Rules

Starting Resources: 1,000 Cogmofactor Cogs, 500 itokens, 3,000 Cogmofracted Gems, 3,000 etokens, 10,000 silver Nocturnes, 100 gold Nocturnes©, 100 Holy Maker Stones, 300 Scrolls of Endritchimas, 50 Akenazmas Tokens, 50 Surmontos Tokens, and 500 black alchemy tokens.
Starting Units: 1 Triune Cogmofactor Explorer™, 1 Triune Cogmofactor Fabricator, 1 Triune Stone Sanctifier, 1 Triune Mint, 1 Triune Cogmofactor Capacitor, 1 Windsail System, 1 Triune Alchemy Capacitor, 1 Triune Data Generator, 1 Triune Token Synthesizer, 1 Triune Evolution Capacitor, and 1 Triune Sacred Stone Synthesizer.

The Pale Moons start with 1 Warfang Reserve Laborer (WRL), 1 Prungwillow Gardener 1 Prungwillow Chickobeak Coopmaster,  and 3 Knackerkin Scope Division Aryphs.


INTRODUCTION

Hello, my weary friend. Welcome to Dreamscape Guardians™, a Fantasy RPG Wellness System, for Deep Rest, Sleep, and Restorative Adventure! This system is always whatever it needs to be for your benefit, and the First Rule is: If you’re hurting yourself, you’re not playing correctly. 

Have you ever wished to prove you could win a game, if it was on your terms? Dreamscape Guardians™ is designed to be that game, where progress is made even after days of no activity, and trespassers cannot win unless strict rules of engagement are met. In fact, even though Dreamscape Guardians™ allows multiple players, it essentially cannot result in defeat unless someone else has convinced you they have won. It’s like a solo game that other players can only play if they almost certainly will lose. Sound fun? Read on!

Can you, for the sake of anything, be convinced that you own something magical, or at least for the purposes of the imagination, you fully own something mythological? Dreamscape Guardians™ is just as much a wellness system for your health as it is a game. This ‘game’ is especially designed for those who suffer from paranoia, insomnia, nightmares, depression, anxiety, or suicidal thoughts. When you buy a copy of Dreamscape Guardians™, you are literally buying guardians that will protect your mind from harm, or at least create the potential for that experience. 

As the author, I had an experience produced by my own experimentation that resulted in a ‘high’, or a ‘trip’, triggered by hypnosis.

I achieved this by (something you will not have to do) creating a system of spiritual research and experimentation where I would recite prayers from a prayerbook of my own design. I wanted to reward myself for completing a set of twelve prayers from the prayerbook, and so each time I completed the recitations of twelve prayers, I wrote down that I had scored a ‘cogmofactor’, which was a name that sounded sufficiently ‘steam-punk’.  I had nothing in particular in mind for what it would be. I noticed my drive and feelings of productivity increased when I added a cogmofactor, but eventually I noticed there were diminishing returns, and feelings of drive and productivity would only increase a little when I added one. Believing I had a sufficient surplus, I decided to spend one.

I scribbled out one of my tallies for how many cogmofactors I had, and awarded myself, for my own amusement, “50 quadrillion sentry towers”. These were meant to be defensive structures you’d find in a typical ‘tower defense game’, where towers placed by the player shoot missiles to stop waves of invaders. 

The result was like getting high off sentry towers. I had an amazing feeling of security and victory, and visions of adversaries of mine being caught off guard and overwhelmed by this maneuver. It was like all the people who I believed were set against me were turned back in dismay by the overwhelming power of my sentry towers.

This is an example of hypnotic torsion. The amount of tension built up in a ‘cogmofactor’ was the result of laborious effort, writing the prayers and fairly lengthy recitations, and so when it was ‘spent’, or burned as fuel, for the reward (the 50 quadrillion sentry towers), the reward was therefore empowered to make me feel that it was worth something. What’s more, it created noticeable feelings, not just theoretical or abstract feelings, so that I knew I was onto something.

