IC-ThreadHello Folks, yep i decided to return Pantheon for the fourth time now. The last two didn't turn out to last overly long, so i've returned to mulling over mechanics which i think should work out better now. For the Veterans among you, this will be vastly different from the previous Pantheons and will return in focus to gods and more importantly Pantheons as such.
But first for the Newcomers:What is Pantheon?Pantheon is a Godgame. Originally a genre of forumgames made by Megacaesar with Godhood I, there have been many offshoots of that. One among them is the Pantheon series which is more centered on the struggle between gods than the sheer creation of universes.
In any case a Godgame is a game in which, suprise, you play a god. In general all of them have something called Acts. An act represents the divine power of a god which he can bend to whatever purpose he or she deems necessary. Creating Worlds, Artifacts, species or vanquishing them, are all things contained within an act.
Now here comes the part which will make this one vastly different from those before:
What has changed?An ailing sickness of all Godgames is the problem of struggles between Gods. Simply said which god wins if both are basically omnipotent and omniscient? There have been many approaches to this and none ever struck me as really satisfying.
After recently beginning to reading the Malazan Book of the Fallen series again (in which struggles between gods feature prominently) i remembered that i once had run mechanics for an entirely different sort of Godgame: Prod and Pull. Now Prod and Pull had been merely a Testgame and had some major kinks which i think i worked out.
But anyway to the meat of the matter:
Gods still get their acts, you still can use them to create Planets and universe and a myriad of other things. But they can no longer be used for war or struggles. Instead we use the System from Prod and Pull!
So how does it work? Lets assume that Udil Godslayers Dwarves decide that it is time to wage war on the Molerat people of Quoth the God of Pestilence. Now in usual Godgames both gods would start popping in and throw around their weight and acts and the mortals would become completely annihilated or basically sidelined in these struggles. Most importantly those God struggles usually left apocalyptic wastelands behind...
The problem was that everyone was constantly escalating and using the biggest hammer, because why not? That also lead to people saving up acts isntead of using them because they were the main resource with which to wage war.
Entrance right the
Mad Ophelia Deck of Dragons.
In this universe there exists an unknown primeval force, an Overgod or Pantokrator which so far has kept himself hidden from the unvierse and the Gods at large. The moment a Divine being enters this universe he becomes part of the Deck of Dragons and he is asigned to a house.
Like a Pantheon, the Gods within a House now work together. As it stands however, only ever two Gods can exist in one House. The King/Queen and his or her consort.
Below is an indepth explanation of hwo the Deck of Dragons system works, don't worry you don't need to know it by heart, it seems fairly complex but its actually pretty straightforward. I have just posted this here so you can get an idea of how it works and what does what, basically as a reference work.
As the Game goes on of course players will inevitably butt heads with each other over various things, but instead of throwing acts around Game-mechanically, you enter a so called Gambit. Throughout the Game players will recieve Cards from the Deck of Dragons which they can now use in the Gambit to win it.
The Goal of the Gambit is to become the only influencing house within it, that is achieved by making all other Houses in the Gambit concede, retreat or kill them off. The Area of a Gambit itself is centered by and large around the Area in which a Conflict is brewing and indeed multiple Gambits may go on at the same time over multiple turns.
The First way to lose a Gambit is to get the Ruler of your House killed. At this point all Gambits this House is in involved in will automatically be lost, all members of the House will become unbound cards and act on their own as well as his or her Consort.
The Second way is to withdraw. Withdrawing from a Gambit means however that all cards committed within it are inevitably lost (if a consort has been played, it will suffer severe injury and be weakened).
Finally someone can play Salvation. This allows someone to withdraw from the Gambit, and take with him all hand cards, all deployed cards and all unbound cards and thus basically concede the Gambit to the other Party without any major losses.
At the beginning of the Game a player recieves three cards from the Deck of Dragons, aswell as one extra each (major) turn.
Once per turn a player can do a reading of the Deck of Cards.
Finally a palyer can order those cards of his House which are played openly, around (except for the Consort, which is another player obviously).
Each House(Player) consists of ten cards:
Of those Ten Cards there are High Profile Cards and Low Profile Cards.
