Terminology

Olympia: The Age of Gods PBEM (Oct 4 2000)

## 1.2: Important terms

Entity Unit | Everything in the Olympian world has a unique code. Nobles, items, locations, and skills all are referenced with an entity number. The code is shown in brackets after the name. Some examples:
Rich Skrenta [xt8] | a player
Osswid the Destroyer [5499] | a noble
Shipcraft [1000] | a skill
City of the Lost [gx14] | a place
Gold [1] | an item
Scroll [yq12] | an item

Noble
Character

Used interchangeably. These are the individuals under the control of players. All player orders are given to nobles. Players start with one noble. Others may be hired or persuaded to join the player's faction. Nobles may possess items, travel through locations, learn skills, engage in combat, cast magical spells, etc.

Faction

All of the units controlled by a player are called the player's faction. A player starts with only one noble, but the faction may grow to have many units.

Player character

The player character, or PC, is the character the player starts with. The PC begins with a loyalty of oath-2. The PC may later FORM other characters. Nothing is special about the PC other than being the player's first noble; if the PC is killed, play continues with the player's other nobles.

Nation

Each faction belongs to a particular nation, such as the "Imperial Empire". Nations are political structures that are usually in conflict with each other.

Scenario

Each game of Olympia:The Age of Gods is based upon a particular scenario. The scenario defines what nations are available, what skills are available, the win conditions, and so on. The scenario for a particular game is describe on the game's web page, and in the newsletter. For more information, see Scenarios.

Item
Possession

Nobles may hold items, such as gold, scrolls, weapons, magic potions, jewels, lumber, rugs, etc.

Men

Nobles may also have non-descript men in their employ. These men are represented as possessions for simplicity. They include peasants, workers, sailors, and different kinds of soldiers. These men may not learn skills, hold any items, or act independently from the noble they are with.

For example, one might see:

      Seen here:
         Law Netexus [2020], with three peasants

Law Netexus is a noble; the three peasants are non-descript men accompanying him.

Nobles obtain peasants with the `recruit` order.

Skills

Nobles may learn skills, which are used to perform tasks. For instance, Sailing [1001] must be known in order to sail a ship.

Skills are grouped into the following categories:

- Alchemy
- Combat
- Construction
- Forestry
- Mining
- Persuasion
- Shipcraft
- Stealth
- Ranger
- Trading

There are also six schools of magic, and eight churches.

For information about learning skills, see study.

Noble Points

A player starts with some number of Noble Points (NP). Each player gets an additional NP every eight turns (one each game year). NPs are used to buy nobles with the `form` command. They are also required to learn some advanced skills, and to swear nobles to oath loyalty.

Stack

A group of nobles joined such that they move and fight together.

Province

A location on the map. Provinces may have sub-locations within them, such as cities, bogs, caves, etc. Provinces are either forest, swamp, mountain, desert, plains, or ocean.

Month

Each turn is a game month, or 30 game days.

Safe Haven

Some cities are designated safe havens. Combat, magic and building are not allowed in safe havens. New players may choose to start in a safe haven so that they have some chance to acclimate themselves before becoming a target for existing players.

Olympian Calendar

The Olympia calendar has two months for each season, for a total of eight months per Olympian year. Each month is 30 game days long.

Fierce winds

Spring

Snowmelt Spring
Blossom bloom Summer
Sunsear Summer
Thunder and rain Fall
Harvest Fall
Waning days Winter
Dark night Winter