Chimera245
2014-12-15, 02:04 PM
I had a neat Idea! But it takes some explaining...
For a while now, I've been using a specific kind of idea of what gods are like in my games.
Basically, that gods have a stat that is literally infinite. A god of strength, for example would have infinite strength, a god of the arts might have infinite ranks in Perform, and a god of fire would have, um... infinite fire...or something...
Anyway, that worked all fine and well in all my games and stories, as it led to gods being "above" mortals, no matter how strong or high level they got.
But also raises the Blob-Juggernaut conundrum...What happens when an unstoppable force meets and unmovable object? What happens when two gods with infinite strength armwrestle? Basically, I just arbitrarily decided that whoever had higher Divine Rank would win, and if they were equal, they roll for it with their divine rank as a modifier.
But then I watched ViHart and Numberphile and learned there are different kinds, sizes, and general flavors of infinity...(who knew?)
In a nutshell, (mostly because I don't know how to post links...) it goes like this:
The weakest, smallest, least awesome infinity is Countable infinity, called Aleph Null. It's the number of numbers that can be counted. (not that you can actually count all those numbers without spending infinity time doing it, but anyway...) In my mind, I see this as "Divine Rank 0".
Then there's Uncountable Infinity, which is the number of numbers between any other two numbers. Like between 1 and 2 is 1.5, between 1.5 and 2 is 1.75, between 1.5 and 1.75 is 1.625, etc. you can always add more decimal places and get more numbers inbetween.
Anyway, math stuff happens, and you basically have Omega-Null (which is the same as Aleph Null, i think), then Omega-1, Omega-2, Omega-3, etc., each one more "Infinity-y" than the last. And you can still do ordinary math to these numbers.
And I'm thinking, maybe they could match up to Divine Rank in D&D. And then we have a way to actually pseudo-quantify Divine rank in a way that lets game stats use it.
And I'm thinking that MIGHT bring up a sort-of balanced way to play a game where the PCs were gods. In a way where they don't just feel like Really Strong People with Really Intimidating Responsibilities.
But there would have to be rules for what different parts of a character sheet replaced with infinity would actually MEAN in gameplay...
I was thinking:
-A character's Divine Rank, (arbitrarily set by DM during character creation, to determine power level of the game) would determine which Omega-number you have. For examples, we'll say DM says DR 10.
-You could either have a single stat at Omega-10, or you could split it up, and have two stats at Omega-5, or one at Omega-6, and two at Omega-2, or you could have ten stats at Omega-1, etc.
-Math can be done to Infinite numbers, but it gets kinda weird. Apparently "1+infinity" is infinity, but "infinity+1" is one more than infinity... or so says the videos I watched. So would a god with Omega-4 STR, wearing a Belt of Giant Strength(+6) have Omega-4 or Omega-4 + 6 strength? Such rules would have to be worked out for the game to work, 'cuz that would matter...
-If two gods with different rank oppose each other in some way, (like hide vs. spot), do they roll for it? If the hider has more divine rank than the spotter, meaning he is more well hidden by a magnitude of infinity, does the spotter have a chance to see him when the dice can only possibly add 20? Or are the dice on another "scale" when it comes to divine rank/infinite rolls?
-Also, what kind of challenges await PC gods with infinite stats? One with infinite strength could kill unkillable creatures, one with infinite speed could go to the end of endless planes, one with infinite constitution could eat the Infinite Plane of Candy... So what sort of things could a clever DM do to them?
Any thoughts on the whole idea?
For a while now, I've been using a specific kind of idea of what gods are like in my games.
Basically, that gods have a stat that is literally infinite. A god of strength, for example would have infinite strength, a god of the arts might have infinite ranks in Perform, and a god of fire would have, um... infinite fire...or something...
Anyway, that worked all fine and well in all my games and stories, as it led to gods being "above" mortals, no matter how strong or high level they got.
But also raises the Blob-Juggernaut conundrum...What happens when an unstoppable force meets and unmovable object? What happens when two gods with infinite strength armwrestle? Basically, I just arbitrarily decided that whoever had higher Divine Rank would win, and if they were equal, they roll for it with their divine rank as a modifier.
But then I watched ViHart and Numberphile and learned there are different kinds, sizes, and general flavors of infinity...(who knew?)
In a nutshell, (mostly because I don't know how to post links...) it goes like this:
The weakest, smallest, least awesome infinity is Countable infinity, called Aleph Null. It's the number of numbers that can be counted. (not that you can actually count all those numbers without spending infinity time doing it, but anyway...) In my mind, I see this as "Divine Rank 0".
Then there's Uncountable Infinity, which is the number of numbers between any other two numbers. Like between 1 and 2 is 1.5, between 1.5 and 2 is 1.75, between 1.5 and 1.75 is 1.625, etc. you can always add more decimal places and get more numbers inbetween.
Anyway, math stuff happens, and you basically have Omega-Null (which is the same as Aleph Null, i think), then Omega-1, Omega-2, Omega-3, etc., each one more "Infinity-y" than the last. And you can still do ordinary math to these numbers.
And I'm thinking, maybe they could match up to Divine Rank in D&D. And then we have a way to actually pseudo-quantify Divine rank in a way that lets game stats use it.
And I'm thinking that MIGHT bring up a sort-of balanced way to play a game where the PCs were gods. In a way where they don't just feel like Really Strong People with Really Intimidating Responsibilities.
But there would have to be rules for what different parts of a character sheet replaced with infinity would actually MEAN in gameplay...
I was thinking:
-A character's Divine Rank, (arbitrarily set by DM during character creation, to determine power level of the game) would determine which Omega-number you have. For examples, we'll say DM says DR 10.
-You could either have a single stat at Omega-10, or you could split it up, and have two stats at Omega-5, or one at Omega-6, and two at Omega-2, or you could have ten stats at Omega-1, etc.
-Math can be done to Infinite numbers, but it gets kinda weird. Apparently "1+infinity" is infinity, but "infinity+1" is one more than infinity... or so says the videos I watched. So would a god with Omega-4 STR, wearing a Belt of Giant Strength(+6) have Omega-4 or Omega-4 + 6 strength? Such rules would have to be worked out for the game to work, 'cuz that would matter...
-If two gods with different rank oppose each other in some way, (like hide vs. spot), do they roll for it? If the hider has more divine rank than the spotter, meaning he is more well hidden by a magnitude of infinity, does the spotter have a chance to see him when the dice can only possibly add 20? Or are the dice on another "scale" when it comes to divine rank/infinite rolls?
-Also, what kind of challenges await PC gods with infinite stats? One with infinite strength could kill unkillable creatures, one with infinite speed could go to the end of endless planes, one with infinite constitution could eat the Infinite Plane of Candy... So what sort of things could a clever DM do to them?
Any thoughts on the whole idea?