Holy cow I’m on the last phase. For initial design. My god there’s so much left to do!
ANYWAY!
Time for Phase 3
Phase 3: Plan
- How do we determine victory?
- What happens to players who do not achieve victory?
- Are there any conditions at Character generation that can swing the result?
(also I low key corrected a grammar mistake in the first posting)
I’m going to go on a bit of a tangent here so please follow me. And be patient.
Now if we use a simple point metric cut off where the most points wins and that’s it. That’s not enough. While fun, works better for board games and video games that are fully played in one sitting and not something that will be played over twelve. This means we have to make failure meaningful and noteworthy in the final decision process.
This, in turn, means either in the last month or in one bonus month, we have a special turn that represents the final battle, the end of the world, Armageddon, and all that jazz. Whoever survives that phase, survives to the new world.
Now we have a large question that needs to be answered: What is the Apocalypse? As in, what kind of Apocalypse is it?
Right now, I don’t have a solid answer for that. In stories like the Prose Edda Ragnarok and the Catholic bible and even the legend of Pendragon, what kills the heroes isn’t the battle itself, but old enemies who rear their heads then. If choices during gameplay determine what may or may not kill them at the final battle, then it puts an emphasis on those choices, and ends narrative well for the player.
For example, if we have a god that during the 12 sessions decides to piss of the American military (again rough example) and he dies in a battle with the marines which was a large feint to lure them near a nuke, then we have some nice elements there.
But we’ll bold that for later How do we make previous decisions appear in the final battle?
Now, how to determine victory?
We can’t make victory dependent on ichor because players would just horde it for twelve months. So we need a new metric. If gods are fueled by worship and that feeds their legend, then we make legend a metric.
Therefore the goal is to, by making choices and taking actions, generate as much legend as possible to go into the final battle. Once there, a variety of scenarios drain that legend (based on decisions made prior) that subtract from that legend. In the end, whoever is the last god standing, survives.
That works.
Now for the final question: Are there any conditions at Character generation that can swing the result?
And here’s where I’m stuck.
At character creation we need to make a PC a god of something. But we also need more to help round that out.
Aphrodite isn’t just the god of love. She’s known for being jealous, manipulative, etc.
Odin isn’t just the god of the gallows, he see the future, knows magic, and his entire life is a metaphor about sacrifice, cunning and ultimately the irrefutable end.
So if I’m going to have character creation mean something at the end… I have to define what character creation is. I need to make it brief enough to be in the spirit of this game, and allow those choices made during game play help round out that character.
And that has to be a post itself.
So let’s put a pin in that. For now.