In Errata the goal is more than just to survive, but survival is at the heart of the game.

Once you master feeding yourself, staying out of jail, and staying alive, the real purpose of Errata unfolds. Errata charts your journey through fluid player and non player character interactions, allowing players to build and manage reputation, and ultimately perception by each of the different factions.

This unlocks ability to recruit and manage characters from different cultures, who join your group.  As your group grows, so do your obligations towards it.  Each members individual desires will create new choices, and each members actions outside your direct control will shape your shared destines.

This is what Errata is really about.  Your ability to effectively manage relationships in this world both with other player characters and with the rest of the setting will determine your story.

You can manage property for as long as you can control it.

Your ability to control it depends on not just your skills and your resources, but your alliances, the resources available where you stake your claim, and that claims proximity to the threats and lifelines of the world.

Think the answer is isolation? Supplies quickly run out in the desert, and without trade routes your groups morale will suffer, members will leave, and you risk exposure to raiders.

Want to build close to town? Trade routes will be strong, but so will oversight from Janissaries, and interactions with hostile factions will be more frequent.

Have the ultimate base?  The Clone Kings don’t like competition.

Absolutely.  Errata is Player vs Player vs Environment, with no caveats—just consequence.

What does that mean?

Every human character, player or non player, has relationships. The stronger those relationships are, the more your actions may warrant response.  The more severe your actions are, the more severe the response will likely be.

But even a lowly outcast or newbie has a base level of respect. Wanton slaughter is never looked kindly on, and in Errata trust is more valuable than gold.

Errata supports decisions other than killing in many instances. You may rob, steal, and leave a person to the desert. Sure, there will be consequences, but only an animal kills without cause. Those animals are always hunted by someone.

Absolutely.  

You recruit NPC’s into your own faction, but you may just as easily pledge your faction to another, and create a larger group.

Your individual cohort will remain loyal to you, and your adventure grows with them, however you all benefit from any other faction that you pledge to, or who pledges to you. 

This is limited only by the resources available to you, and how willing you and your cohort are to share with others.

Player death in Errata is conditionally permenent.

What does that mean?

A player respawns as long as they have not done two things:

1. Violated Clone King law through use of psychic manifestations or through open murder.
2. Joined or founded a faction that operates outside the boundaries of Clone King control.

This keeps new players safe and avoids constant rerolling of characters while learning the game, while providing advanced players the with varying degrees of control over their own gameplay.

If a player has aligned themselves with a faction, or has committed crimes that have branded them an outlaw, then they can die.  When that character dies, their death is permanent within Errata, and cannot be reversed.

There is no resurrection.

There are however options.

1. The player may recreate a new character.  That character will not start at the beginning of their journey, but it will start as a Drifter unless you manage your own faction.

• Some of your accumulated skill points will move to the new character for you to distribute as you see fit.
• Your previous characters personal wealth will be accessible, if you have secured it.
• The characters personal faction reputation will not transfer over.
• If you lead a faction, your faction members will remain loyal to your faction, but they will have no relationship with your new character.  This may result in their departure over time unless new relationships are forged.

2. The player may choose to play as another NPC member of their faction.

• Some of your accumulated skill points will move to the NPC to distribute as you see fit.
• The NPC now becomes the Player Character.
• Your previous characters personal wealth will be accessible, if you have secured it.
• You assume the personal faction reputation of the new character.  Your personal faction reputation does not carry over.
• If you lead a faction, your faction members will remain loyal to your faction, and they will have whatever relationships they have had with the character who you have chosen to succeed you.
• If NPC members of your faction have a negative relationship with the successor you have chosen, they may immediately leave your faction.

This second option is how factions can quickly drift from being Drifter factions to becoming affiliated with more specialized destinies.

In Errata there is no good and evil. 

There is survival.

That being said, every action in Errata has consequence, and characters cannot react to you without knowing your history.  So while good and evil actions aren’t tracked based on those arbitrary qualities, each action is measured on a quadrant scale.

On the top of the Y axis are the most charitable actions, while at the bottom are the most selfish.  

At the left side of the X axis are actions that are exploitative, while on the far right of that axis are actions that are sustainable.

Underpinning all of this is a scale that determines weight. 

While giving an outcast water may be benevolent and sustainable once, it likely will not have a large effect on the world, and giving them another drink will have even less, though they may like you more for it if they’re still thirsty.

This system creates a spectrum, and this spectrum creates individual player reputation.  This is visible in game through each characters waiatadomi, a unique UI element that tracks your actions through the life of that character.

Earth in this timeline didn’t develop space flight or laser guns.  You won’t find tanks, airplanes, or ballistic missiles.

What you will find are:

