NENAD
2011-06-20, 04:10 PM
PREMISE
Part one of a series of world creation threads/forum games which, hopefully, will result in a complete and coherent world. Alternatively, mankind and all descendant races will exterminate each other or unify into a single peace-loving kumbaya-singing commune. In any case, it should be fun.
In the First Age, you create and control one of thirteen tribes descended from the same progenitor, Tobias. Split amongst these thirteen tribes are the shards of the sword Kepheth, also known as the Ashen Blade or Mortalbane. Kepheth was forged by Tobias using the finest workmanship and most powerful magics known to man. He used it to commit the first murder in slaying his brother, Adom, and then to cleave in half Idellia, Adom's amulet, an artifact on the scale of Kepheth. Later, outcast and hated by society, Tobias would win the affection of a demoness who promised to bare him a new child every year, but only at the cost of devouring each child on the eve of their fourteenth birthday. Tobias agreed, and as the years went on, the demoness claimed to have a change of heart. Whether she was being sincere will never be known, as Tobias cleaved her head from her shoulders immediately after the successful delivery of his thirteenth child. It was her tainted blood that sundered Kepheth.
Every shard of Kepheth holds one of the thirteen magical spells woven into the blade within it. If ever united, the combined power would be enough to make the wielder virtually unstoppable. Now, after centuries, Tobias has finally died, and his thirteen sons, their ambitions held in check only by the will of their father, are preparing to break all bonds of family and turn their respective clans against one another.
CREATING A TRIBE
To create a tribe you'll need
-The name of the tribe's progenitor, one of the thirteen sons of Tobias.
-The signature weapon of the tribe's progenitor. This cannot be a longsword, because that is the signature weapon of Tobias himself. It may, however, be another variety of sword.
-The name of the tribe itself. Typically a variation on the name of the progenitor.
-A single adjective that describes the tribe, i.e. wild, militant, mystical, treacherous, mercantile, amazon etc. etc.
-The spell woven into the shard of Kepheth held by the tribe. Neither this nor the description above have any effect on gameplay. Mostly, I'm making you guys do my setting creation legwork for me as a pre-requisite to play. Bwahaha. Spell effects should hopefully range from barely significant to epic in scope.
RULES
The rules for the game are a heavily modified version of the Peace War Game (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_war_game). Every tribe begins with 10 points. Every turn, you must choose either war or peace with each other tribe. If you both choose peace, you each gain one point. If you both choose war, you each lose one point. If one chooses war and the other chooses peace, the aggressor gains two points and the victim loses two points. If your points drop to 0, your tribe has destroyed and you are out of the game. Every turn lasts twenty years (about one generation) in-game and twenty-four hours out of game (considering extending that), and the game is over after thirteen turns (yes, your progenitor will live that long because magic). However, the background of the game throws a few wild cards into play. These are Kepheth, the Forge Eternal, the Muck Pond, the Tears of Chaos, and the Edenites.
Every tribe holds a shard of Kepheth and greatly desires the other twelve. As such, whenever a tribe is destroyed, all those who declared war on the destroyed tribe are automatically at war with one another as well. They may still change back at the end of the turn. The shard goes to whichever of the destroying tribes has the most points at the end of the turn.
Every even-numbered turn the Forge Eternal produces a new expertly forged weapon of pure mithril, a weapon of such immense power as shall not be seen again for many thousand years. The player with the most points at the end of the turn receives the weapon and decides its type and name. It can then be used on any turn thereafter to either attack an enemy or slay a monster from the Muck Pond. If you use it to attack an enemy, you will receive two resources and they will lose two, even if they also went to war with you (however if they went to peace with you the weapon will be wasted). Regardless, the weapon may only be used once per generation, after which it is buried with its wielder, lost in the aftermath, shattered in battle, or removed from play in some other way, on the whim of the user.
Every three turns the Muck Pond spawns a number of monsters. These are creatures like hydras, dragons, trolls, and the like, not monster races like orcs, goblins, or ogres (the distinction being that monster races have a social order and structure of some kind, whereas Muck Pond monsters, whether due to their solitary nature or sub-sentient intelligence, do not). On the third turn, one monster (or pack of monsters) is spawned. Every third turn afterwards, one additional monster is spawned (two on the sixth turn, three on the ninth, etc.). The least powerful tribes create the monsters (on the sixth turn, the two least powerful tribes create a monster, and so on), and they are then unleashed on the most powerful tribes, where they deplete one resource every turn until killed with a mithril weapon from the Forge Eternal. Incidentally, if there are seven tribes remaining at the end of the twelfth turn, the middle tribe will have to create a monster to sic on itself.