Because Dreamscape Guardians™ functions as streamlined hypnosis, with a much more advanced and ordered system than the one I was using, combined with the natural release of dopamine rewards when you buy something, you too can enjoy hypnotic release of our reward-system! Think about it: though you did not labor to build this system as I have, that’s the beauty of buying something (or receiving it as a gift for a special occasion), which is that you know that it’s yours, because you paid for what it was worth.

Dreamscape Guardians™ makes use of Hypnotic Torsion, pioneered by Kefka Felix, the game’s designer. Torsion, in a catapult, is when you wind ropes using human strength and leverage to store energy. When the tightly wound rope is released, the catapult has enough stored energy to hurl a heavy stone. In the same way, Dreamscape Guardians is a system that stores energy via a dream economy. You’ll notice that the resources earned in Dreamscape Guardians are earned very slowly, require considerable tallying, or require activities some would consider tedious. But that’s exactly why your dream servants and wealth will serve their function, because you’re not getting a frenzied bonanza of grabbing goodies, but slowly and firmly building your dream fortress; the stronghold where your mind can be at peace.

Hypnotic Torsion causes the units you buy in Dreamscape Guardians to do three things: 

1) Guard your dreams and your mind. The ‘game’, which is also a wellness system, combines psychology, hypnosis and fantasy-gaming elements (and a little of that good old-fashioned Holy Spirit) to improve your rest and sleep. Because you paid for your copy of Dreamscape Guardians™, the dream guardians are therefore yours by rights. Moreover, you’ll spend additional time earning your dream guardians by following the rules of the game. You might ask, “If they don’t really exist, how can they provide a real benefit?” But A) Nothing in your dreams (or perhaps in your anxious mind) “really” exists, B) Science already confirms that things with similar purposes, like stuffed animals, have a measurable therapeutic effect on the mind, and C) If a guided hypnotic fantasy experience can have no effect, then neither can TV, books, movies, or videogames, because those are merely different versions of the same thing.

2) Provide engagement when you’re stuck with nothing to do. Everyone has experienced it at some point: you’re stuck waiting for something and you don’t have anything to keep you entertained. When you adjust to the Dreamscape Guardians Wellness System, it provides numerous opportunities to keep your mind happily occupied when nothing else is happening, whether by your ongoing progress and activities with your army/dream economy, or your ongoing experimentation with designing your own units. Dreamscape Guardians™ is an experience that reorients your mind to always be immersed in an adventure, so it greatly increases the odds of your contentment when you’re in a situation that is otherwise rather boring.

3) Make it easier to do boring tasks. Dreamscape Guardians™ does not mandate you must do boring activities. However, what it does do is make boring tasks easier or even welcome, because the Due Labor rule (discussed later) means you can harness those activities to earn resources in the game. That way, when you would have ordinarily simply seen a boring task, you may now see it as an opportunity to fund your dream experiences. As the Bible says, “The rest of a laborer is sweet, whether he eats a little or a lot”.

Dreamscape Guardians™ is designed to be welcoming for solo play, and functions as an Honors System. If something happens where things are recorded incorrectly, or something happens that was unfair, or if you did not understand something, provisions are welcome to set your mind at ease. Remember, if you’re hurting yourself, you are not playing correctly.

Dreamscape Guardians™ is designed to favor Common Core math, and that means most of the tallying is designed to be done in your head— if you can’t, the main idea is that you know you have enough of a resource when you spend it, not that you need a perfect tally. I’ve played the game before where I never kept a tally of my resources, but by doing estimative tallying, I knew enough that I was able to buy certain units without overspending. When you have a lot of a certain resource, you only need to ensure you have enough.

However, it is worth noting: In theory, when the game is functioning perfectly, your immersion level will not allow you or anyone else to cheat. Dreamscape Guardians™ has a Magic Rule: If you’re doing something dishonest or against the spirit of the game, the immersive environment of the game will correct it. 

This means that for some people, or even most, your servants in the game will respond to correct you, as if they were talking to you. Don’t be frightened: Dreamscape Guardians™ is designed with pure and wholesome elements, so it cannot make something bad happen, it can only respond to maladies or obstacles that are unavoidable. 

