Gaebrael

The Game of Gods

I still exist. Been a bit busy lately, sorry.

The Game of Gods

Finally, I hope you take this as constructive criticism to improve your game, not personally.

@Polybius

Of course. That said, perhaps I did not explain as well as I could have that you are not truly RPing as anything. You are writers, not writing from any specific perspective and definitely not your own.

1. Points seem like a good idea, but if your just using them to limit post lengths and actions a player is able to take each turn why not make it simpler and just say like 'take 2 actions per turn & write a minimum of X paragraphs for each action'. It seems counter intuitive and more complicated unless this is a PvP type thing, which it does not seem to be-rather a co-op world building type thing.

@Polybius

I had thought about that, but I want certain things to be longer than others, naturally. That also seems like the same thing, just swap paragraphs for sentences and less uniformity.

It is not intended to limit people, but rather make sure there are clear-cut expectations.

2. You need to determine clearly when phases of play are over. "Whenever I feel like" is not good enough for me as a player. Maybe when X amount of actions are taken or other certain criteria is met. (X amount of races, or X amount of terrain is filled in etc. depending on the phase)

@Polybius

That is fair. When the OP goes up and as I continue I will put that in. What I can say right now is that it will have to do largely with how much has happened rather than a hard turn limit.

I can't reconcile these design choices for a few reasons:
A) We are literally playing gods so reducing the level of magic is inconsistent with the setting/system relationship.
B) If the reason behind A) is to reduce inconsistency in magic creation, I would just use my GM powers as the need arises. Otherwise, it just seems like 'cut(ing) down on magic things' is a cheap way out and again, not consistent with the "your playing gods and creating a world, but it's low fantasy so no god stuff".

I really do want a 'god-game' to play and this could be good, but it seems like you want a more realistic (flora & fauna, index etc) world building game with a 'fantasy' tag slapped on it rather than a 'fantasy world building game'

@Polybius

A. I believe I covered this in my heading. Based on my RP experience, playing as a legitimate God is boring as hell because you have infinite power and anything less is pretty much just bullshit mechanics rather than story-driven limitations.
B. I think calling it the cheap way out doesn't really do the idea justice. It has worked for many fantasy authors, including George R. R. Martin, and we see that the most inconsistency comes in, even for him as a solo and professional author, when magic is used.
C. That is perhaps a more fair description than what I displayed originally. I would still maintain the fantasy tag on the basis of there being Elves and Men and Orcs and Giants and Dwarves and whatever else, but you are correct that my goals are very far from common high fantasy. It is intended to be as realistic, and therefore as immersive, as possible. I may at this point be speaking purely subjectively, but whenever I come across or even hear of a logical inconsistency in pretty much any fantasy media, it is the first thing that always comes to mind and from then on the setting ceases to excite me and begins to disappoint me, where as my favorite setting pieces are generally the proving grounds of the less-than-morally-white rogues and Robin Hoods ad the hideously corrupt yet still charming politician, not mage towers or floating cities.

The Game of Gods

So I just realized someone will have to use 16 points to create sentience.... who wants to use them?
Also I'm confused as to how some of the points/powers work.

@LordZell

Please be more specific. Creating sentience means creating a new creature archetype, so the incentive is having an entirely new type of people in the world.

The Game of Gods

I'm interested. But the system looks REALLY strict here. A cap on how much you can write? Seems a bit harsh. Still, I'll keep an eye on this.

@Legion02

It isn't strict to the point that I will kick you for being one sentence off, but things like the index entries should be of uniform length. The rest is more of a guideline. I just don't want eight paragraphs on the origins, chemical layout, and practical applications of Quantonium whereas more familiar minerals such as steel would only be one sentence describing the material as "Shiny strong stuff." It should also guide where the focus of the posts should go. If you think there is something that specifically needs increasing, tell me, and if you have a better way to make things like this uniform, tell me as well.

The Game of Gods

So I'm somewhat interested in this depends get how things go.

@LordZell

I am somewhat glad to hear as such depending on how you go.

The Game of Gods

Tad burned out for today, but I will plow through more ASAP!

The Game of Gods

Ok, here is everything I've written up on my game Tabula Rasa. As you can see, it gets a little dense but that's too be expected in a first draft of a game. Basically, players give actions or orders (similar to a NES ((Never-ending-story)) that seems to be popular on Civilization game fan sites) and the game master interprets those actions. I borrowed ideas from a dice-heavy world creation game my friends made a few years ago and the idea for The Void is directly pilfered from "Jerrys Map" (just google it) in order to introduce an end-game type scenario. Totally up for getting help in finishing and eventually playing this so comments/criticism are great guys! Also, @Gaebrael I hope I'm not hijacking your thread man, if I'm overstepping shut me down anytime. Thanks!

Tabula Rasa

Tabula Rasa

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Tabula Rasa is a turn based story and world creation game that uses points to keep actions balanced and fair. Play progresses through turns in which players give orders/actions and a game master interprets that information and gives a turn summary, after which a new turn is started. In the middle-to-late Ages of play a new element called 'The Void' begins to invade the world.

