Kevin's Watch

Goatkiller666 wrote:Blah. Still nearly a month left. Plenty of time to finish processing.

As long as everything happens at it's proper time.
B'Sha'a tovah!!

Results are out. Not a bad start.

Just remember: be specific. I wasn't a fan of the word 'proselytize' in Acropolis I, and less of one in this version. If you want to proselytize, tell a story that all the People will tell. In this game especially, if you want something to happen, you need to tell me how you do it. Some may see in their results how I turned vague ideas into concrete situations. That's the kind of thing I'd rather you did.

I like coming up with cool stuff as much (or more) than the next guy, but consider it a high compliment if the only thing you get back in your results is 'It worked.' It means I didn't see any drawbacks to your actions or anything to add. Of course, as things progress and get more complicated, stuff will happen in your results regardless.

*sigh* Yeah, I remember being frustrated in the beginning of Acropolis 1, too. I got the idea this turn from DS9, but it seems to work better in the Delta Quadrant than here.

Whereas I really had no idea where to begin, so my turn was exceedingly vague. Will try to develop more sense of direction, but adjusting to the "atheist" test may take some time on my part.

For now, lets just say I honestly have no idea how to explain any "cool stuff" so it would pass muster of any non-believers.

And I can just hear Fist telling me, "you're self-limiting yourself again." But this is how I have interpreted the rules so far...

For now, I'd recommend thinking of a problem that might beset your tribe then think of a solution. Fortunately, we have the advantage of a couple thousand years' perspective on fundamental challenges of the human experience. Ignorance is also a problem, so think about ways your actions could explain away the unknown. *shrug*

Or if you want to look at it the other way, if there's something really cool you want to do, think of what problem it may solve (or cause, if you're feeling feisty). If it doesn't really relate to the human condition, I suggest letting it play out in one of the other realms.

Okay, Ristra... I just gotta say... when I first saw the god of chilis, I scoffed. I'm not too proud to admit it.

But I'll be horn swaggled if you aren't making the broadest and most interesting posts of all of us, so far.

So, kudos to you for a surprisingly subtle god idea.

ditto.

Ristra wrote:Ah shut your face! No I’ve never had one, but I bet they’re better than this swill we’re drinking here!

Yeah, I'll third that. I thought it was a joke when you registered. Heh. But you're doing a really good job. A very nice direction you're taking this.

I never had any doubts.

To help clarify things for you guys, let me see if I can kind of sum up a conversation I had with a player about why the results ended up as they did.

As many of you saw, the action described in your results was much more specific than what you described in your submission. My goal wasn't to subvert what you were trying to do; hopefully, the end result was the same. I was trying to show you how you might go about achieving your stated intention.

This idea really goes along with why I was trying to force you guys to think about where your character is, to move away from an Eye in the Sky (looking at you-ooo-ooo I can... er, sorry) to an entity that is actually in the world and interacting with it. So when you're trying to do something, you have to consider how the character actually does it.

Why is that important? The only mythology I can think of where a god says let something be so and it is so is one many people don't consider to be a mythology (and it's a boring read, if you ask me). Well, I like to lean heavily upon mythology for the underpinning of this game, and in the old days, if a god wanted something done, he pretty much did it himself. Imagine in a millennium or so some Homer emerges to tell your tale. How's he going to explain what you did (or to go a little meta, how do people use mythology to explain things they do not understand)?

The other side of it is, I think most of us would agree that Apollo never existed. People thought he did, used him to explain the movement of the sun across the sky, but he didn't actually exist. More than that, most people with even a basic education in the classics know that the creation of the Sahara desert can be blamed on Apollo being bound by his oath to his sun and letting him drive (and crash) his chariot. Why? Because it's an interesting story and a nifty way of explaining something. On the other hand, if he had just pointed his finger and said, "Make a desert there," the vast majority of people wouldn't be interested enough to bother remembering, much less passing on, the story.

And this is kind of the crux of the atheist test. Sure, it helps keep the world from getting blown up in a dozen turns or so, but it goes a long way, I hope, to creating story. And since I am pretty lazy compared to Xar when it comes to creating big stories to fill out these worlds, that's good for me. Of course, I'm also very interested to see what you guys do with the realms you can stomp around in.

If you don't have any better ideas, try the following:

Think about which one of your stats you want to increase. Then think of something that would increase it. Finally, think about how you will achieve the thing that will increase that stat.