Some players might find their dream servants are sad because you are sad, and they want to help. You might also find they are sad because your friends wish you would treat them better. However, in Dreamscape Guardians™, you are an important person, and your servants will not abandon you just because you have flaws. When a prince has something on his face, his servants leap to provide a handkerchief.  

DREAMSCAPE RESOURCES 

Dreamscape Guardians™ allows you to form your own dream army and economy, but in order to take advantage of our system, certain rules must be observed, or you simply are not following the rules of the product you purchased, which is itself a system of rules (plus illustrations). 

In Dreamscape Guardians™, the currencies (or ‘resources’) you use to purchase units are what makes them function a certain way, and the more of a resource you spend, the stronger the hypnosis will be pertaining to the unit you purchased. 

Each resource adds a hypnotic element, either to the ones provided in the base three factions, or to your own units.

There are three resources which are Master Resources: Cogmofactor Cogs, Cogmofracted Gems, and Holy Maker Stones. You are not allowed to craft units that make your own sources of these resources. They are the source of stability that makes Dreamscape Guardians™ unique and gives it potential to be a shared experience.

‘Cogmofactors’ are workers in an all-encompassing Dream Factory. They produce the components that make your dream come to life.

Cogmofactor Cogs are the skeleton of your dream reality, enforcing the presence of units with a backbone. You are not allowed to form your own units that produce these. You must, however, add these as a cost, with a minimum of ‘10’  in order to reinforce the strength of the units of your own design.

Cogmofracted Gems are the power source that acts as lifeblood to Dreamscape units. You are not allowed to form your own units that produce these. You must, however, add these as a cost, with a minimum of ‘25’ in order to animate the units of your own design.

Holy Maker Stones are the creative fuel that add comprehensive flesh and grace to the units you produce. They are needed for more powerful units and for producing Faction Points.  You are not allowed to form your own units that produce these. You may, however, choose not to list Holy Maker Stones as a cost for your units that you design.

With the other Dreamscape resources, however, you can buy units from one of the three available factions to produce more of that resource, or you can form your own economic units from (relative) scratch. The universal resources are as follows:

Industrial Points, or ipts: These represent a caloric cost, as in food, but can also entail firewood. Although itokens often translate to timber as well, all resource costs are an abstraction, not intended for hyper-realism. A calorie is a unit of energy, so it accounts for the energy used up, not the type of material.

Industrial Tokens, or itokens: These represent a cost in raw materials, often timber, that are required to field a unit. Even relatively primitive units would probably use cloth, twine, nails, firewood or arrows, so upkeep in itokens for units that don’t produce itokens is often present. You’ll notice major constructs, like a Warfang Mobile Battleworks or a Mighty Mole Mole Machine, have huge costs in itokens, while Prungwillow Gardeners have a low cost.
 
(Silver currency): (silver Nocturnes (Pale Moon Empire), Cybercoins (Elementalists) silver Dawn Creds (Rising Suns)): The most common monetary unit, although because there are gold currencies, they are often eschewed in favor of something considered more rare and valuable.

(Gold Currency): (gold Nocturnes (Pale Moon Empire), Cyber+Coins (Elementalists), gold Dawn Creds (Rising Suns): More rare than silver, and considered more valuable. For the same reason you don’t trade rare baseball cards for hundreds of commonplace cards, many prefer gold to silver.

Evolution Tokens, or etokens: These represent the experiential, life-cycle development required to produce an organic unit. Cogmofactors and Mighty Mole Mole Machines don’t require etokens, but Prungwillow Gardeners and Maj Enduran Brawlers do.

