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Omegonthesane
2014-12-15, 12:57 PM
Over the last year or so I've been involved in a number of god-games derived from Dawn of Worlds. The following comprises the compilation of the changes I would be making into an independently usable game.

An honourable mention goes to Rith for running the houseruled threads that ended up with me posting this.

It assumes that the game is played on play-by-post. It also assumes the use of Hexographer for the map, although an image with a hex grid on top would also work just fine. Given the inevitable requests to have a 1" circle in fact be an area equal to what a 1" circle would cover, I felt that this would be for the best, to minimise arguments about the exact shape of things (and how settled areas work).

The points generation rate has been changed significantly, so that more happens each turn. This was done because turns are assumed to take longer than they did when I last saw or ran a play-by-post Dawn of Worlds thread.

Without further ado,

Name:
Titles:
Portfolio:
Flavour:
Appearance:
Symbol:

Name, Titles, and Appearance ought to be fairly self-explanatory.

For the avoidance of doubt, "Symbol" means the symbol used by the god's cultists where applicable. It may not have a great deal of meaning for a deity that conceals its existence from the world.

"Portfolio" boils down to "what are you the god of?" Ideally these should all fit a certain theme - being the god of pastries, horses, meteors, and fire would just be silly - and all-encompassing concepts are going to be boring unless you're playing a pantheon of gods who between them have all bases covered. Your portfolio is permitted and even expected to overlap with the portfolios of other gods. If you want to play the god of War when there's already a god of Destruction or a pantheon which contains a god of War, that doesn't make you a servant or subordinate, it makes you a competitor or collaborator.

"Flavour" is more difficult to meaningfully define - if there is any extra information that would give your god or pantheon the right flavour, that's where to put it. For example, this would be where to mention that you are in fact playing a pantheon.

Turns last for 1 week or until all the players (all of them) have posted, whichever comes first. At the discretion of a majority vote of the players, turn length may be extended temporarily or for the duration of the current game.

Each turn, roll 5d6 to determine their Power Points, adding any power points you had remaining at the end of last turn. Then, spend points according to the Powers Table to manifest powers with which your deity or pantheon can shape the world to their will. The only restriction on turn order is that if you were the last to post in the previous turn, you cannot be the first to post in the current turn. Any points you did not spend will roll over to the next turn, to a maximum of 50 points (though this cap only applies at the end of your turn, so at most you can start a turn with 50+5d6 points after rolling.)

Half the fun comes from the fluff as opposed to crunch. If you post only mechanics, and have not posted any kind of fluff text before the end of the turn, your actions that turn will not take effect (though you will retain the points that would otherwise have been spent). If you don't even post, either IC to pass your turn or OOC to roll dice and remind the other players that you're still present, you won't have made a power roll so you will not get any points.

Each Age lasts for a minimum of 3 turns.

After 3 turns, a unanimous vote of the players can end the First or Second Age, so that the next turn takes place in the Second or Third Age respectively.

After 6 turns, a simple majority of the players can end the First or Second Age.

After 9 turns, a single player's vote can end the First or Second Age.




Power
First Age
Second Age
Third Age


Shape Land/Climate
3
5
8


Create Life
0
0
0


Create Race
22
6
15


Create Subrace
12
4
10


Create Hybrid Race
11
3
9


Command Race
8
4
3


Command City/Order°
4
3
2


Advance Race
10
4
6


Advance City/Order
8
3
5


Ingrain/Inherit Advancement
2
3
4


Create Order
8
6
4


Create World
7
7
7


Create Avatar
10
7
8


Command Avatar°
2
1
1


Create Demigod
7
5
9


Command Demigod°
2
1
1


Event

10
6
5


Create Template

10
6
5


Catastrophe, 1"
10
12
10



° Only once per target per turn.

