Excellent, we have design pillars and a gameplay loop. Let’s build the spine of this thing.

First of all godly acts. We need the player to have some kind of decision mechanic or action that they can do that evokes the feeling of godly power. We don’t necessarily have to define that action YET but we do need something more for the players to do beyond debating with other players.

Something that feels powerful but is ultimately fruitless, like building a sandcastle while the tide is coming in.

So let us say for one phase of the game the PC’s god can take actions that both affect the real world but CAN also benefit them in some way in the second or third phase of the gameplay loop (Debate and Plan).

Now here’s the thing, as a god, it doesn’t make a lot of sense (to me anyway) to roll to see if your actions are successful.

What is the thing? Motherfucker I don’t know!

So any and all actions we do as gods have to just happen. What those actions are is up for some discussion at this point but if the player says “I drop a motherfucking miracle up in this place.” It happens.

Cool? Cool.

We will set an appropriate number of actions a god can take per loop, but we’ll get to that in a bit.

Second part. Debate.

This one is easy. After players take their actions in the first phase, they meet and decide what lives on past the apocalypse and what doesn’t. Now a standard vote of one vote per PC doesn’t work for this because we’ll inevitably have a hung vote.

So PCs will need a currency to spend for votes. Something they can keep all the way to the last month (or even spend it to become the survivor? [save it for later dude]).

And, of course, this is a pure roleplay/debate phase that allows players to openly talk and possibly stealth make deals at the same time. If you recall entry one, we needed something that could be enhanced by remote play and this adds nicely.

Third part: Plan.

This is the part I’m stuck on, so I’ll happily take input on it.

We need a way to decide which god survives the apocalypse, or even if there’s more then one in the event of a tie.

The only analogue I can think of in TTRPGs that is close to this is Fiasco with its resolution system, but keep in mind, that gives an ending for ALL players, not just the player that got the best result. Every OTHER kind of metric I know of comes from boardgames and Mario party, and that doesn’t work for a TTRPG. Even one with an obvious win condition.

So we need to have it that each player gets an ending, even if they don’t survive.

That being said, we have to introduce a way to measure victory.

So let’s make a task list.

Overall Problems:

• How many gameplay loops will we have?

Phase 1: Godly actions

• What are the godly actions?
• How do they affect the meta?
• How many can be made per gameplay loop?

Phase 2: Debate

• What is the currency for voting?
• Can it be used in other phases?
• How is it generated?

Phase 3: Plan

• How do we determine victory?
• What happens to players who do not achieve victory?
• Is there any conditions at Character generation that can swing the result?

Tomorrow we start with the overall issue. Cycles and how many.

Motherfucker count: 2