(Research): (Scrolls of Endritchimas (Pale Moon Empire), Ace-Data Points (Rising Suns), Hack Points and Breaker Points (Elementalists)): These are the various forms of data, knowledge, or research used by the Dreamscape Guardians™ base factions. If something requires sophistication to make, these types of resources fulfill that need. Endritchimas is the Pale Moon god of Knowledge, and priests have a system of examination to determine whether a scroll has value as data. The Rising Suns have a powerful corporation that uses Ace Data Points in a patented process to analyze data. The Elementalists use two: Hackpoints and Breakerpoints— Hackpoints are for analyzing the tech of rival factions, while Breakerpoints represent points towards breakthroughs in scientific research. However, for the purposes of allocating ‘Research’ to Elementalists, the Dream Factory units only produce Breakerpoints, because otherwise that sets the precedent that a Dream Factory unit’s output can be altered, but their output cannot be altered (except by the development team). Hack Points are produced separately by Elementalists of their own volition. 

Alchemy Tokens: Black Alchemy Tokens represent a traditional cost in petroleum (or a rough equivalent of it), while the other colors of alchemy tokens (red, blue, green, yellow, and violet) represent diverse costs in components, allowing players to specify certain types of ingredients that are used in industry.

(Weapon & Armor Tokens): (Akenazmas Tokens and Surmontos Tokens) (Pale Moon Empire), (Military Hardware) (Rising Suns and Elementalists). These represent the combat readiness of the equipment of your troops. Dream Factory units do not produce these. Pale Moons have a god of Swords, Akenazmas, and a god of Shields and Protection, Surmontos. The power of their weapons and armor is linked to these celestial deities. The Rising Suns and Elementalists have no unique properties when processing weapons and armor, so they both use Military Hardware. If you were to make your own faction of dwarves that have their own cannons and rifles, you might use a combination of ‘Forge Tokens’ and ‘Gunpowder Tokens’.

Flavor Tokens: Flavor Tokens represent the level of satiety a food product has. They improve the quality of life for you and your servants in the dream world. When your workers are happy, you may find the atmosphere of your dreams improves. It has nothing to do with nourishment; flavor tokens increase the happiness of your servants, while actual energy is provided by industrial points (ipts).

Fun Tokens: Fun Tokens represent recreational fun available in your society. Like flavor tokens, they improve quality of life for you and your servants in the dream world, but fulfill a different need than merely being an enjoyable meal.

Luxury Tokens: Luxury Tokens are yielded from things like coffee, wine, beer, mead, fine clothing, hospitality, baths,  jewelry, and other such products. They enhance the quality of life, but fulfill different needs than everyday food quality or toys.

When forming your own dream units, you can invent your own types of resources, but there is one more rule you must follow:

Gryphon’s Law: You cannot receive more than +10,000 of something from a single economic unit (a unit that produces resources). You can have multiples to receive more than +10,000 of a resource in total, but you cannot receive more than that from a single unit. It is one of the few boundaries that provide structure for the hypnotic program: You *can* invent units that add +10,000 itokens each, and only cost a few measly coins (plus 10 Cogmofactor Cogs and 25 Cogmofracted Gems) but whatever that strange creation is, it’s what you’ll be dreaming about.

You CAN, however, design costs that are greater than 10,000.

So, when you’re creating servants for your dreams, remember you’re convincing yourself, not other people. If you’re trying it just to see what happens, good luck. But if you don’t find it convincing that your “Cyberdroid Worker” produces +500 of every resource, then try to dial it back a bit. You’ll find the harder you work and the more patient you are to earn something, even in dreamland, the better the result will be.

Inflation: Remember, the only resources you can’t produce with your own inventions are the Master Resources. You might wonder, “Since some of these resources only have different names, why is one different from the other?” Two reasons: First, the game is experiential, so it is conducive to a dream state to have your own words that represent (experientially) different things, so they don’t merely have different names, as far as we’re concerned. Second: Your own behavior and mind determine the value of your resources, so that if you manage your faction well, your resources may be desired more greatly than the resources of other players. The difference between “Akenazmas Tokens” and “Military Hardware” will be what you make of it.

If you aren’t careful with balancing your resources, then you might be entirely dependent on the Master Resources. However, if other players see what you’re doing and would like to share in it, theoretically, your resources could be worth more than the Master Resources, though it would be difficult to achieve.