Shape Land: This power allows the creation, modification, or destruction of mountains, seas, deserts, steppes, bottomless fiery pits, any land form or sea form the player cares to name. It affects area within a set of 7 contiguous hexes. While it cannot strictly speaking create life, it can be used in conjunction with Create Life to generate biomes.

Shape Climate: This power affects weather patterns to a far more profound degree than what Shape Land is capable of, such as creating a permanent hurricane on top of an island, preventing rain from ever landing on a particular desert, making an area rain blood and salt every winter solstice, even locking the air and water currents in an area of ocean into eternal motionlessness, or anything else that a player could dream up. This power affects 7 contiguous hexes, like Shape Land. This power can also be used in conjunction with Create Life towards a separate effect.

Create Life: This power creates animals, plants, and other life forms beneath the direct attention of the gods. It cannot grant a direct mechanical benefit - an Advancement might be based on the exploitation of a particular life form, but this is pure flavour text and does not make it better or worse than a different Advancement which has no such dependence.

Create Race: This power effects the creation of one race (a mother race), such as a race of magma-elementals, a race of desert-dwelling dust men, a race of rat-people, or anything else you could imagine. Each race must be given a starting point in a world where they begin to build their civilization. This may also be used to create a civilisation made up of an existing race or group of existing races, but with its own identity and no meaningful ties to its prior members. If the race is meant to be inherently unusually powerful, this can be reflected in fluff by saying their armies are unusually small - perhaps even to the point of consisting of single, named individuals - and in crunch by Advancing them one or more times in the turn of their creation.

Create Subrace: This power is used for the creation of new races descending from an existing race, subrace, or hybrid race. For example, elves may be split into wood elves, then desert elves, then cave elves, each being it's own respective race. Any number of subraces can exist, having split off of a single mother race. Subraces can inherit the ingrained technologies of their ancestors; see Ingrain/Inherit Advancement for more information. More often than not, the only distinction is an accident of geography or politics - the desert elves are likely the same species as the wood elves, but have taken a different direction due to a different locale and outlook.
A Subrace creator may grant the creator of the parent race full access, allowing them to Command it and Ingrain advancements into it as if they were themselves the creator, instead of needing an Order for the former and being unable to do the latter. This decision can be made at any time, but can never be taken back

Create Hybrid Race: Via this power, two races are brought together to create a new race or culture, half of one and half of the other. Any two races can be brought together to create a hybrid, even subraces or other hybrid races. Unlike with subraces, the creators of each mother race, as well as the actual creator of the hybrid, can command the hybrid race without an Order. Hybrid races can inherit the ingrained technologies of their ancestors; see Ingrain/Inherit Technology for more information.
A Hybrid Race creator may grant the parents of the other races involved full access, allowing them to Ingrain advancements into the hybrid race. This decision can be made at any time, but can never be taken back.

Command Race: Via this power, a god can, either subtly or directly, influence a race to action. A god can use this power on any race they have directly created, any hybrid race descended from a race they directly created, or any race which has contained one of their Orders for a full round. This can do any of the following:

Create City: This action is just as it sounds: it directs the race to found a city of some sort. A city can fit any description, but is always a population centre large enough to attract the notice of the gods.
Expand City: This action increases the size of a city's population and buildings. It is functionally identical to creating a second city in the same location as the first, save that both (or all) cities benefit when one is targeted with Advance City, both (all) cities count from any Structure belonging to either (any) of them, both (all) cities count as one single unified object for the purpose of Armies and Demigods attacking or defending them, and that if they (any) are of the same race, both (all such) cities benefit when one or the other executes a Trade agreement or uses a Political Maneuver to steal technology. A city belonging to one race can be Expanded by a different race, but Trade agreements with one of a city's races will not automatically affect the other inhabitants, who must instead Trade internally.
Settle Territory: This action creates an area of 7 contiguous settled hexes, which has either a significant population of permanent residents, or is so heavily travelled as to amount to the same thing from a god's eyes. Alternately, it settles 7 non-contiguous hexes in such a fashion as to connect one or more existing blocks of settled territory into a single contiguous whole. Settled territory grants a few benefits - it allows secure trade routes, including sea lanes and the like across areas which cannot literally be settled, and if defended it can obstruct enemy armies, forcing them to attack the territory and any defenders it may have to pass through it and attack anything on the other side of it.
Create Wonder: This action directs the creation of some magnificent creation, be it a weapon, a city-sized library, a brilliant form of entertainment, some type of magic talisman which is mass produced and betters the lives of the entire race, or anything else the god could dream up. There are two rough categories:

