation has entirely lost that resource, and they can no longer use it in conflicts. After a resource die is reduced, re-set the hit point counter for that resource to 0.

If all of the traditions associated with a particular value are lost, the value is also lost. Once a value is lost, its traditions can no longer be revived (see below).

Player initiates – resistance

If a player initiates a chapter by giving the GM a line, they describe something that their Nation is doing to resist the encroachment of the Conquerors or revive their culture. The GM then frames a scene in which the Conquerors attempt to stop them. The scene is played out as in the GM-initiated case. When the crisis point or crossroads is reached, the player and GM select a resource die and roll it as above. 

If a player succeeds, they may choose to either revive a tradition or gain a line. To revive a tradition, a lost or assimilated tradition is restored to its original state. If that resource has hit points, take one away. Reviving a tradition will never increase a resource die. However, after a successful defense or revival of a tradition, a player may pay 5 lines to increase a resource die by one step (e.g. from a d8 to a d6).