The first "short story" isn't really a story, but a plot that sets everything up. Perhaps it'll even be free.
Every story after that is some sort of action some character makes. Usually some sort of fight.
Could even model the humans organization after CK2. Emperors > Kings > Dukes > counts and with all the inner fighting that comes with it.
Need a dice model. Need to split up the human territory better (iirc this was already done). Dice will determine if any particular character decides to take hostile action.
study some short stories in my targeted genre
Write a logline - one sentance summary of short story
example: A Rose For Emily
A lonely, Southern woman is found dead and decaying in her home after being abandoned by her lover.
The forumula? Character plus descriptior followed by an event followed by a conflict >> lonely woman/found dead/abandonded
Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.
Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.
Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.
Every sentence must do one of two things–reveal character or advance the action.
Start as close to the end as possible.
Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them–in order that the reader may see what they are made of.
Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.
Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.
Mix up the historical and xenophon styles. Narrate, like a history book, but also put in journals. Perhaps, lots of journals. Either of a commanding person, or a peon.
Why not, especially for empire, do it axis and allies style? Make all of the moves simontaneously, and then execute the turn order of stories. Changing things up as nesseicary. Also, can't allow dicerolls to force characters do stupid things, such as move their army out of a good spot for no reason