One of the most important concepts of Dreamscape Guardians™ is called Due Labor. This is not a single foray into the night! Although all passively-earned resources in the game are earned by the hour, ‘Due Labor’ allows you to speed up productivity by being productive yourself. A concept called ‘Default’ Due Labor defines Due Labor as originally defined by the Creator (Kefka Felix), which is: A resource that is acquired by writing or typing twelve 5-letter words or longer, no copy/paste. Proper nouns and invented words count, but you must be the judge for other things, like apostrophes or misspelled words.

HOWEVER: DUE LABOR IS DESIGNED TO BE ADAPTED TO OTHER ACTIVITIES.

‘Default’ Due Labor is as already defined in the above paragraph. Other forms of Due Labor make use of the Honors System, so that you must honor Default Due Labor proportionally with the activity that replaces it. If you’re washing dishes, it might mean washing 3 dishes. If you’re a grocery bagger, it might mean ‘filling’ (roughly, no need to overthink it) one bag of groceries. If you’re a cashier, it might mean helping 1 customer at the till. If you plan on exercising, Due Labor might be 3-5 situps, or perhaps every 15 seconds of running. If you’re tidying up the apartment, every three minutes of active cleaning could be considered an increment. 

But for those who want a “more authentic” Dreamscape Guardians™ experience, we sell supplementary Dream Journal pages, so you can record your dreams (you can just use a computer or lined paper). Whether they were waking dreams or dreams during REM sleep, record (or perhaps invent, since it’s an Honors System) your imaginary adventures, and that way you can speed up productivity with Default Due Labor.

For more daring players, use our templates for producing your own Dreamscape Units, which also can be used for Due Labor. However, since our base game units are carefully balanced and professionally illustrated and designed, some people might find such an activity daunting. There’s no rush; in fact, there’s no need to do Due Labor at all if you’re feeling particularly lazy.  


RESOLVING CONFLICT:

You’re probably wondering how there can be conflict resolution with potentially such high volumes of troops. There are Five Phases: The Onset Narrative Phase, the Military Phase, the Economic Phase, the Conclusion Narrative Phase, and the Resolution Phase. 

If a player has generated beneath a certain threshold of faction points, they are beneath the notice of more powerful players, and cannot be targeted by enemy forces.

Certain units, like Hulks of Kaethar, Mighty Mole Mole Machines, Mech Gargants and Sleepless Guardians cannot be purchased unless you choose to generate more faction points.

Faction Points determine who is winning, even if you’re in the same faction, although those in the same faction are assumed to be allies unless the players decide otherwise.

There are two types of battles: Defensive Battles, where a player attacks another player’s base, and an Honorable Battle, where players decide to clash on a (relatively) open field. Players must agree to an Honorable Battle, but a Defensive Battle is considered (by the Honors’ System) to be mandatory if the defender is generating more faction points than the attacker. A defending player that does not answer a challenge in a realistic (use the Honors System) timeframe, which by default ranges 3 days to 1 week, he must reduce his faction point generation to zero until he answers the challenge. However, after 7 days of reducing faction point generation to zero, he is allowed to resume faction point generation for 7 days without interference until he may be targeted by another challenge.

 
Roster Review: With so much creative liberty in Dreamscape Guardians™, it is possible for a player to craft units that are unfair compared to the base units available to the canonical factions. As a preventative measure, by default, your creations cannot have a total score of any metric used in the Military Phase (Military Advantage, Tactical Advantage, Mystical Advantage, etc)  that, in total, is greater than 20% of your total of that metric. That means even if you’re the defender, the attacker can decide that you’re not allowed to have 500 Megadroids with +500 Military Advantage each, because otherwise you only have a handful of Flame Guild Sentinels. A player with 100 Aryphs (a total of +3,500 Military Advantage) can, if he chooses, add a single “Two-Headed Dragon Ogre” with +500 Military Advantage, because in that specific situation, 500 is not more than 20% of his total Military Advantage.

HOWEVER: Some players may decide they want to make an entire faction of their own design. If he does so, then other players may ignore challenges by that player with no consequence, although that player is still allowed to generate faction points— the reason for this is if this hypothetical player is being fair, then their faction points will enable them to get the glorious battle they seek. If you can convince another player via the Honors System that your home-made roster is fair, then they may agree that your challenges deserve to be answered. If the faction design is unfair, then the player will probably lose interest in their faction when everyone ignores them. 