High Profile Cards cause a ripple of effect when brought into play openly and usually represent supernatural beings of great power. Low Profile Cards are beings influenced by the House but with no special Powers granted to them.
When losing a confrontation Low Profile Cards are always destroyed, High Profile Cards have the Wounded state and can retreat although in their wounded state they are obviously weakened. Exemption is the Hound Card which has seven lives and thus can survive considerably more confrontations.
High Profile Cards
King/Queen: A Player Character, a God and strongest Card in the House. If you lose this card you lose your character, your House dissolves and you are out of the Game.
- The King can be played openly which brings events immediately to a head. Playing the King openly is the Nuclear Option. He will bring all his power to bear and whatever Gambit you are in escalates to apocalyptic levels.
- The King can also be played concealed in which case he will possess a mortal. Possessing someone severly curtails his powers, however he cannot be killed directly this way. Being concealed this way he can only be found out via common sense of players or by a reading of the Deck of Dragons by an active unconcealed King/Queen.
Consort: Another god not as strong as the King/Queen but you won't lose if you lose this card. The player playing him/her may however lose his playing character.
- same as the King/Queen, the Consort can be played openly and concealed. Deploying the Consort openly will cause similiar escalation as King/Queen.
Knight: Your go to Card for open shows of strength without causing massive collateral damage. The Knight cannot be concealed and will always be played open. Apart from openly killing another card in a confrontation, the Knight can also disable another card for the duration of the Gambit.
Magi: Next lower in Strength level, the Magi will always be played concealed. The magi is non permanent he needs to be assigned anew for each gambit.
Hound: Can only be played openly. The use of Hounds equals a declaration of War. Hounds do not necessarily need to be dogs but can be a variety of powerful beings forming a group of seven. Hounds is the only card of which there are several (up to seven). While one can use a single card to deploy all seven Hounds one can also use it to deploy a single Hound. Why would one do that? To prevent escalation of course. However if all seven hounds are deployed simultaneously they can even take down a Knight.
Low Profile Cards:
Herald: played concealed, the Herald allows a House to influence unbound cards and nudge them to do their bidding.
Soldier: Not imbued with any power the Soldier will always be played concealed. Representing a Military Man, Warrior or other being with martial skills Soldier is used to fight in confrontations. He is non-permanent, meaning in each gambit he needs to be assigned anew.
Mason: Concealed, Mason is a relatively passive card. It cannot be ordered or given active influence by the Player however it works always favorably towards the Players Agenda. Non-permanent
Weaver: Concealed, Weaver usually is a politician or somebody dealing in intrigue. Weaver rarely gets into active Confrontations. Weaver is non-permanent
Virgin: Concealed, Exemption to the Low Profile Cards. Can be assigned to any other Card to protect it in confrontations. Virgin weakens a stronger enemy card and protects its charge at cost of its own life. Virgin is non-permanent
Unaligned Cards:
Unaligned Cards are various Cards which any player can play for various effects. They can turn around the game significantly but might also hinder the one who played it.
Obelisk: Represents Fate. Can be played several ways. Obelisk can be dropped into a confrontation.
-If played "Rooted" it will ensure that fate will take its turn (aka the stronger card wins no matter what).
-If played "Upturned" fate will be reversed and the opposite will happen (the weaker card wins).
-In a situation where low and high profile cards oppose each other, the high profile card won't be destroyed but severly weakened.
-If coupled with Virgin it can save her.
-If applied to a Character it will create a strong Unbound Card striving for balance. <- cannot be influenced by Herald.
Coin: The Luck that Prods and Pulls.
- When dropped into a confrontation all bets are off, the winner will be determined randomly as well as the result (Weakened, Death and Imprisoned are possible for all involved parties)
- If played concealed it will influence all events and confrontations randomly.
- If attached to a Character it will create an Unbound Wildcard, Chaos will follow.
- in conjunction with Crown will cause a character to be the sole reciever of influence of the Coin. if the Character dies both coin and crown are removed.
Crown:
- Can be affixed to a Character to ensure all of Coins attentions are turned towards that character.
- Can be used to prod an unbound card. The Unbound Card will follow your orders for a single turn.
Scepter:
- Target unbound card will join your house for the duration of the gambit and can be controlled by you.