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Player (God) Ledger

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As a god your responsible for keeping track of your faith and fabric points (more on that in a minute). You also need to keep a running record of all the things you create (races/monsters/cities/magic etc.) The GM will have this info too but its a good idea to keep your own record. A basic ledger looks something like:

Ledger

God Name (player)
Fabric Points (or just points): note: Points roll over each turn but you may never have more than 5 points
Faith: Maximum 5, faith may reach into the negative numbers. For each negative faith point, your cumulative Fabric point each turn is diminished by 1 So if Howard Dean has -1 Faith at the beginning of his turn, he will only receive _ Fabric Points for actions that turn. Ways for Faith to Decrease: Monsters destroy your (i.e. you created) city, holy site, or attack your race. Ways to for Faith to Increase: Build Holy Sites, Bestow Gifts on your followers.
Races:
Cities:
Monsters:
Avatar: (You may have only one)

Game Terms:

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The Void: An invader from a dimension of Chaos. The Void introduces an element of danger and end-game suspense whereby your races will have to work together to survive the undoing of reality.

Fabric: The very essence of reality. The ability to use this fabric is what gives your diety (and by extension, you) their powers. As actions are taken each turn, fabric is woven by your divine hand into the cloth of reality. Fabric replenishes automatically each turn.

Faith: Faith gives your god relevance and power in the mortal realm. Mortal followers feel a divine connection with your diety called faith Holy sites and followers create more faith. Faith is used to give direction to heroes, monsters and avatars.

Map: A map of the world divided by a grid into tiles with descriptions of each terrain,race, city, monster etc. on each tile.

Holy Site: A ruin, a temple, a natural feature. Holy sites are places of pilgrimage, learning, mysticism and protection. They create faith for your god and protect the world from The Void.

Gifts: Give up your turn (you may still give narrative exposition IC) to bestow a gift on a race you have created. This returns your Faith to 0 and your Fabric to _.

Cities:
City Description:
Actions within a city:
Races:
Races Description:
Race Traits?
Avatars: (Demi-gods) Avatars act as your agents in the mortal realm, gathering followers and raising Faith.
Monsters: Monsters are unique creations that are given free reign in the mortal realm. Depending on your faith level, a monster may listen to your orders or not. Mortal races may attempt to slay monsters.
Monster Description:
Monster Actions:

Avatar

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Ages of Play:

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Play is broken up into 'Ages' that follow a logical sequence. The Archaic Age sees the creation of the world, the Mythic Age is when races,monsters and magic are created. In the Age of Nations, countries are formed and war is waged. In the Twilight Era, our world comes to an end.

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The Archaic Age

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Before men, monsters and magic comes the world creation phase, to speed up this process, you might institute a 'grow' factor whereby terrain grows into adjacent spaces randomly each turn...

In which continents are formed, mountains, forests rivers and oceans take shape. The gods are concerned primarily with giving shape and name to the world in the Archaic Age, although some primordial races (at great expense!) may be given life.

1 Point Actions:
Create Terrain: Create any terrain imaginable on 1 empty grid space. (Give it a name so future mortals will know what to call it)
Destroy Terrain: Empties 1 grid space of all terrain and any occupying races/monsters/etc.

3 Point Actions:
Create Race: Give life to a race of your creation. Describe the race and set its alignment (evil, neutral, good)

The Mythic Age

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An era of monsters, magic and the founding of the first cities. Avatars of the gods emerge and an invader from a dimension of chaos emerges.

2 Point Actions:
Create Race: Give life to a race of your creation. Describe the race and set its alignment (evil, neutral, good)
Build Holy Site: (direct your races to build a holy site in your honor to increase faith and protection from the void)

3 Point Actions:
Found City:
Form Magic:

Unique to the Archaic Age:
War on a large scale does not exist yet.
Primal forces are still at work.
Magic is perceptively weaker.

The Mythic Age
The era of heroes, gods, demi-gods and the foundations of magic.
The beginnings of civilization.

The Age of Nations
War is pretty common.
Actions become more expensive as mortals multiply.

The Twilight Era
The Void begins.
The ruin of time awaits.
Magic begins to waiver.

NOTES:
Decide starting number of Faith & Fabric Points. (amount of actions you can take each turn. Speculatively faith:0 and Fabric:3)
Possible 'Cool down' penalty for too many actions taken in one turn.
Players (Gods) may only have a certain number of magics/races/cities/holy sites on the ledger.

@Polybius

This is cool. I will certainly be stealing a good amount of the actions from here. Also, sorry for the delay. I will finsish the system very shortly.

The Game of Gods

I would like to participate in this. Seems like it would be good fun.

@Voltus_Ventus

Cool! I will finish up everything tonight and wait for two more before the OOC.

The Game of Gods

@Gaebrael if you need any help with a system let me know

@Polybius

Sorry, just been a bit busy. If you want to sugguest actions and point costs though, that would be great.

The Game of Gods

<Snipped quote by Gaebrael>

Wow I was literally working on something similar to this when you posted it! Witholding interest until the 'points' system is revealed, however I agree with the 'phases of creation' bit, I have something similar worked out in my RP. Basically, magic and wars were extremely expensive in the earliest phases (called Ages: Archaic, Mythic, Civilization, Twilight, respectively) of play. This seems a bit more freeform than the ridgid tabletop ideas I had bouncing around for a few weeks (there were grids!) and I'm looking forward to see what you have worked out.

@Polybius

So glad to hear some tentative interest-like qualities! I am working on the points and phases now. It goes something like what you were describing, as I think we most likely have looked at a few of the same systems before, or at least I would guess.