Realms March Update

After lots of tinkering and tweaking, Realms Light has been updated! I'm thrilled with this update. One of the issues is I felt Realms was rather slow to play, but now it's much quicker!

What's changed?

In short, a lot. Mostly in Step 1 and Step 3.
I've made significant changes to Step 1. Regions no longer have a Size, and I changed Continents to Counties to shrink the scope of your Realm. Counties have one size, 6 Regions, and each Region has its biome and holds one settlement.
This change simplifies the Geography creation process while also allowing me to make future expansions to this process. I really want to extend Step 1 further, especially as I plan to add more Tropical climates to Step 1.
Step 3 has a ton of changes, especially the Settlements Table. Remember for this update, I wanted Realms to be quicker and with the rebalance, I believe I've achieved this.
Another change to Step 3 is I've altered the way your Realm's Population will grow. Instead of increasing by one every year (round), Pops raise the equal amount of Food your Realm has produced.

Quick Ref

A PDF Quick Reference Guide is available too and bundled with Realms Light in the . Most of what you need to know about how to play Realms will be on this 2-page guide.

I've already got a world with the previous version; what do I do?

You don't need to start again. Keep playing with the new rules as you move forward.
With the Continent-to-County change, move the Regions into Counties. Then, for medium and significant regions, split these up into 2 and 3 Regions, respectively. Finally, move any Settlements into these Regions. Maybe these divided regions can be North/South/East/West of the original name.
If anything, you can always start again. The names, region biomes and settlements don't need to change, just the numbers. The important thing is the story of your world stays intact.
However, you make the changes is up to you. You don't need to change anything. Just continue playing with the updated rules.
If you need any help with this, feel free to ask in the or the Forge Chat channel of the . I or someone in the community will help.

Future Updates

I am to try my best and make sure major updates like these arrive monthly (or at least anyway). So at some point in April will be the next one if all goes to plan.

What comes next?

I have loads of plans and ideas lined up. The next features and mechanics I create will be for Realms "Full", the full version of Realms. I'm hyped, as designing and playing Realms myself has been a complete joy, and I can't wait to share what I have lined up.

March Updates

Step One Changes

Continents

Change of Terminology: Continents are now Counties. Continents may return, but for now think of Continents as multiple Counties bunched up together.

Counties:

Contains 6 regions

Regions:

No more region sizes.

One settlement per region.

Step Three Changes

Added Starting Resources: You now begin with 5 of everything, Food, Materials, Gold and Pops (This was meant to be in place but it was missed by accident, oops!)
Changed cost to Explore: Exploration now Costs only 5 Gold. Exploration rules have been changed to match the new County system. On a 4+ you discover (and create) a whole County with its 6 Regions.
Pop Growth changes: Food equates to growth. Get +3 Food at the end of the year, you get +3 Pops. Same with a negative amount of Food. 0 Food equals zero growth, but also no decline. Therefore, your Population Count Stabilizes.

Settlements: Huge alteration and rebalance to the Settlements Table.

Changed how the table presents what is produced and consumed.

Rebalanced production and consumption of all settlements.

All Settlements now have 0 food cost to build. Settlements only require Materials and Gold. Check the table for their new, rebalanced Costs.

Also, Hunting Camps are now buildable of Wetland regions.

Other

Quick Reference Guide in PDF A very shortened, 2-page version of the rulebook.