Every four turns, the placid lake known as the Tears of Chaos churns with magical energy. The most powerful tribe at the end of the turn may create a spiteful race, which makes one payoff worse for one tribe for the rest of the game. For example, if a tribe is afflicted with banshees that affect War/War, they'll lose two points on every War/War interaction instead of just one. If a tribe is afflicted with hobgoblins that affect Peace/War, they'll lose three points instead of two. And so forth. The weakest tribe also creates a helpful race, which increases one of their own payoffs for the rest of the game.
On the sixth and twelfth turns, the Edenites, descendants of Tobias' younger brother Eden, come to the lands of the Tobiate tribes. On these turns, everyone must choose either war or peace with the Edenites. The Edenites are not divided like the Tobiates, but if at least seven of the tribes go to war with the Edenites, they will be defeated and one of their magnificent cities sacked. Every tribe that went to war with the Edenites gets six points, minus one for every tribe past seven that went to war with them. Every tribe that chose peace with the Edenites loses one point, minus one more for every tribe past seven that went to war with them. If less than seven tribes go to war with the Edenites, the reverse happens.
Your peace and war decisions for each turn should be PM'd to the GM (me) before rollover at 10:00 EST. Now, I'm fairly certain we won't be able to get all thirteen tribes filled out. In this case I'll write scripts for a few lesser tribes, which will start with only five points and will be played according to those simple scripts. Lesser tribes are also barred from interacting with any of the magical oddities except the Edenites. Also, if it's not unforgivably upsetting to the rest of you, I might play a tribe myself if we can't hit the total of thirteen. I promise I won't cheat if it comes to that.
Legal Notice
I will be using the finished setting as part of a personal project I'm working on. It is theoretically possible that this personal project will eventually be used for profit. The odds of this are incredibly slim, nonetheless by posting in this thread you agree to allow me to use all posted material pretty much however I want. Thank you.
Part one of a series of world creation threads/forum games which, hopefully, will result in a complete and coherent world. Alternatively, mankind and all descendant races will exterminate each other or unify into a single peace-loving kumbaya-singing commune. In any case, it should be fun.
In the First Age, you create and control one of thirteen tribes descended from the same progenitor, Tobias. Split amongst these thirteen tribes are the shards of the sword Kepheth, also known as the Ashen Blade or Mortalbane. Kepheth was forged by Tobias using the finest workmanship and most powerful magics known to man. He used it to commit the first murder in slaying his brother, Adom, and then to cleave in half Idellia, Adom's amulet, an artifact on the scale of Kepheth. Later, outcast and hated by society, Tobias would win the affection of a demoness who promised to bare him a new child every year, but only at the cost of devouring each child on the eve of their fourteenth birthday. Tobias agreed, and as the years went on, the demoness claimed to have a change of heart. Whether she was being sincere will never be known, as Tobias cleaved her head from her shoulders immediately after the successful delivery of his thirteenth child. It was her tainted blood that sundered Kepheth.
Every shard of Kepheth holds one of the thirteen magical spells woven into the blade within it. If ever united, the combined power would be enough to make the wielder virtually unstoppable. Now, after centuries, Tobias has finally died, and his thirteen sons, their ambitions held in check only by the will of their father, are preparing to break all bonds of family and turn their respective clans against one another.
CREATING A TRIBE
To create a tribe you'll need
-The name of the tribe's progenitor, one of the thirteen sons of Tobias.
-The signature weapon of the tribe's progenitor. This cannot be a longsword, because that is the signature weapon of Tobias himself. It may, however, be another variety of sword.
-The name of the tribe itself. Typically a variation on the name of the progenitor.
-A single adjective that describes the tribe, i.e. wild, militant, mystical, treacherous, mercantile, amazon etc. etc.
-The spell woven into the shard of Kepheth held by the tribe. Neither this nor the description above have any effect on gameplay. Mostly, I'm making you guys do my setting creation legwork for me as a pre-requisite to play. Bwahaha. Spell effects should hopefully range from barely significant to epic in scope.
