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Armageddon: Among The Gods

The world will end in a year. Become a God and decide what to save, while saving yourself. · By Big Mike

The mechanics of Debate or the Sixth Post!

A topic by Big Mike created Dec 07, 2020 Views: 165 Replies: 2
Viewing posts 1 to 2
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So as many of you may remember, I asked for help with this post: https://itch.io/t/1096167/needing-your-help-or-the-fifth-post so that I could get some feedback about what kind of implementations might be best.

And I got…zero… zero replies.

So at this time, I have two choices:

  • Go back and make these decisions myself.
  • Move forward and orchestrate a second round pass.

And honestly, I want to move forward. There’s a lot here we’ve yet to cover and I’m only on Day 7!

Now we enter Phase 2: Debate

Do you remember our questions from last time? Here they are.

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

I think I can answer the first and last question today, perhaps, if I’m lucky, I can get two done as well.

So, what is the currency for voting?

Well let’s look thematically at gods for a moment. If we boil down a god to the most basic concepts we have a being that has followers whose faith empowers a god to be capable of divine acts that affect the world.

So as I see it (and correct me as always) gods have two possible currencies. Followers, and their own divine power. In Greek mythology that divine power is known as Ichor.

Now if we deal in followers we’re talking thousands if not millions of people (depending on when we set this game, which is another question we have to deal with later). In theory that number should go down over the course of a year (cause apocalypse) which can create resonance when actual human lives are measured.  Here’s the problem, that’s a lot of large numbers to track, spend and gather for a relatively short game.

But Ichor, we can make whatever we want at whatever size.  We can also give it a value to add resonance. Such as “A single Ichor point is worth 10,000 worshippers. We can also change the name too. Prana, Mana, Ki, (*coughtheforcecough*) whatever we like. So if you see a term you like, please let me know.

Now, how is Ichor generated? Well people pray all the time and during the apocalypse they would probably pray more, so the player ought to generate a specific amount at the start of the month. Since it is still an apocalypse that number ought to go down as people are dying.

So let’s set up a baseline. We have twelve months to generate ichor. How about this? Three months where the PC gets four ichor per month, then three, then two, then one. Going from 12-1 feels too gradual to me and we do need a declining mechanic.

Lastly, can Ichor be used in other phases?

To me, the only simple answer is yes. In all three phases of our loop it can. Which means, it can be spent (as well) for actions or bonus actions in the first or third phases.

We have to come back to the first phase and see how Ichor can be spent there and what is its limits.

And we will have to populate our choices soon.

But for now we have a second phase planned! Until next time!

Motherfucker count dropped because it was silly.

I think the term Ichor could work quite well.  It's an interesting enough word to really stand out as a mechanic. 

I like the metric for decreasing Ichor gain as the game goes on.  More power early on but harder choices near the end.

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Thank you for your feedback! Feel free to let me know if there's anything you see that you don't care for!