• Limited numbers of Vaultcraft weaponry.  These resemble late 19th and early 20th century weapons.  Their rate of fire is often slow.  They’re often used as secondary weapons.
• Limited amounts of Vaultcraft technology.  These can take the form of computer tablets, air conditioners, compressors, servos, and other mechanical devices.
• Limited amounts of unawakened Automata.  These can be bound to you, if you or a member of your cohort have the right DNA.  They will then join and serve your cohort as a member.
• Limited amounts Vaultcraft armor.  Items like Kevlar that can be worked into current armor and act as extra protection.
• Limited amounts of processable metal.  Most metal comes from salvage.
• Limited amounts of metal weaponry or armor. Because of metal being aggressively mined in the Bygone Age, it is now rare. This makes items that require metal to function either rare, or used with more fragile alternatives.
• Ceramic weapons and armor have replaced metal in many instances. Ceramic maintains a sharp edge and protects well against edged weaponry.  It performs poorly versus impact though, and is prone to shattering.
• Wooden weapons and armor are just as valuable now as they’ve been throughout time.
• Leather armor is valuable, though it can get hot.
• Reed and woven armor is often preferred by those who are on a budget, or who value flexibility over performance.
• Chitin based protection is often preferred to metal, if you’re the sort that likes to coat themselves in a shell. All shells retain heat, but chitin retains heat less than metal.
• Bone weapons and armor. The flexibility and durability of bone has made it a viable metal substitute for certain non-industrial tasks.
• Televisions, radio, and view screens. Are you not entertained?
• Water pumps and filtration mechanisms that support large cities, forts, and player managed oases.
• Electricity that comes from solar, wind, and geothermal sources.

The world of Errata is a high technology level with low amounts of available resources.  All groups have equal knowlege of technology. There are no primitives.  There are no savages.  All groups however do not have equal access to technology.

Every group has paid a price for what they have, and what it has given them.

No.  There is no magic.

There are however limited opportunities to unlock metaphyisical potential that may or may not exist within your characters DNA.

These abilities aren’t the same as magic.  You don’t learn spells.  You don’t shoot off balls of fire, call down bolts of lighting, and resurrect the dead.

But they are metaphysical in the same way that people believe there are metaphysical powers some individuals have on Earth today.

Some abilities have physical manifestations, others do not.  But all take their toll on whoever uses them.  They don’t come from some mystery force.  They come from you, and they take focus, energy, and discipline to use them.

You’re not supposed to.

Every action has a proportional reaction in Errata.  This is part of the concept of Utu. Rob enough people and you will become known as an outlaw, cutting off a valuable city lifeline. Shelter enough outlaws and you become associated with them, sharing their fate.

Want to beat the system by becoming rich? Janissaries love money. So do Clone Kings. They will mercenaries to take some of that wealth from you if you choose to flaunt it too brazenly.  Some of those mercenaries will likely be other players.  And if they fail then they will come themselves, with their Automata. Attracting the attention of the Clone King armies is something not even other Clone Kings have survived.

Errata is Latin for “A list of errors after print.” It seemed appropriate for a world where the mistakes of its past are plain for all to see.

When you’ve established your cohort or faction, you can claim an oasis in three ways:

1. Temporarily

A temporary claim is established by not leaving the region.  This can be done by dividing up your cohort and assigning members of it to remain at the oasis, or your entire cohort can stay for as long as the oasis and weather support you.  During this time you can pitch a camp and erect temporary structures, but should you leave and no other player maintain a presence, after a short time the oasis will revert to empty terrain, and the location will regenerate with a new procedural seed when next activated.

2. Permanently

If you have the resources and your cohort has the coordination or the backing of other cohorts, your group can claim the oasis in your UI and give it a name.  This makes the seed a semi-permanent fixture on the map, and other players traveling into this region will always encounter the same map generated that you have, including your oasis.

Permanence has its benefits, both economically and socially, but it also comes with drawbacks.  Various groups will target the oasis and those at it.  Raiders, animals, traders, and Janissary patrols will visit, each with their own requests, or demands.

Larger oases attract more attention, and stronger groups.

3. Through Combat

If you choose, you may also attempt to take an oasis from another controlling party.  Any oasis can be taken in this manner, including non-player controlled oases.  However, combat has consequence.  Errata is about relationships, and any party strong enough to lay claim to a regular water source and control it is bound to exert influence beyond its own members.

If a populated oasis is abandoned then two things may happen.

1. Rebuilding

Permanent oases will be rebuilt by the city state they are under the influence of.  This will happen gradually, and under heavy military observation.

Player-discovered oasis can be claimed by another player, who can rebuild whatever structures they choose.

2. Destruction

If an oasis is player-discovered and it is not claimed within the allotted time period, the seed is erased and the oasis is lost.  The land reverts to a random seed, and a new generation takes place the next time the area is used.

An oasis large enough to become a city state would be a threat to Clone King dominance. Expect the Clone Kings and Trade Houses to react with increasing demands as your oasis grows.

Establishing a city would be very difficult.

Establishing a successful Trade Fort however would not be. This would however involve significant obligations to mercenaries, as well as negotiations with Trade Houses and Janissary groups.

Players can temporarily join a trade caravan to travel from one location to another.

Players can also create their own trade caravans, attracting both player and non-player characters before embarking.

You can’t become a Dryrunner unless your cohort or faction has employed one, and your main character dies.  You could then select to play as a Dryrunner, with all of their relationships.

You would not however be a member of a Run or Hakū.

Runs are non-player cultural constructs akin in many ways to Clone King cities.

That being said, you can become accepted by a Hakū and travel with it for as long as they’ll have you. 

Yes, you can create a bandit gang. Outlaws however will find regular opposition from groups intent on bringing them to justice. If your entire gang is wiped out, you start again with nothing but a poor reputation.

Vaults are generated during tile seed creation.  They are part of our anomaly system that includes oasis, random encounters, weather events, and ruins.

A vault will most likely be part of a ruin, but a ruin will not always host a vault. 

If you want to become a vault-hunter, keep your eye out for ruins and be prepared to explore them before others also find your discovery.

Errata is about relationships.  If you dont have the relationships to ensure your success, you’ll probably find yourself at the wrong end of a deal like this.