Rules

The rules of this NES intend to be simple and easy to work with. There is some compromise here (especially with some word choices) which means the NES won't be simulationist. Most of the effects of player orders are rationalised by the mod and the relations between stats are rationalised as well. A player may well think some causalliy the mod makes is wrong, and if such that player is welcome to talk to the mod. Regardless, the mod is the final authority and judge of the world. All final calls and outcomes are decided by the mod.

The NES is very traditional so most things shouldn't need to be explained. The stat sheet even imitates the old NESing style (NES2), but several particularities and intricacies are different.

If a player writes stories, that player is guaranteed a higher effeciency in all areas of its nation. Depending on how much the mod likes the stories, the nation will succeed much more with them; but note that whatever stories the player would write, they can't help the nation do things that would be impossible without the stories. Stories provide bonuses, not nerfs.

Every 10 turns, I will give out Rewards for stuff like Wealthiest Nation, Best Ally, Most Fearsome Military, Most Unlucky Player, Best Chronicler (storyist award), Most Influential Religion etc.

And as these rules are the first draft, everything is subject to change.

Stats
Nation name: TEXT

Age: tribal - bronze age - late bronze - early iron age - high iron age - classical age

Prestige: laughable - petty - uncivilized - acceptable - inspirational - majestic - center of the world

Confidence: revolution - rebellious - defiant - satisfied - confident - loyal - celebratory

Coherence: civil war - vendettas - precarious - multiethnic - multicultural - nation

Innovation: unimaginative - traditionalist - conservative - cautious - ingenious - innovative - spearheading/state-of-the-art

Bureaucracy/Infrastructure: corrupt - decadent - managable - functional - effecient - premium/remarkable

Agriculture: NUMBER, declining - stable - growing

Industry: NUMBER, declining - stable - growing

Trade: NUMBER, declining - stable - growing

(Tax: NUMBER ?) (Population: NUMBER ?)

Military: LIST

Military quality: broken - rabble - disorganized - acceptable - professional - superior - juggernaut

Navy: LIST

Navy quality: broken - rabble - disorganized - acceptable - professional - superior - thalassocracy/juggernaut

Projects: LIST

Other details: TEXT

Stats explanation
Nation name - The name of your nation.

Age - Age is an abstraction of your society's development. During the first thread (The Pohmyran Bay), the stage of human civilization spans from the equivalent of 1000 BC to probably ~250 AD. The level of available technology is denoted by these monickers, even if they don't make sense sometimes - bronze, for example, was not widely available for ancient societies, and societies adapted towards iron because it was cheaper and more readily available, not because it's stronger than bronze. Infact, early iron weapons were weaker than bronze. But the ages are evocative and that's the reason I use them. The more developed you are, the more effecient your society is; your military is stronger, your bureaucracy is more advanced, your infrastructure is better, your economy provide greater relative returns, your culture is more complex and multifaceted, literacy is more advanced, and so on. But do remember that all of these facets of your society is kind of a base value: if you are a high iron age military, you may still lose to more qualified troops from a less developed society. I think the difference in age is about one to two levels of development, and advancing in age affects all of your stats accordingly; advancing will cause your stats to deteriorate, mimicking the adaption necessary to implement new technologies.

Prestige - Prestige is an abstraction of how well-liked or respected you are by your surroundings. Prestige is influenced among other things by your relative power to your neighbours, the degree and impressiveness of military success, production of fine arts and theatre, philosophy, theology, and marvellous architecture. Prestige is perhaps the most obvious indicator of whether you're doing well or not, and a shorthand indicator of whether you're "winning" or not.

Confidence - Confidence is an abstraction of how supportive the broad population is of the government. Usually this is indirectly influenced by succesful policies (such as succesful wars, presence of wealth and proper resource distribution, population safety, guarantee of rights) and punished by failures (such as a hefty defeat, poverty and famine, genocide or epidemics, restriction of rights), but it can be managed in a pinch by making short-term decisions such as unprofitably lowering taxes, making huge, popular celebrations and giving in to traditionalist pressures.