Cathedral Wonders must be attached to an existing city. They benefit the entire race that created them, as well as any armies or political maneuvers originating from their own city.
Excalibur Wonders are one-of-a-kind, but may freely be passed between armies and races according to the whims of whichever god's forces currently hold them. In addition, once ever, an Excalibur can be primed against a particular Template, so that the wielder always triggers that Template's weakness - for example, if Wights suffered a -1 on the defence, an Excalibur primed against Wights would cause Wights to suffer -1 when attacking the wielder.



Ingrain Advancement: This can only be performed by the creator of a race which possesses at least one Advancement of its own (i.e. gained through Advance Race, not through Trade or Event or Political Maneuver). It causes the Technology to become a defining part of the race's identity. The benefit of this is that, whenever a race is counting Technologies for any reason, their own Ingrained Technologies count as two Technologies each. A race can only ever have three (3) ingrained technologies, and once ingrained, there is no going back.

Inherit Advancement: This can only be performed by the creator of a Hybrid Race or Subrace. If at least one of the mother races from which that race is descended has at least one Ingrained Advancement, the hybrid or subrace can inherit one such Advancement, gaining it at no further cost and counting it as one of its own Ingrained Advancements. This does count towards the limit of three; as such, some hybrids and subraces will refuse the traits of their ancestors, preferring to forge their own identity.

Command City: This power directs one single city to do something. A god can use this only on cities owned by a race they can Command, or cities which their armies have cut off from all the other gods (see Raise Army, below). This can have one of the following effects:
Raise Army: This action results in the city raising one army, which can take any form the creator desires. An army lasts until defeated in combat. Only the god who ordered the creation of an army can give it instructions. Instructing an army requires no spending of points, and takes immediate effect unless they have been specifically obstructed by some means. See the "Armies appendix" for details.
Political Maneuver: This action causes the leadership of the city to influence the world to some end. This action is left intentionally open-ended, so the player can invent new options as the game is played, but as a guide to its power level it can detain an army for 1d6 rounds, allow an army to attack on the same turn as it was created, reverse the effect of a previous political maneuver, subvert the loyalties of an army that does not have an attached Black Knight, or steal an advancement from another city. Political maneuvers rarely go unopposed - when the maneuver is declared, the maneuvering city and the defending city or order each roll 2d6 and add +1 for each applicable advancement, wonder, or structure that each city possesses, to a maximum of +12. If the defender wins, the maneuver is wasted. At their option, the god commanding the defending city can yield to the maneuver, causing it to succeed, even if the dice have already been rolled.
Trade: This action directs the city to initiate a trade agreement with another city. In order for this trade agreement to be possible, it must be possible to draw a line on the game map from the one city to the other which goes through only easily travelled terrain, and which goes through no more than 3 hexes of unsettled territory (including the locations of the cities themselves). In addition, if the only trade route between the cities passes through territory which an Army or Demigod is defending, that Army or Demigod may prevent the trade from taking effect. If these requirements are met, the trade agreement allows Advancements to be traded between the cities. Any number of items can be included in a trade agreement, so five technologies could be offered on both sides with only a single manifestation of Command City. However, once agreed upon, the deal is complete and final - though the cities may make later trade agreements to trade more technologies and more wonders.
Create Structure: This action directs the creation of some magnificent location or structure in the city targeted. This adds +1 to rolls to defend the city from combat or political maneuvers, but it is fixed to the city, and can never be traded away or donated to another faction.


