We have revamped claims this season in a number of ways, and the process is more comprehensive than you may remember it. This post should fill you in on all you need to make a claim, but feel free to ask questions on our official discord if you're still confused.

Basic Information

There are several things to consider when making a claim, which you will need to know at multiple steps in the process: subsistence type, size, and player count.

Subsistence Type

This describes the main way your culture collects food. Each culture has a primary subsistence type, chosen from four options. Every subculture also has a subsistence type, which can be the same as, or different to, that of the overall culture.

The four subsistence types are Agrarian, Pastoral, Maritime, and Hunter-Gatherer (which can include semi-sedentary horticulture if you so desire). Agrarians farm the majority of their food, and are sedentary. Pastoralists raise livestock, and are typically nomadic. Maritime cultures forage from the sea or rivers for most of their food, and Hunter-Gatherers hunt and forage for most of their food, rather than grow or raise the majority.

Claim Size

There are three basic claim sizes; small, medium, and large. Medium is the default size for a culture, and corresponds with 20k - 30k pixels. Small is only for those cultures that have a particular desire to be smaller than average, and is around 15k pixels. Large claims can only be requested by claims with at least two players, and are 40k pixels and up. Please choose one of these sizes when you claim.

Player Count

Multiple players can claim a single culture together! When sharing a claim, players can choose to each take exclusive control over specific subcultures, which can be a good way for two players to make closely related cultures. Alternately, it can be a way for two players with other commitments to cooperatively maintain activity on a single claim. Multiplayer claims must be broken into at least 2 subcultures. Multiplayer claims can choose to be Large, but can also choose the other two sizes.

Step 1: Core Territory

The first step in the claims process is to claim core territory. In DawnPowers Season 4, claimed cultures will be expanded to over 100,000 square kilometers before play starts, largely obsoleting the need for expansion posts. This initial expansion will be performed by mods, taking into account the other claims in the region, so that our start area is completely filled by claimed cultures.

Choosing Somewhere to Claim

When deciding where to claim, review all of our maps on the Maps Site, and choose somewhere with geography and biology that inspires you. Once you have done that, view the Regions Map and find what region your claim will be in. Our unofficial Dibs Map will be useful in checking where other players are planning to claim, but is not official and does not reflect the final state of claims.

Once you know the region you're considering, go to the Claims Spreadsheet, and check the column for that region. If that region is full (Remaining value is 0 or less), you'll have to pick another region. If this prevents you from claiming in the region you were most interested in, we apologize, but previous seasons have had an uneven distribution of players we hope to avoid in Season 4.

Making a Claim Map

In order to claim core territory, post a claim map in the comments of this post. This claim map should be made on the official map, though you can crop the image to only the relevant area. Please use a downloaded version of the map, not a screenshot, as this make editing easier. Your core territory should be a contiguous area of around 5000 pixels.

If you intend to claim subcultures that inhabit significantly different geography, you can break your 5000 pixel core territory into separate core territories, one for each subculture. Please keep these subculture cores in relatively close proximity.

If multiple players are sharing a claim, they can each place a 3000 pixel core for their mandatory subculture, or the claim can pool these separate cores into a single core (3000 pixels times number of players), and draw subcultures after seeing the final borders.

On your core claim map, you can also choose to provide the final territory you want to control. Only your core territory is guaranteed, but we will take any further requests you make into account when mapping. If you choose to indicate territory beyond your core you are interested in, do so in a different color.

In addition to providing your core territory claim map, provide the name of your culture, and a color for mapping. All colors provided should be in hex keys.

Lastly, if you want any special considerations to be taken later during expansion, include them here. Examples would be "I want my people to occupy all the mountains around my core" or "My people have an affinity for desert, so go for that first".

Step 2: Claim Post

Once your core territory claim has been accepted, your spot in the world is reserved. Mods will inform you of any notable metal or technological resources available to your people at the start of the game. With the knowledge of your location and resources, you can advance to describing your culture, if you have not already. This information should be made into a claim post, and also entered into our Claimed Cultures Spreadsheet. If you don't make a claim post within a week of claims opening, your core territory will no longer be reserved, so we recommend starting work on as much of your culture as you can now.

Claim Post

The post itself should contain the name of the culture and the primary subsistence type of the culture. Most importantly, it should contain a passage of RP, which will demonstrate the kind of posts you will make using this culture over the course of the season. Your RP should be at least 5 substantial paragraphs long, but there is no upper limit to length.