The Onset Narrative Phase

The Narrative Phases will involve writing or typing by both sides. 

The Narrative Phase involves spending 30 minutes writing or typing the answer to the question: Why is a battle commencing, and/or how do you expect it to resolve?

*For every twelve 5-letter words or longer written or typed in the Onset Narrative Phase, add a D6 to your Military Resolution Score.

*Players must write coherently, but strict grammar rules do not apply as long as the player can make himself understood. If it is not coherent, but just a bunch of 5-letter words, the player does not score.

*copy/paste is not allowed.

Each player may choose to Reject a Narrative, causing their opponent to score nothing. If so, then the casualties inflicted in the battle on the side of whoever makes a Rejection will be twice as high, leading to higher economic costs after the battle, but their Military Resolution Score will be unaffected (it hurts your dream economy and overall strength, but it’s useful for winning the battle). This illustrates a principle: If you care less about the lives of your dream servants (or if your opponent is insufferable), they can fight more fiercely at the risk of their lives.

*Players must both know the other player’s decision before either decision is made final.

*players who write something absurd, or perhaps insulting (such as using personal details), and/or has nothing to do with the setting of the conflict, can be rejected without incurring additional casualties.

*players who attempt to dictate reality for something they have no right to decide, like the outcome of the battle or the background of the opposing force, can be rejected without incurring additional casualties.

    * Players can say things like, “the foolish enemy forces”, because it’s his opinion.
    * The Player can say something like, “His forces will be crushed”, because the point of the Narrative is to depict how he feels the battle will go.
    *Players may not say, “The enemy is trying to escape guilt for a murder he committed in my city three years ago” or “trying to hide their embarrassment as a bed-wetter” because that is inventing/using personal details he has no right to decide, or has  nothing to do with the setting. He may be rejected without consequence.
    *Players may, however, agree beforehand that, in the above example, a false accusation of murder is the reason for the battle. That would require the player’s permission.
    *Players may say, “My enemy is poor at strategy,” this may be insulting, but it fits the setting and the player is entitled to an opinion.
    *Players may say, “The Pale Moons are untrustworthy, just like their gods,” because although it’s insulting, it fits the setting.
    *Players may not say, “the enemy was ambushed and the battle was a victory for my glorious army”, because you can’t decide things that have happened that have not happened yet. This may be rejected without consequence.
    *Players may not say, “My forces found a supply of nuclear warheads that they launch at the castle,” because it’s inventing details that determine the outcome of the battle, and it probably doesn’t fit the setting. This may be rejected without consequence.
*You may say, “my forces ready an ambush in the thicket outside the castle”.
*You may say, “My artillery will surely bring down the enemy’s walls, where they are hiding like cowards”— this fits the setting.
    *Players may not write “my favorite videogame is Chrono Trigger,” or “Did you know that there’s a breakfast special at Denny’s?” because that has nothing to do with the event that is taking place. That counts as ‘absurd’. Such things may be rejected without consequence.

Remember the game functions as an Honors System, so if you really can’t be civil or reasonable, then perhaps Checkers is a more suitable activity.


The Military Resolution Phase


Military Advantage: Military Resolution, in its most straightforward format, is rolling a D6 for every 250 Military Advantage. The one with the highest total wins! However, there are a number of calculations that can swing the odds in a certain direction.

Tactical Advantage: The player who has a higher  Tactical Advantage by at least 100 points  gains +15% to their total Military Resolution (the rolls, not the Military Advantage itself) score, rounded down.

Morale Advantage: Players with a higher Morale Advantage gain +1 to their Military Advantage rolls of 5 or higher.

Leadership Advantage: Players can re-roll a 1 on a D6 for a Military Advantage roll once for every point of Leadership Advantage.

Artillery Advantage: Players roll a D20 and add it to their Military Resolution Score for every 1 pt of Artillery Advantage.