Advance Race: This power causes a Race to gain expert knowledge of a given science or magic. So long as that race persists, it will always be the greatest in this field, and no other race can receive an advancement of the same name, though the original can be traded with Command City or stolen by Political Maneuver or Event. Other races can still utilize the technology in flavour text, but must steal it mechanically to gain the bonus.

Advance City: This power functions much like Advance Race, except it only applies to a single city - albeit to all races within that city, unlike an advancement stolen by Political Maneuver. If the city is destroyed outright, the advancement is lost with it, though it still applies to anyone who got it by trade or theft.

Advance Order: This power functions much like Advance Race, but applied only to a single Order - presumably it is an internal secret. If the Order is destroyed outright, the advancement is lost with it, though it still applies to anyone who got it by trade or theft.

Create Order: A god uses this power to create an order of people within a race. An order can be a major organization of any sort, be it a religious sect, a military force, or even a guild of some description. An order grants the god some of the benefits of a city, without being tied to a specific location, and without having to be able to Command the race in which the order is created. Indeed, if it survives to the beginning of the next turn an order also allows the god to Command the race in which the order was created, if they could not before.

Command Order: The god directs an Order of its minions to some end, much like if it were a city with no fixed location. This can achieve one of the following results:
Raise Army: This action results in the Order raising one army, which can take any form the creator desires. See "Command City -> Raise Army".
Political Maneuver: The Order has a similar level of political resources to a city, and can engage in Political Maneuvers. See "Command City -> Political Maneuver".
Impede Command: The Order acts to make a certain Command power, or the Catastrophe power, more difficult to use. Until the beginning of the player's next turn, all uses of the impeded command cost 3 more points, no matter how they come about. This is considered to take place before any other actions the player takes for the purpose of applying the penalty; thus, if the player wishes to use a command they have impeded, they must themselves pay the extra points. The impeded command can be as broad as "impede all uses of Command City, ever", or as narrow as "impede the use of Command City on the city of Ironbark to perform Political Maneuvers to steal advancements from the city of Great Clearing", but it cannot only apply to a particular god, avatar, order, or the like - indeed, it affects the same god who made the impediment.
Miracle: An Order has the manpower and sorcery between them to work the sort of wonders normally associated with demigods. See "Command Demigod -> Miracle" for details.


Create World: Through this power, the god creates a world which only they can directly affect. This is normally another plane of existence, though some players may prefer a planet many lightyears removed from the main world, or an impossibly proportioned mountain nominally within the main world. When they make this world, they immediately decide upon it's size, terrain, and weather, effectively manifesting both Shape Land and Shape Climate upon it in the same turn; thereafter, however large it might be in flavour text, it counts as being 7 hexes big, arranged in a circle around one central hex. Gods other than the creator of a given world are unable to directly affect it, finding that only their Events, the Miracles of their servants, and their Command powers (Command Race/City/Demigod/Avatar) will work there. It is far removed from the main world, or any other world; beings cannot normally enter or leave it without the use of Events or Miracles - even if a meaningful number of mortals could theoretically get there with enough work, that would be represented mechanically by the use of an Event or Miracle on their behalf. A god can create any number of such worlds, but each time he or she makes a new one, it costs 2 extra points for every other plane he has created.

Create Avatar: Through this power, the god creates an embodiment of their divine will in the world. This embodiment can take any form the player desires - a royal dynasty, a set of shrines, a literal divine incarnation, or something else entirely. A god can have up to four (4) avatars, but each time he or she makes a new one, it costs 5 extra points for every other avatar he has. If slain or wiped out, an avatar may be resurrected, reestablished, or simply replaced by the creating player for 5 points.