If you're interested in managing your tribe, I would suggest looking to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

And last of all, just look up some Native American, Egyptian, Greek, Norse (etc.) myths. Find one that interests you and steal it.

Speaking of Greek myths, specifically Metamorphoses, turning people into stuff (or killing them) does not violate the atheist test. It's only giving people incontrovertible proof that you exist that is forbidden -- not newly formed arachnids, corpses, the insane, etc. It's also entirely within your purview to reshape the world as you see fit, so long as nobody sees you doing it.

I'd also like to point out that the upper and lower realms are practically undefined and you can pretty much do whatever you want there. It might be to your advantage to set the stage rather than react when others do so.

Oh, and remember there are Evils in the world. Things probably won't always be as easy as they are now. Might be good to prepare (or even go on the offensive).

I do believe turns can be sent in now.

Syl, I have to tell you, I'm completely mystified by how to play this game.

I'm trying to keep my turns within the realm of realism so that they can be easily explained (atheism). So, I'm not bogging myself down with a storyline, necessarily.

I'm just stumbling along trying to keep my movements explainable. Needless to say, it's very restrictive to play this way. Or rather, it's making me think outside the box which is not one of my strong suits.

Oh shit, don't tell me turns are due?

(I can get it in tonight I guess...gimme 16 hours or so.)

--A

Ha. Done.

14.5 hours.

--A

Oh, yeah. Guess I'll look at that when I'm out of class this evening. 12hrs or less, unless there's drinking after class.

Who am I kidding? There's always drinking after class.

When are turns actually due?
I still have no idea what to do for this game at the current time...

Let's say by 11:59 PM EST, March 9.

So, is there any particular restriction on when we can post stories of the People? One the one hand, what we do in our turns means little unless the People are talking about it in the threads. On the other hand, I suppose there's some kind of advantage to be had for a more prolific writer.

Though... I suppose that the players of the game have already self-selected themselves from the group of those who have shown interest in prolific writing. So maybe it's not such a huge advantage.

Also, has it been stated what month / season it is, in game? Are we again tracking with the real-life northern hemisphere?

GK666 wrote:

when I first saw the god of chilis

(Thanks for your kind words about Ristra, folks, but he honestly couldn't give a .... - I do though )

Someone correct me if I'm wrong on this, but the way I'm understanding this game, chilis are Ristra's totem, not his domain (as we know domains from Pantheon). He's not the god of chilis, he's just a god that the people have associated, because of their opinion on his nature, with the chili. Because they see him as that, and their worship of this image of him gives him power, this causes the association to have a certain amount of reality - hence the fact that chilis are the only plant that thrive in the part of the world where Ristra's power crosses over most strongly.

Nyx wrote:So, is there any particular restriction on when we can post stories of the People?

No, there are no restrictions. Unless I explicitly state otherwise or the story derives from something a player submits, they have no in-game affect, so...

On the one hand, what we do in our turns means little unless the People are talking about it in the threads.

No, what you do in your turns makes all the difference.

On the other hand, I suppose there's some kind of advantage to be had for a more prolific writer.

It's mainly communication... to flesh out what you're doing in your turns, to give notice to others, or, possibly, to deceive others. Of course, if I like something I see, I'll probably use it, so it could be a way to eke out a few between-turn advantages.

So maybe it's not such a huge advantage.

Not really. I mean, it would be pretty easy for another player to turn around or co-opt what is essentially a non-DSP move.

Also, has it been stated what month / season it is, in game? Are we again tracking with the real-life northern hemisphere?

It has not, only that game time is the same as real time.

Stonemaybe wrote:Someone correct me if I'm wrong on this, but the way I'm understanding this game, chilis are Ristra's totem, not his domain (as we know domains from Pantheon). He's not the god of chilis...

Precisely

... he's just a god that the people have associated, because of their opinion on his nature, with the chili.

This could be true, or there could be other reasons for the association. Since Ristra is your character, it's certainly true for you. But for all anybody else knows, Ristra could actually be a giant chili sitting in a field somewhere, or he takes the form of a chili in a specific realm (like the Great Pumpkin, but spicier). Likewise, another player may conceive of a different reason for the association. Heck, I could make an NPC that actually dislikes his/her totem.

Because they see him as that, and their worship of this image of him gives him power, this causes the association to have a certain amount of reality - hence the fact that chilis are the only plant that thrive in the part of the world where Ristra's power crosses over most strongly.

This could be true, though I haven't nailed down the mechanics that precisely.