The Game
Feast or Fracture combines kingdom-management elements (construct buildings, recruit units), character-building (recruit advisors and send them on missions), and real-world politicking (trade, war, and competition for resources). Win by achieving a global lifestyle score - for every kingdom on the continent.
Collectively Win
Sure, you can build your own kingdom (or province, or duchy, or watershed...you choose!) But can you improve your neighbor's? An advanced AI simulates your competitors - each with their own personality, goals and values. They do not share your vision of a utopian, better-for-everyone world. What can you do?
In Feast or Fracture:
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Send character-led delegations to bargain, lean, or bribe your competitors into improving their peoples' lifestyle
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Research & share technology that yields benefits for all
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Build trust by aligning your shared cultural values (chosen as your culture grows), recruiting and sending well-matched ambassadors, and strengthening the same internal factions
Yeah, but in the real world...
Factions represent the competing interests, and groups, within your kingdom. Each faction is led by a charismatic leader, and faction leaders have opinions about everything (your responses to events, what delegations you send and where, what you build and which units you train...). Be careful! If you lose the support of your factions, you will be deposed, your kingdom will descend into anarchy, and you will lose the game.
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Managing factions presents a major check on your campaign for the improvement of your own kingdom, let alone your neighbors'. Your choice of government determines which factions' support you'll need: choosing a theocracy, for example, means you will need to keep the Mystics faction firmly on your side (and will let you ignore the Merchants faction).
Ancient Events
As leader, decisions are your responsibility. Will you welcome the revolutionary from your neighboring kingdom, or will you arrest them? Do you distribute grain during a drought, or hold it in case the drought gets worse? Events will pop up regularly, each demanding your personal attention - and a choice. Balance your own opinions against those of your faction leaders, and be wary of spending resources, lifestyle, or influence that you can't afford to lose.
Resource Scarcity
Resources are scarce. Your neighbors are human. Lofty goals don't change the facts on the ground, and if there's only one tin mine on the entire continent, and your jingoistic, arrogant competitor controls it...
Balance your own economy - securing resources, investing in infrastructure, and providing for your people - with improving worldwide lifestyle. Balance your need for defense (or offense) against the relative strength of your neighbors. Find your place in the ancient world, managing real-world constraints while trying to build a better world for all. Can you find a way?
And Finally...
A crisis looms. Something struck the ancient world - something that caused a collapse that lasted generations. The ruins of ancients are littered across the nearby desert. Send scholars to try and piece together what happened, before it comes again. If you can predict the coming catastrophe, perhaps you can prepare for it.
A portent shines in the sky. Your mystics assure you that something is coming.
​​Find out soon in Feast or Fracture.