Command Avatar: A god can, once per turn per avatar they possess, command that avatar to take action. An avatar so commanded can perform one of the following actions:
Command City: This action functions exactly like the power of the same name.
Command Order: This action functions exactly like the power of the same name.
Command Race (Create/Expand City): This action is just as it sounds: it directs the avatar to direct a race to found a city of some sort, or expand an already existing city. It requires that the god be able to command the race which is creating or expanding a city.
Create Race/Subrace: This functions exactly like the commands of the same name, save that mechanically speaking each Avatar can only be Commanded to create one Race or once Subrace, ever.
Miracle: This action is, in a way, a miniature Event. Via this action, the avatar manifests a portion of its divine power. See the Miracles and Events appendix for details.


Although Avatars cannot attack directly by any means, or defend any other object, they are nonetheless incredibly dangerous if forced to defend themselves. If an Avatar is attacked and has no other defenders, it acts as its own defending army, but instead of rolling 2d6 plus a number it rolls 6d6 twice and takes the higher roll, and never subtracts anything for exhaustion. Even if this is successful, the avatar is captured rather than destroyed - indeed, this is often to the benefit of the captor, as destroyed avatars are not incredibly hard to replace.

Create Demigod: Through this power, the god adds a lesser divine being into the world as its servant. A god can have any number of demigods in the world, though if one is defeated in combat by an army or another demigod, it is lost just like an army. Mechanically, a demigod can be one of the following types:
Asura: The Asura rolls 6d6 in combat, and has access to the Terrorise, Capture, Protect, and Miracle actions. It is the baseline from which the other Demigods deviate.
Achilles: Far more resilient than most, the Achilles is also the weakest Demigod in combat. The Achilles rolls 4d6 in combat, but even if it loses a combat, unless it rolled a flat 4 on the dice or an Event was used to rig the combat roll, it manages to survive and only be forced to retreat from that combat. If the combat is due to an object it defends being attacked and it is forced to retreat, it is no longer protecting the object and must be commanded to do so again.
Black Knight: An inspiring, but seemingly mortal leader, the Black Knight rolls 4d6 if directly involved in combat, and gains the "Lead the Charge" use of Command Demigod.
Cherubim: A guardian angel whose purpose is to protect and guide, the Cherubim rolls 6d6 in combat and gains the "Command Ward" action, but can never be commanded to Terrorise or Capture.
Fenrir: A tool of pure destruction, the Fenrir rolls 6d6 in combat, can be Commanded up to 3 times per turn, and gains the "Rampage" use of Command Demigod, but can perform no action other than Terrorise or Rampage.


Command Demigod: Via this power, the god instructs the demigod to perform one of the following actions:
Terrorise: This action directs the demigod to act as an army for one round and to attack one army, cult, or demigod. A demigod does not roll 2d6, like armies, however, and instead rolls the number of dice specified in its type description, never adding or subtracting anything from the roll. Terrorise allows the Demigod to act on the attack for one round, but it always acts as a defending army when being attacked. If there are any armies defending the actual target, then the Demigod keeps attacking until all defending armies fall, and does not require further commanding. Cherubim Demigods cannot Terrorise.
Capture: This is practically identical to Terrorise, but can be targeted at a city, territory, or order, resulting in that object's capture or destruction if all defenders are destroyed. Similar to Terrorise, if there are defending armies, the Demigod keeps attacking until all defending armies fall, and does not require further commanding. Successful capture leaves the Demigod in question defending the captured object as if they had used Protect, unless it's a Territory and they wish to destroy it, in which case they may just destroy it. The object is also captured as if by an Army for all intents and purposes. Cherubim and Fenrir Demigods cannot Capture.
Protect: Using this ability, the Demigod can be directed to defend anything an Army could defend. They will continue to defend the targeted object until ordered to Protect something else or to Terrorize anything. Fenrir Demigods cannot Protect.
Miracle: The demigod manifests a portion of its divine power, similar to a mini-Event. See the Miracles and Events appendix for details. Fenrir Demigods cannot perform Miracles.
Rampage: This is practically identical to Capture, save that Territories can only be destroyed, and Cities and Orders are not captured afterwards, instead merely being left defenceless - presumably so that the next wave can mop up. Only Fenrirs can Rampage, and only Fenrirs would want to, as Rampage does nothing that Capture cannot also do.
Lead the Charge: The Black Knight can ally itself with a targeted army, offering it a +2d6 bonus to combat until the Black Knight is ordered to detach from that army, and making it impossible to subvert with Political Maneuver. However, if the army is defeated while the Black Knight is allied with it, the Black Knight is killed, as though it had lost a combat. Only one Black Knight can be allied with any given army at a time.
Command Ward: If a Cherubim is currently Protecting a city or an order, it may Command that city or order as per the Command City and Command Order actions.
Event: This power can be used for any action not covered by the other commands. It can achieve almost anything that can be justified by the points costs. See the Miracles and Events appendix for details. Two Events are required to save a city, demigod, or Wonder from a Catastrophe.

