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[Glass]

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We're the Mage's Guild. Mostly, what we do is prophesize stuff - which, in game terms, means we control the random events. Presumably we get some kind of karma balance - we can make good events, but they have to be balanced out eventually by bad ones; basically, good events cost karma, bad ones pay it. Let's also say that good karma gets lost over time, while bad karma doesn't, to get us to actually use the stuff. An example: if we have 20 karma, we might lose 2 of that each day. Meanwhile, if we have -20, that's going to stay right there until we use negative events to get rid of it. Additionally, let's put a lower limit on how far we can push negative karma - let's say to -25 for now, though it'll depend on how much karma it costs to do stuff - at which point we can no longer get positive events, and also must get rid of all the bad karma in one event rather than gradually, as would likely be less dangerous. Because we need stuff to be balanced.

Additionally, we're in charge of the weather. We may integrate this into the main "random events" system.

Also, stand by for me maybe making a Scientists' Guild and giving us some Arms Race stuff, maybe.

[Glass]

Members:
   Glass (Archmage)
   UristMcChladni
   Maximum Spin
   Bloop Bleep (?)
   Imic (Historian)

[Glass]

Ballots

• How much should 1 Karma point be worth?
• How much should -1 Karma point be worth? This should be equal to but opposite of the first in some manner.
• Should we ever use a d20 for events? If so, how often?
• How often should events happen?
• NEW: Accept Bloop's magic system?

[Glass]

Final bookkeeping post in case of emergencies. You may all feel free to post.

[Maximum Spin]

Weather events that affect people should run off Karma, ie, bringing the rains to drying fields or a hailstorm to ruin the crops, but anything purely cosmetic needn't.

Perhaps a single Karma point should equal one person-week of sustained good or bad luck, thus eg a day's worth for each of seven people.

[Glass]

But how much good/bad luck? I'm looking for specific examples so that we have a reference point for how much Karma we'd get from, say, a zombie attack, or how much it would cost to catch the eye of a wealthy investor.

[Maximum Spin]

By "sustained" I mean "everything goes maximally well/poorly for you for the entire time period".

[Glass]

Ah.

...that sounds to me like "1 Karma gives a guy awesome luck for a week. -1 Karma kills a person a day for a week."

Also, again, I'm looking for specific events, not general "this guy is having a fucking awesome week". I want us to be able to use this vote as a measure for how much stuff costs, and where the bottom "time for a reckoning" limit is.

[UristMcChladni]

Are we thinking karma is an individual thing, or a global thing? Because I'd much rather it was global. Individual may get too hard to track, and I think if we determine the luck of all individual players then we're going to be way too busy and powerful of a guild.

I think, from a weather perspective, which is inherently global, we should have three values that track over time: Karma, representing the balance between positive and negative events, Magical Tension, representing the accumulation of magical energies which must discharge, and Temperature, just to give us a sense of whether it should snow or rain.

Karma would go down with good events and up with bad events, staying within the bounds mentioned, Magic would increment up each day and only decrease when a magical event occurs, and Temperature would gradually rise and fall, either cyclically or randomly.

So if you have a situation where you have -20K, 0M, and -5T, you would expect that a blizzard should foil the plans of the evil kobolds, while if you have +15K, 20M, and 10T you knows it's time for boiling blood to rain from the skies and curse those caught in it.

[Glass]

Global, yes.

I assume that you mean that you pay 20K in the first scenario. Also, that 20K means 20 Karma and not 20 thousand.

Additionally, Karma stores can go up infinitely so long as we keep choosing to have bad events happen to us (that is, we could have 1000K if we're masochists). It's only Karma deficits that have a maximum allowance before something breaks. Make sense?

The Magical Tension and Temperature ideas sound good. Presumably, Tension has a cap.

Do you have any ideas for what a 1 Karma or -1 Karma event might be?

[UristMcChladni]

I think a +1 event might be something that causes people to get lost, but without taking them from their current place, or otherwise disrupts travel or normal activity, and a -1 event might be one that helps in a relatively small way. An especially bright star, clear sky, or wind in the correct direction on the ocean. Small things that make things easier or harder, but don't do anything drastic.

[Glass]

Makes sense. So +1 is basically getting lost/getting further on your way, and things on a similar level. Should we make Karma linear in effect, or have it increase in effect as you gather more?

[Maximum Spin]

Given that you want to pay it off additively, it makes more sense to be linear. Otherwise, you could save up enough for a global blessing by giving stubbed toes to relatively few people, unless of course it comes with diminishing returns, in which case you're effectively scaling it linearly but changing the numbers.

[Glass]

Ok then. In that case, what can we think of as 5 times less lucky than getting lost? 10? 20? How many times a lucky star is the king and Queen, having been unable to bear children, finallying birthing an heir? Or an approaching army being crushed under an avalanche? Etc. 

How many negative Karma points can you have before disaster must strike?

[UristMcChladni]

I would say the groupings should be 1-3: Mundane (slightly lucky or unlucky), 4-8: Significant (not just lost, but shipwrecked (or found after having been shipwrecked), magically transported to another place (good or bad), abnormal weather which causes or prevents serious injury (the clouds break and the sun shines just before you would be getting frostbite, or a summer day turns into a blizzard) (This is where I think your avalanche would fit in, and the heir), 9-13: Game changing (lives saved or lost by a stroke of luck. Plagues come or pass, magical soul stealing storms, the like). 14+: Divine (An actual god visits, continents ripped to pieces, entire cities are swallowed into the ground, thousands die, similar large scale events.)