In addition, you should write a Tech Statement. This should be at least a paragraph where you provide an overview of the technological level of your people. It should focus on how your people feed themselves, how they travel, how they build houses, and some more specific cultural practices. When making this, ask yourself a few questions: 1. How do your people get food? (If you’re agrarian this should discuss crops you farm, farming methods, and irrigation techniques. If you’re maritime, discuss your nets, boats, and traps. If your pastoral, discuss the animals you herd, tanning, and such. If you’re hunter & gatherers discuss hunting tactics, traps, and such.) Don’t feel limited to just one sustenance type, even though you choose a main subsistence type when claiming. 2. What homes do your people live in? (Mud brick or log cabins? Wattle & daub or rammed earth? A specific tent type? How urban are they?) 3. Are there any things your people do particularly well? (This could be weaving, tanning, metallurgy, or writing) With these, review with the mod team on discord beforehand. If you’re uncertain of the general tech level you should be proposing, ask on the discord.

Info Page

In addition to making your claim post, you must supply an Info Page. This will be the most substantial part of your claim, so get started on it fairly early. The Info Page can be anything you can generate a link for which is publicly viewable on the internet. This can be a single document, or a link to a website with multiple pages/articles (don't feel limited to a single page of info; include as much as you want in any format, so long as we can access it). Recommended options are Google Docs, Google Sites, WikiDot, and World Anvil.

Your Info Page should at least contain info on cultural features/practices, and your people's faith or religion. Aim for at least 4 pages of material, but again there is no upper limit. If you have no idea of where to start, consider using the Ethnographic Questionnaire. Answering the questions you find relevant should get you most of the information you need, and may inspire you to enough to write the rest of your culture without its help.

Post List

You will also be required to maintain a post list as the season progresses. Copy the post list template and put a link to your copy in the Claimed Cultures Spreadsheet. Every time you submit a post, copy the link into your post list, and fill in the necessary information

Your claim will be considered complete only if all the above steps are performed. Submitting a claim post with a promise to fill in information later isn't sufficient. Once we have everything, you will be slated for expansion from your core territory.

Step 3: Sit back and wait for Launch

Once you have completed the claim process, you need only to wait for everyone else to finish so that our Map Mods can expand your territory. Once the majority of claims are completed, we'll do expansions, and make you aware of any notable land and resources you gained as a result.

If you want to participate during this period, feel free to write RP/OC and post it to the subreddit, though be aware that time is not yet progressing. You can also develop your culture further, or make modifications to what you said. Your Info Page is yours, and is not set in stone at any point. Try to avoid directly retconning information you have used in posts, but otherwise additions and changes are yours to make.

Step 4: Map subcultures

As soon as you get the final map of your culture, it’s time to add your subcultures. If you are playing anything but a small claim, you probably want at least one subculture, simply due to the size of the land your people occupy. Geographic or environmental differences may condition changes in subsistence type and lifestyle, which would also be a reason to consider subcultures.

If you intend to have subcultures, try to submit a map of them as soon as possible. You should add brief descriptions of each subculture and what makes them unique to your Info Site, as well as make a name for each one and choose a subsistence type.

Claim Timeline

Week 1 (Jan 16 - Jan 19): Core territory claims open (use the comments of this post). Claim Posts are not yet permitted. Week 2 (Jan 19 - Jan 26): Claims open in full, allowing the posting of claim posts. Expansions will be run on the last day of this week, so try to finish claim posts before then. Week 3 (Jan 26 - Feb 2): The game begins, and this is the first week where time progresses. Claims are still allowed, and will be for the entire run of the game.

If you join during week 2 or later, make a core claim first. As soon as a mod approves your core, you can move on to making a claim post. If you join in week 3 or later, you can begin normal play as soon as your claim post is approved.

Activity Standards

This season, the standard for activity is one post per week that is not mechanical in nature. So expansion and tech posts do not count towards activity. The need to make full posts concerning tech or expansion should be greatly reduced for most players, freeing you to remain active by focusing your energy on whatever most interests you.

Activity is measured by culture, not by player, meaning that for a claim with two players, only one post needs to be made a week to keep the entire claim active. For this reason, claims with multiple players are a good option for player that may be intermittently busy during the season.

A post with more details on our new technology policy will be available later today.