Create Template: This is technically a use of Event, but is complex enough to merit its own description. The god creates a supernatural affliction or state which can be reached regardless of race, such as a plague of lycanthropy, or a ritual that turns the caster into an immortal vampire. The mechanical effect is that ALL races gain the power to raise armies with this Template, and that such armies gain a +1 to combat in a narrow situation and a -1 to combat rolls in a more general situation. For example, werewolves might gain a +1 against a particular race and a -1 against all other beings, while the undead might gain a +1 while besieging cities and a -1 when defending themselves. If for some reason a deity so desires they may also create a city with a Template; all armies coming from that city must have the template in question, and Political Maneuvers from that city benefit / suffer from the template if applicable. If for some reason both the +1 and the -1 should logically apply (generally the result of an Excalibur Wonder) then they both apply (and cancel out).

Catastrophe: By this power, the gods bring destruction to the world by whatever mechanism they care to, be it plague, or meteors, a king going mad and commanding genocide, whatever. This targets one "central" hex, and may also affect any combination of adjacent hexes. All affected hexes are subjected to a combined Shape Land and Shape Climate; in addition, all cities, armies, wonders, demigods, avatars, and settled territories in the affected hexes are destroyed without any dice being rolled. Avatars may be restored in the usual manner, but anything else hit by Catastrophe is lost forever short of a double Event.

Since armies are the primary method of resolving IC conflict between gods, they're naturally the most complex part of the rules...

An army can attack or defend a city, an order, an avatar, a demigod, a wonder, another army, or any other object that might come up, but cannot normally attack in the same turn in which it was created. An army can also be stationed in a settled hex, and defend that hex and all adjacent settled hexes from attack. An army can attack any location they could logically gain access to. Unless the target of an attack is defended by a Demigod or an Army, or is itself a Demigod or an Army, the attack is successful, destroying Orders, armies, and demigods; either destroying or capturing settled hexes, whichever the victor desires; and capturing all other objects. Captured objects are automatically defended by the army that captured them.
An army can defend any city which its god can command, any Demigod, Order, or Avatar whose owner consents to the defense, or any object which has been captured by armies controlled by the same player (such as "the same army"). In the case of captured Avatars and cities, the current captors must consent to the defense, rather than the object itself.
Should two armies come into conflict with one another, each player rolls 2d6 plus their Army Bonus, consisting of +1 for every appropriate Advancement, Wonder, or Structure that each army can benefit from, up to a maximum of +12. In addition to this Army Bonus, apply -1 for each battle previously fought by each army in the same round, -1 for each defenseless object previously attacked by each army in the same round, and a final +1 to the defending army. The winner of the roll wins the battle and can then immediately be instructed to take another action. The loser of the roll, on the other hand, is destroyed. In the event of a draw, both armies are destroyed.
A city which is defended by only one god's armies or demigods may be cut off from all the other gods, provided that at least one of its defenders is a demigod or has the ability to attack. Thus, a newly created army cannot normally cut off its home city, but a Cherubim demigod could do so. The effect is all-or-nothing - either all the other gods can use an applicable Order to command the city, or none of them can. An Avatar which has been defeated in battle and captured can be similarly cut off from its god, but cannot then be commanded by its captors, and must actually be captured rather than merely being defended only by a different god's armies.
An army or demigod which is capable of attacking and has been defending something for at least one full turn (i.e. not a Cherubim) can destroy the thing it is defending. This cannot be done if the item in question is defended by armies or demigods controlled by more than one god (similar to the conditions for cutting a city off from all the gods). In the case of Avatars, they must also have defeated the Avatar in combat and held it captive for at least a turn, not merely garrisoned it.

