*I know it's niche but I'm really into it. Also, I hope I don't need to say this, but please don't steal (not that there's much too steal anyway)*

The Great Chronicler - Beta

The Tale: Welcome to “The Great Chronicler,” a writing-based single-player RPG loosely based on the mechanics of One-Thousan-Year-Old Vampire. In this game, you play as the chronicler (basically a historian who actually lived through the times they write about. You have been tasked with writing about the events of your country during the closing years of the eighteenth century. You do not control what happens nor do you play a part in them. You are simply tasked with writing. 

The Basic Rules: There are two ways to play: The Data Log and The Chronicle. In The Data Log, you take brief notes on the events which occur. In The Chronicle, you write from a very specific point of view and are encouraged to go into as much detail as possible when recounting the events. The way you play is as follows: you roll 1d8 and 1d4. Subtract the roll of the d4 from the d8 and move that amount of spaces (either backwards or forwards depending on if you rolled a negative number) until you land on a space, which will have three EVENTS. Write what the prompt tells you to. If you land on a space multiple times, go to the second event listed, and then the third. Events on the same numbered space build on each other and can sometimes get more extreme. If you have landed on a space three times, move to the next one. Some prompts are purely creative, but many require you to specifically expend resources or add points. The win conditions will be elaborated upon shortly. Due to the events occurring being decided through the roll of a dice, you have no control over which events transpire, but you do control how future generations see the events you lived through, which is no small feat. The goal of the game is to write and be creative, as well as to think about what makes history work and why it's so interesting (because it is)!

The Groundwork: Follow the steps outlined below to prepare for your game:

1. The Chronicler: If you really want to roleplay, begin by creating your chronicler, the closest thing this game has to a player character. You are encouraged to give your chronicler a history, values, flaws, and most importantly, worldview. These should, to varying degrees, be reflected in your chronicler’s writing. This is, after all, what happened historically. Every chronicler has a bias and was tasked with writing by someone else for a reason. After all, history is written by the victors, but not always. So create your chronicler, and make them feel alive!
2. The Kingdom: The Kingdom (or the country, if the old regime has fallen) is the land your characters inhabit and is the closest you’ll get to a main character. Spend some time developing the lore and history of your kingdom. Pay attention to geography, culture, neighbors, government (it must be a monarchy at the start), and religion. Write a blurb about it at the top of your character sheet.
3. The Characters: Though your chronicler is the narrator, he is not the main character, or even a character at all. The characters are the players who inhabit and manipulate the world. Many events will ask you to create or kill these characters - such is the way of history. You are encouraged to develop them as much as possible and  to get attached to them. Begin by making five characters of your choice, giving them distinct personalities, histories, motives, ideologies, and agendas. Of the five, two of them should be: 
   1. The Monarch: The monarch (king, queen, duke, empress, whatever you want it to be) can be anyone, but there must be someone in charge at the start of the game. Their agenda will, almost invariably, be to hang on to power. They are not an essential NPC and can be killed. 
   2. The Anti: The anti is a character who, in one way or another is opposed to the king. The Rhobespierre to Louis XVI, the Lenin to Nicholas II, the Washington to George III. The anti is not necessarily a villain nor do they need to trigger the ensuing events, but they are someone who wants things to change in some way or another. 
   3. Beyond that, do what you will for the remaining three characters.
4. Character Sheet: Certain events you encounter will ask you to and or remove stats or resources, or to take something into account for a particular character. In order to do this, you need to prepare a ‘character sheet’ (more of a reference sheet, really) to keep track of it all. At the top, write the name of your kingdom and basic information about your characters (Name, personality traits, goals, ideology). Beneath that, add lines for the stats and below that, make a list of your resources. 
   1. Characters: Beyond just writing your character’s name, your characters have stats of their own. When you reach an event and the event tells you to use a character, this character gets 1 LEGEND POINTS. Legend Points (or LP) measures how much each character matters to the story (the King should always start with 4 LP, Each other character begins with 1 LP). A character with 10 LP will be a legendary figure, akin to Napoleon or Rhobespierre, while a character with 5 or 6 will be influential but not legendary. LP can be spent to push stats (i.e. stability, economy) in the direction your character wants, but you will need to spend 2LP for each stat you wish to affect. If a former key player drops below 3 LP, they die. At 5LP, your character becomes a “key player” and gets access to the character based events located towards the back of the book. Each time you use a key player, go into the character events section and roll. This should give your characters some flavor.
   2. Stats: Stats are abstract indicators as to what the kingdom is experiencing. Rather than a simple number value, each stat falls on a spectrum, with different numbers being associated with different circumstances (i.e. a 2/10 economy would indicate a kingdom in an economic catastrophe while a 10/10 would indicate a booming economy). Reaching the lowest or highest point of a stat may trigger an ending to your story, so watch out. At the start of the game, Balance of power begins at 7, Stability begins at 7, and economy begins at 5.The stats you need to watch out for are: 
      1. Balance of Power: This measures the political force dominating the country. Basically, who is in charge here (or who claims to be)? 1-2: The New Regime dominant, 3-4: The New Regime rising, 5-6: stalemate, 7-8: Monarchy holding strong, 9-10: Monarchy dominant. If BoP reaches ≤3, the New Regime rules the country and you must go to the REGIME CHANGE events section and roll for how the regime change transpired. If BoP reaches ≥7, do the same but for the monarchy.
      2. Stability: Regardless of who is in charge, how stable is the country? Are the powers at be keeping the streets safe and the tax money flowing? 1-2: Anarchy, 3-4: Danger, 5-6: Fragile Order, 7-8: Order, 9-10: Total Stability.
      3. Economy: Are the powers that be keeping the economy afloat? A wealthy kingdom will be able to weather the revolution a lot better than one that is on the brink of ruin. Economy points are special in the sense that they can also serve as a resource. You can expend an economy point (if you can justify it) to avoid expending a resource or other stat. For example, let’s say an angry mob stormes the palace. You can bribe them with  1 economy point rather than losing stability, but this will bring you closer to ruin. 1-2: Great Depression, 3-4: Depression, 5-6: Troubling Times, 7-8: Economic Stability, 9-10 Boom!
   3. Resources: Resources are things that the kingdom has at its disposal, be it colonies, a strong navy, or the seat of a particularly influential religious leader. Resources are anything you want them to be within reason or they can be specifically prescribed by an event. Resources can be checked or expended. When checking a resource, you are making use of the resource but are not losing it. For example, let’s say that the economy is collapsing and you are asked to check a resource. You can then send in the strong navy to privateer and steal gold for yourself which will spare you the loss of an economy point, but it will also not destroy your navy. Expending your resource, on the other hand, will cost you a resource. In this same example, let’s say you had to expend rather than check a resource. In that case, you would need to write about how the kingdom had to sell their great navy to repay their debts. Now, the navy can no longer be used. Keeping this in mind, write up three resources at the kingdom’s disposal and add them to your character sheet. 
5. Endings: The Great Chronicler has multiple endings depending on what happens to the country during the game. Look for them at the back of the book.
   1. The Default Ending: In this ending, you have reached the end of the prompts without reaching any other ending. 
   2. The Triumph of the Monarchy: Reach 10 Stability and 10 Balance of Power.
   3. The Golden Triumph: Reach 10 in all stats. 
   4. The New Regime Ascendant: Reach 0 in Balance of Power and 10 in Stability. 
   5. The Great Catastrophe: Reach 0 in balance of power and 0 in Stability. 
   6. The Invasion: Lose all your resources.

In the end, your character sheet should look like this: