Kevin's Watch

No, since the People are semi-nomadic, there won't be any cities. At least, not at first. The map won't be as big as Pantheon or Aesir but probably bigger than Acropolis 1.0.

The People are tribalist in nature - they worship all the gods, though favor one over all others. They, along with the priesthood that serves only each particular god, are the source of all the gods' powers, either through their belief in the god's influence or through giving sacrifices to them.

So they all worship various deities already, and we're going to try to squeeze our way into that pantheon? A loosely knit pantheon, I assume, but the people who live by the shore have at least heard of the main god of the mountain people?

how do you feel about fictional totems?

I was looking forward to this game until I clicked on that teleological link ....

It just means 'explaining how things (animals, geological formations, rituals, etc.) came to be.' Of course, if I was going to be really technical and try to confuse us all even further, I'd say that's not quite true and go into the difference between them and charter myths, nature myths, and so on, but since I don't remember it myself all that well...

In other news, I got the job, and I'll be (tentatively) starting Nov. 21st. Things will be pretty hectic, but I think I'll still be able to officially start the game Dec. 1st. Since I'll be staying at a friend's house and commuting home on the weekends until I get the family moved, I should have a good amount of free time in the afternoons. Don't hold me to any of this, but I'll try.

While I really liked the 1:1 relationship between game and real time, I don't think I can realistically hope to keep that schedule right now. It may be an option in the future, however. Having one turn equal one month would be too hard to keep track of on an expanded schedule, so I think we'll stick to seasons this time.

Congratulations! (Where's the job? I forget.) IMO, that 1:1 idea, though incredible, was doomed from the start. Can't imagine anyone keeping up with that. You could still do 1 turn/1 month, but not process them at that rate. It doesn't matter if we are not in the month that the game is in.

Thanks. It's in DC -- writer/editor for the DOI OIG.

I'm not sure my brain could keep track of the game time if I did month to month. With the heavy nature influence in this game, I think seasons might be more appropriate anyway.

Makes sense. Whatever works for you.

It's a fictional world. Why not have three seasons, with nine months (a primary month for each season, plus two border months... a month of summer, then a month of "late summer" then a month of "early winter", then a month of "winter", etc.). Then there's no need to correlate game periods with RL months. Or some other completely different way of measuring the passage of time.

Going back to my earlier comments about a binary star system... maybe there's a deep summer, deep winter, mild summer, mild winter, and then some springs and falls spliced in between them. Or maybe planetary rotation might have slowed so that one side always faces the primary sun. Life primarily exists at the border between the day and night side, and the secondary sun determines both day and season.

Turn 1 sent.

Newly created gods, demigods, and heroes

Can you elaborate on what being a hero entails? Are you going to base it off of the Acropolis 1.0 rules?

Hmm. Thought I'd deleted all that. Only gods this time.

Fine with me.

Fine with him.

Once registration begins in earnest, you'll see why the traditional 'reveal' will not work in this game. The People already know all the gods... or most, anyway. There's a lot; you guys will just be playing, for the most part, the major ones. Someone who didn't know that Ritchie is the god of the Ritchie River would be considered... mentally deficient, especially if they'd lived near the river.

To give a little more background, the world is only a handful of human generations old. All gods share the same lineage and came into the world more or less the same way. By the time you guys begin waking up to your power and your roles, you already have a tribe following you.

So, then basically there is no reveal, as we've been used to in the past?

Nope. The registration thread will just be a combined creation myth, and that will be all the reveal you need.

Well I'm not throwing all that away! I'll rework it, and post it as The First Priest of Shen.

Ehhh... If I have a suggestion for turns, it's telling me what you did that turn -- either how you helped your people (or hindered others), or what amazing exploits you were up to. Mortals tell stories about you, not the other way around. Your high priest just makes sure you get the credit.