A Miracle can do any one of the following:

Steal an Excalibur wonder, move it to another plane, or remove it from the game (e.g. by having someone steal it and hide).
Demolish a Structure.
Restore a Structure or Excalibur Wonder to the game.
Propagate a race or faction from one plane to another.
Forcibly move an army from one location to another in the same plane, disregarding intervening Territories.
Bless any army or demigod so that if it would be destroyed in combat this turn, it can reroll and take the better result. This must be done before any dice are rolled, only allows one reroll, and expires if the unit does not lose or draw in combat before the start of your next turn. Multiple blessings cannot be stacked, nor can a cursed unit be blessed.
Curse any army or demigod so that if it would win a combat this turn, it must reroll and take the worse result. This must be done before any dice are rolled, only forces one reroll, and expires if the unit does not win a combat before the start of your next turn. Multiple curses cannot be stacked, nor can a blessed unit be cursed.
Give similar blessings and curses to cities and orders for the purpose of Political Maneuvers.
Curse an Avatar so it only rolls once the next time it is attacked. This cannot be stacked with the usual curse effect.
Any effect agreed by the current playerbase to be of similar power to these.



An Event can do any one of the following:

Rig a combat or political maneuver instead of rolling dice - you cannot roll the dice to see if it works, and then load them after the fact.
Move an entire city and all armies and demigods defending it to any location, including other planes.
Move any single army, demigod, order, or cult to any location, including other planes
Move a Cathedral Wonder from one city to another, including a city on a different plane.
Perform three Miracles
Any effect agreed by the playerbase to be of similar power to these.


In addition, the use of two Events can save a single city, wonder, or demigod from a Catastrophe. In the case of Black Knight Demigods, the army they are attached to is also saved, if applicable.


2014 12 15: Posted
2015 03 26: Altered to let Avatars create subraces instead of mother races
2015 05 16: Grandfathered in the "subvert army" function of Political Maneuver; clarified that it doesn't work on armies with a Black Knight
2015 05 17: Reworked Cherubim - replaced "can be commanded 3 times" with "gains the Command Ward action"

Amechra
2014-12-15, 01:45 PM
Do you have any suggestions as to playing this IRL? More specifically, I'm interested in knowing about how long an Age is supposed to be, and how you'd determine turn order in a face-to-face game.

Omegonthesane
2014-12-15, 07:07 PM
Forgot the ages table. Herp derp.

What I intended to write was:

Each Age lasts for a minimum of 3 turns. After 3 turns, a unanimous vote of the players can move the game to the next age. After 6 turns, it takes only a majority vote, and after 9 turns, if even a single player wants to end the current age, the current age ends.

In a face to face game, just go clockwise around the table, first player determined by whatever arbitrary method the group prefers. Dice rolls, whoever has the pointiest ears, whoever finishes their pint fastest, squig-eating contests, how the first player is determined really doesn't affect the game flow.

Hammer Head
2015-03-21, 04:46 PM
Hey Omegon. This is Rith under a different name. How have you been doing?

Also, my ego swelled so huge when I saw that these rules have perpetuated into other games. From what I've read, you've improved on them as well, and all that I see looks to be good. My only comment is that week long turns might be an issue. I imagine players posting one week, but forgetting to check the next week, or just waiting until the next week to post when the round has actually moved forward due to everyone having posted, and they're waiting on that one person to post.

Currently, I have been seeking out M&M threads, but developing my own version of DoW in the background. However, I have so completely revised the rules, that it is effectively it's own game, which I am calling Divinity, and debating actually publishing and trying to make money off of. I am debating posting a thread using the rules to test it out. A kind of alpha run, if you will. The fact that my original retooling of DoW was this popular gives me hope regarding it's chances.

Starsign
2015-03-21, 04:53 PM
Hey Omegon. This is Rith under a different name. How have you been doing?

Also, my ego swelled so huge when I saw that these rules have perpetuated into other games. From what I've read, you've improved on them as well, and all that I see looks to be good. My only comment is that week long turns might be an issue. I imagine players posting one week, but forgetting to check the next week, or just waiting until the next week to post when the round has actually moved forward due to everyone having posted, and they're waiting on that one person to post.

Currently, I have been seeking out M&M threads, but developing my own version of DoW in the background. However, I have so completely revised the rules, that it is effectively it's own game, which I am calling Divinity, and debating actually publishing and trying to make money off of. I am debating posting a thread using the rules to test it out. A kind of alpha run, if you will. The fact that my original retooling of DoW was this popular gives me hope regarding it's chances.

I'd like to mention that I'm supportive of DoW lasting either a week, or when everyone is done (whichever comes first). This, for me, is in part due to how Londorthell turned out as a number of players couldn't keep up with the 1 post per 2-3 days with how much we got out each turn (and even nearing the end, myself and a couple others needed longer for that). I'm not sure how much difficulty you all had in past games though with posting rates, so I'm a bit limited on my experience with DoW.

Hammer Head
2015-03-21, 05:05 PM
Well, every DoW game I've been in have gone the same way, with no clear end in sight, people begin to run low on ideas. But I think a long turn structure might be worse than a short one, because a long turn structure might lead a person to lose interest fairly early. If 48 hours is too short, I'd compromise at 4 days a round. But I believe the issue lies in the open-ended nature of the game.

Also, a few more comments: Making Create Template it's own thing is smart. I would have never have thought of that. The development of Ingrain/Inherit is very clever. I love the Excalibur/Catherdral classifications, and Expand City is brilliant. The World rules gave me a lot of trouble, trying to make them relevant. How are you feeling about the current version?

Omegonthesane
2015-03-21, 07:21 PM
With respect to other Worlds, I decided in the end that they were inherently subordinate to the primary world as far as player interest was concerned, and wrote the rules with that in mind.

The only material change to the Create World rules since Ikashan is that now you can't use worlds to get zero-point actions. This was because everybody in the game eventually noticed that you could create enormous armies for free by creating lots of cities in a created World and commanding them every turn for (1 - 1 = 0) points. However, this was when Command City in the Third Age was only 1 point even without an Avatar, which was a mistake on my part given that everyone had/has access to Avatars.

From the, admittedly small, sample size I've seen, Worlds tend to be created for flavour reasons and stay relevant if the flavour does.

The only change I've considered is allowing a special kind of Structure which lets a pair of cities, one on one plane and one on another, act as a gateway between their respective planes - so, if they both have a Stargate and their Stargates are linked, then armies can travel freely from one Stargate to the other if they can get to the relevant city unhindered. However, I ultimately decided this would make interplanar travel too easy and be too hard to balance.

Starsign
2015-03-21, 07:45 PM
As Omeg said, I've treated other Worlds in Londorthell as basically being a lesser world compared to where most of the game takes place. The world my god makes in particular is one of the most significant in the game and it's largely just for fluff and setting purposes. I'd say they're really only relevant so long as players are willing to make it active and play a role for the god. Though again, this is me speaking from very limited experience.