RULES
The rules for the game are a heavily modified version of the Peace War Game (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_war_game). Every tribe begins with 10 points. Every turn, you must choose either war or peace with each other tribe. If you both choose peace, you each gain one point. If you both choose war, you each lose one point. If one chooses war and the other chooses peace, the aggressor gains two points and the victim loses two points. If your points drop to 0, your tribe has destroyed and you are out of the game. Every turn lasts twenty years (about one generation) in-game and twenty-four hours out of game (considering extending that), and the game is over after thirteen turns (yes, your progenitor will live that long because magic). However, the background of the game throws a few wild cards into play. These are Kepheth, the Forge Eternal, the Muck Pond, the Tears of Chaos, and the Edenites.
Every tribe holds a shard of Kepheth and greatly desires the other twelve. As such, whenever a tribe is destroyed, all those who declared war on the destroyed tribe are automatically at war with one another as well. They may still change back at the end of the turn. The shard goes to whichever of the destroying tribes has the most points at the end of the turn.
Every even-numbered turn the Forge Eternal produces a new expertly forged weapon of pure mithril, a weapon of such immense power as shall not be seen again for many thousand years. The player with the most points at the end of the turn receives the weapon and decides its type and name. It can then be used on any turn thereafter to either attack an enemy or slay a monster from the Muck Pond. If you use it to attack an enemy, you will receive two resources and they will lose two, even if they also went to war with you (however if they went to peace with you the weapon will be wasted). Regardless, the weapon may only be used once per generation, after which it is buried with its wielder, lost in the aftermath, shattered in battle, or removed from play in some other way, on the whim of the user.
Every three turns the Muck Pond spawns a number of monsters. These are creatures like hydras, dragons, trolls, and the like, not monster races like orcs, goblins, or ogres (the distinction being that monster races have a social order and structure of some kind, whereas Muck Pond monsters, whether due to their solitary nature or sub-sentient intelligence, do not). On the third turn, one monster (or pack of monsters) is spawned. Every third turn afterwards, one additional monster is spawned (two on the sixth turn, three on the ninth, etc.). The least powerful tribes create the monsters (on the sixth turn, the two least powerful tribes create a monster, and so on), and they are then unleashed on the most powerful tribes, where they deplete one resource every turn until killed with a mithril weapon from the Forge Eternal. Incidentally, if there are seven tribes remaining at the end of the twelfth turn, the middle tribe will have to create a monster to sic on itself.
Every four turns, the placid lake known as the Tears of Chaos churns with magical energy. The most powerful tribe at the end of the turn may create a spiteful race, which makes one payoff worse for one tribe for the rest of the game. For example, if a tribe is afflicted with banshees that affect War/War, they'll lose two points on every War/War interaction instead of just one. If a tribe is afflicted with hobgoblins that affect Peace/War, they'll lose three points instead of two. And so forth. The weakest tribe also creates a helpful race, which increases one of their own payoffs for the rest of the game.
On the sixth and twelfth turns, the Edenites, descendants of Tobias' younger brother Eden, come to the lands of the Tobiate tribes. On these turns, everyone must choose either war or peace with the Edenites. The Edenites are not divided like the Tobiates, but if at least seven of the tribes go to war with the Edenites, they will be defeated and one of their magnificent cities sacked. Every tribe that went to war with the Edenites gets six points, minus one for every tribe past seven that went to war with them. Every tribe that chose peace with the Edenites loses one point, minus one more for every tribe past seven that went to war with them. If less than seven tribes go to war with the Edenites, the reverse happens.
Your peace and war decisions for each turn should be PM'd to the GM (me) before rollover at 10:00 EST. Now, I'm fairly certain we won't be able to get all thirteen tribes filled out. In this case I'll write scripts for a few lesser tribes, which will start with only five points and will be played according to those simple scripts. Lesser tribes are also barred from interacting with any of the magical oddities except the Edenites. Also, if it's not unforgivably upsetting to the rest of you, I might play a tribe myself if we can't hit the total of thirteen. I promise I won't cheat if it comes to that.
Legal Notice
I will be using the finished setting as part of a personal project I'm working on. It is theoretically possible that this personal project will eventually be used for profit. The odds of this are incredibly slim, nonetheless by posting in this thread you agree to allow me to use all posted material pretty much however I want. Thank you.