Coherence - Coherence is an abstraction of how unified your population feels and how little cultural conflict there is. The higher a coherence, the more monocultured your nation arguably is. Note that it is perfectly possible to manage a multicultural nation with a high coherence score, as the stat mostly cares about the degree of interconnectivity your population experiences. It has a lot to do with identity politics, as a person can be affiliated with several cultural groupings and still feel part of a particular nation. Real world examples that would score highly here would be the historically diverse American identity, the caliphates or the Roman mentality of imperialist inclusivity.

Innovation - Innovation is an abstraction of how fast and willing your people are at embracing new ideas. There is a lot of opportunity cost in entering a new paradigm in almost all areas of life, be they purchasing new industrial devices, accepting a new religious doctrine, switching to another economical model, changing views on gender or identity, embracing new musical ideas, developing new military doctrines and technology and so on. A good innovation stat means your national structure is able to adapt to new changes quickly. Innovation usually suffers traditionalism in more succesful - prestigious - nations.

Bureaucracy/Infrastructure - Bureaucracy/Infrastructure is an abstraction of your administrative effeciency when it comes to day-to-day procedures, mundane tasks, court proceedings, roads quality and the degree of corruption in your nation. With a higher stat score, everything will simply run more smoothly, especially the economy and popular confidence in the government. Angst has not yet decided whether the stat is to be named Bureaucracy or Infrastructure - Infrastructure is a tad too specific but Bureaucracy perhaps overlaps too much with the rest of the cultural-political stats.

Agriculture, Industry and Trade - While these stats function the same, they are abstractions of different aspects of your economy. Each stat is an indicator of how well that part of your economy is doing. Agriculture concerns itself with foodstuffs, farming, fishing, foraging and hunting; industry concerns itself with mining, woodworking, architecture, and rough and fine crafting of different sorts; trade covers the finest of wares and the valued gained from importing and exporting stuff outside your borders. These stats all count towards your total Economy Points which you can allocate as you wish in your orders. Next to each stat is additionally an indicator of where the economy is expected to go in the state's near future.

Tax and Population - I'm considering whether or not to use these stats. A state's available resources should ideally be tax income/minting based and not based on the GDP of the nation as is used in the Agriculture/Industry/Trade model. Tax is especially more realistic as NESers usually play primarily as governments, secondarily as spiritual guides for their populations. But I'm not sure the payoff is worth the extra complexity of the stat. It's important that I'm always able to quickly grok stats and use them elegantly as updating is otherwise quite bothersome. Population has the same issue, as population has a huge effect on stuff like workforce able to produce and be taxed and available manpower for your armies and navies. But it also adds additional complexity, and I'm not sure it's worth the payoff. I think going the GDP route and slapping a simple maintenance stat on armies is realistic enough while providing a good base for player interactions and storywriting.

Military and Navy - This is your brute force, used to defend yourself and attack others. Your army is used in land engagements while your navy is used on the sea. This is a default price list:

1 EP buys either of the following: Military quality and Navy quality - The higher quality you have, the better your military fights. I think each level accounts for about 10-20% difference in military effeciency.
 * 500 levy infantry.
 * 250 professional infantry. Each professional infantry is a little less than twice as powerful as a levy infantry.
 * 100 cavalrymen. Each cavalryman is about twice as powerful as professional infantry. (EDIT: Or twice as powerful as either infantry. Haven't decided yet. Will probably settle for the default as it requires less bookkeeping.)
 * 10 ships.
 * For every 1000 army units you own you must pay 1 EP in upkeep each turn. For every 100 ships you own, you must pay 1 EP in additional upkeep.

Projects - As societies develop, sometimes their ambitions become grand and they embark on greater societal change. This may be constructing a world wonder, reforming your society, implementing water wheels all along a river, anything that is a large project for your nation to invest in. These projects take multiple turns to finish, and require simple investments of EP to do. If you are curious about how much a project costs, chat up Angst either on #nes or as a PM on CFC or the-Frontier.

Other details - This stat first and foremost provides a link for your nation as it is described in this Wikia. This Wikia is canon and its information always trumps what is told in the thread's stories. However, some other details may be described here, stuff like a minor famine, your supply lines being raided, merchants beginning to suffer problems, as well as small good things that happen to your nation - anything that is of interest that isn't important enough to be written in the Wiki (yet).