Mystic Advantage: The player with the higher Mystic Advantage adds a D6 for every five D6s already used in their Military Advantage dice pool— this does not include D6s from anything other than the D6s that result from Military Advantage.

Armor Advantage: For every 100 pts of Armor Advantage, roll a D6 and reduce an opponent’s Military Resolution score by that amount.

Efficiency Advantage: If your Efficiency Advantage is higher, double the D20s you roll for your Economic Resolution Phase.

Reconnaissance: Add a D12 to your score for every 100 Reconnaissance you have higher than an opponent’s.

Aerial Advantage: Add a D12 to your score for every 100 Aerial Advantage you have higher than an opponent’s.

The Economic Resolution Phase

In the Economic Resolution Phase, calculate the production of every resource you produce in an hour. For every resource you produce more than your opponent in an hour, roll a D20 and add it to your Military Resolution Score.

A player may use 1 economic resource that was invented if he invented it before the encounter, and +1 invented resource for every invented resource your opponent also uses.

The Conclusion Narrative Phase:

Each player writes a narrative of how they did during the battle, and how it resolved. Each player gets a chance to score again a D6 for every twelve 5-letter words or longer written, and players may also Reject their opponent’s narrative, which increases the casualties on their army by double, which is another doubling if the first Narrative was rejected.

The Resolution Phase

For every 12 pts an opponent scores in their Military Phase, you must reduce units in your army/economy roster so that the combined Military Advantage of the casualties (the number of units reduced) is at least 50. If your opponent scores 24 pts, that means you must reduce at least 100 Military Advantage worth of units. If an opponent scores 100 pts, that’s 100/12 = 8 (rounded down) x 50, so you would experience 400 Military Advantage worth of casualties.

If you cannot remove a unit without reducing Military Advantage by more than 50, you still must remove the unit to ensure 50 Military Advantage was removed. (losing 1 Aryph is 35 Military Advantage, but you may need to lose 2 of them to lose at least 50).

If you rejected one Narrative, in either the Opening Narrative Phase or the Conclusion Narrative Phase, you multiply the total Military Advantage in units you lose by 2. If your opponent scored 100 pts, 100/12 = 8 (rounded down) x50 x2, so you’d need to remove 800 Military Advantage worth of units from your roster.

If you rejected two Narratives, in both the Opening Narrative Phase and the Conclusion Narrative Phase, you multiply the total Military Advantage you lose by 4. If your opponent scored 100 pts, 100/12 = 8 (rounded down) x50 x4, so you’d need to remove 1,600 Military Advantage worth of units from your roster.

The player who had the highest score, not the fewest casualties, wins the battle. The player who loses the battle cannot produce faction points for 7 days.

Players who lose cannot be targeted again with a challenge for 7 days. Players who win, however, can (you might want to think twice about those casualties).



Costs Per Hour: When costs per/hr are not met, your economy is safeguarded with calculated scaling-back of activity until costs are met, where the basic units stop functioning last, and any Cogmofactor Explorers©™ never stop functioning. First non-industrial buildings stop functioning, then troops, then any industry (units that generate resources) with unmet costs. An unsustainable economy is assumed to slow/halt with minimal damage of its own accord. Unmet costs arranged beforehand slow what would be the economy by 75% after 1 hour, but you can still make money in your sleep. Unmet costs in excess of 10x your maximum economy in the last 48 hours freezes your economy, which means you have to dial it back until Hypnotic Torsion is restored. This means if you go into debt, you should calculate how long you will be at your computer. Otherwise, it's an honors system, so there's always 5-10% wiggle room, but you are expected to correct errors once you notice them. If you're hurting yourself, you are not playing correctly.

Cogmofactor Explorers™  are indestructible, whereas your exploits might compromise or disable/destroy the rest of your roster, your Explorers will guarantee you can start again anew without incurring additional costs. You can have up to 15, meaning you can build your economy much more swiftly than when you began with 1.


Debt: You can overspend by 10% greater than your highest total in the past 24 hours of any resource, meaning if you have 10,000 itokens, you can overspend up to negative -11,000 itokens (less than zero) without slowing your economy.