Orb:
- playing it will reveal all cards played in the gambit and to whom they are afixed. That means all hidden cards are uncovered.
Throne: gives a player the ability to take over empty thrones and thus enter the game with a destroyed old house
Chain:
Allows you to imprison another Card. That Card will stay imprisoned until the end of the Gambit (if the Owner wins that Gambit) or until the Owner wins another Gambit in which he saves the Card.
Master of the Deck:
a New House will rise (up to 7) or an existing one will enter a gambit.
Lifeslayer:
Attach this Card to a Character to make him an Unbound Card. Can be claimed by a Herald and will then destroy any Card. Extreme Escalation, will end the Gambit immediately. Massive Collateral Damage.
Deathslayer:
Saves Card from Destruction. If used against Lifeslayer will weaken and or imprison him.
Salvation:
Discard all hand cards and all of your deployed cards as well as all unaligned cards and mix them into the deck. Leave the Gambit immediately and draw three cards.
The Apocalyptic:
All players discard all hand cards, no new Cards may be deployed in the Gambit until it is finished. (all unbound cards are removed from play also)
Assigning Cards and Unbound Cards:
As you start the game you only have the two Characters of your King and Consort, all other Cards have not yet an assigned role. As the Game progresses fitting characters will be pointed out to which a Card may be assigned.
You will also end up having Cards of other Houses in your Hand. Once assigned to Characters (and if these are not Cards of Houses who are already taking part in the Gambit) they become unbound. These Characters while they usually belong to another House are not led by said House since it has no stake or interest in the current Gambit. Thus these characters will follow their own whims unless otherwise prodded into certain directions.
If at any point during the Game the King/Queen of a House dies the remaining characters in play will become unbound. Such characters will stay unbound and in their role indefinitely until either the throne is reoccupied or they die.
If a House enters a Gambit later on it will take control of all unbound Cards belonging to its House.
Escalation:
While it may seem a good idea on the surface to immediately deploy Rulers, Consorts, Lifestealer, All seven Hounds and Knights, it is in fact not always preferable. These Cards represent Beings with extreme amounts of power. Deploying them means going all out. it is the nuclear option. When you use such extreme measures the world around you will suffer in the extreme. Hundreds and Thousands will die, cities will be destroyed, things will be irrevocably changed.
A big concept of the Escalation is the Theorem that "Power draws Power" if you start deploying Gods and Ascendants you will draw more of them. Unbound Cards formerly running around aimlessly will inexorably converge towards Conflicts and engage in them, Cards like Obelisk, Coin, Throne and Master of the Deck will deploy themselves without the players doing and other effects will happen. While all of them are random your sudden deployment of a Coterie of Ruler, Consort, Knight, Hounds and Lifestealer may suddenly find that all other Houses have been inexorably drawn into the conflict even against their will and that you may suddenly face a stiff opposition.
Reading the Deck:
An action a player can take to get a better grip on who is in play and who has taken part in this gambit. Depending on the Character doing the reading (Mason, Herald, Magi, Consort, Ruler) it will be more accurate or reveal different Things.
Be careful however the Reading may reveal past, present and future actions, it may be blurry or accurate. But worst of all, power draws power and a reading might draw other factions and houses.
A reading can cause the simple effect of letting other players know that somebody is doing a reading, over who and where that person is up to summoning the cards of the reading itself or even worse bringing new houses into the gambit.
Conflicts:
Generally Conflicts are resolved simple: A Ruler defeats a Consort defeats a Knight defeats a Magi and so forth. However many cards will change the outcome. Coin and Obelisk are two such examples. Virgin can also change the outcome of many a battle.
All seven Hounds can defeat the Knight as another thing.
However not all Houses are equal from the get go. Houses have levels of Power which determine how powerful their cards are.
You remember trump Cards from other Games? It's pretty much the same principle, only that each House has a ranking. That ranking determines the raw power of your own cards.
The Power of a House is usually determined by its age. The Older it is the more power it has aquired and thus fighting it might not be a good idea.
On top of the Heap are the First and Second House.
The First two Houses
Created at the Dawn of time the First two Houses will represent the first Four Players entering the Game. Both houses are diametrically opposed to each other (Light/Dark, Life/death etc.)
However both are also inexorably connected, if one is destroyed the other House falls aswell. If one is weakened the other is weakened also. They are generally always opposed and their connection ahs no advantage at all, except for their beginning strength over other Houses.
The Elders
Following the First Two are the Elder Houses. All of them have the same amount of power, they are not connected and are free to do as they please. When one of the first two falls, they move up in the rankings but without the relationship that the initial two houses had.
The Younger Houses
As time progresses and more Gods enter the Universe, the Strength granted to them by the Deck of the Dragons wanes and as such, the Younger Houses are weaker than the Elders. However their advantage lies in their flexibility, for the Younger Houses draw two cards each turn.
The Emergent Houses
As the universe grows older, gods die and new ones rise. However not always are they oh so divine. Emergent Houses barely are still considered gods at all, they being at the bottom of the rung. But as they are considered below the other Houses so they are ignored and thus all their cards can be concealed and can only be revealed through the common sense of players or the Use of a Reading. Indeed as such the Emergents can act most actively while still in the shadows.
So what about the Consort players? It is mostly a position i had foreseen for players who do not want to deal with all that strategizing and card mongering and want to concentrate more on creating stuff, roleplaying and basically just showing up in Gambit and blowing stuff up.
But the Consorts have other interesting things going on. Once their House is destroyed they can enter a gambit to get themselves a throne. However, they will get only one card per turn, none of the three starting ones and they won't have control of the cards of their former House. More than that they won't get any more acts until they are part of a House again...or ruling over one. This makes playing a Consort more of an underdog game as you need to play a more subtle game instead of throwing cards around.
Beyond that Consorts can always simply leave a House, as can the Ruler, abandoning their throne and becoming Unbound. Being unbound has no advantages at all and you won't recieve any acts beyond the ones you have stored. Meaning you really are out in the rain. While this might seem like a disadvantegous place, it might also mean a rather interesting playing position, as you have to be far more careful when and how to use resources.
Signing-UpName of Your God:
Starting Position: Ruler/Consort
Sphere: (if you are a consort, should at least somehow fit to your ruler)
House: First, Second, Elder, Younger (we need at least one Ruler of the First and one Ruler of the Second House)
Description of your God:
As always its NOT first come first serve. Quality counts. If you have questions feel free to ask.
I hope i have not forgotten anything important, sometime things go under, so yeah ask if something is unclear or seems to be missing.
Oh yes no more than five initial rulers please otherwise we will see nothing but endless gambits instead of advancing through turns.
Entering a Gambit: Quite often you are drawn unwittingly and unwillingly into a gambit. Originally the idea was to force encounters between gods and break up the cuddle boxes which tend to form in such games and encourage a shifting tide of alliances. As it stands this has proven to not work in the intended way.
As such Players will be given a choice to enter a gambit, if they refuse they are not penalized. However the other party of the Gambit still wins out (albeit without a great act to show for it)
Draws and Stalemates: There are no Draws in this Game. Once you have entered a Gambit you either win or you lose. You can come to equitable agreements, that will achieve the goals of both parties but there will still be a loser in the end. If compromise is not your thing or you refuse to give up a stalemate is the other option. Simply extending the Gambit until you can turn the tables is an option.
Leaving a Gambit: For now there are only four options to get out of a Gambit you have entered: Winning it. Losing it and Folding. Losing it and Dying or playing the Salvation Card.
Lifeslayer: It hasn't become clear before. Lifeslayer is a mortal enhanced by the combined faith and sentiment of mortals and further augmented by the powers of the Deck of Dragons. In sheer gambit strength he is in power even beyond the King of the First House.
Lifeslayer cannot be killed but can be sealed away. Either by using Deathslayer or by weakening him first in a confrontation and then beginning another confrontation with the Rulers of either the First or Second House or the Consort of the First House. The last one however will leave the god in question in a weakened state himself.
Chain works for merely one turn on Lifeslayer.
He can be turned to your cause by using Heralds.
Crown and Scepter do work on him as well, exemption being cases where he is your opponent in a gambit.
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Topic: Pantheon IV OOC-Thread, Sign-Ups (always more players welcome) (Read 34688 times)