Welcome to the world of GridhoodSupernerd spent a lot of time thinking about how this game can be properly balanced ...
So I stole it.In this game you can choose to either play as a god or a civilization. The two things are mutually exclusive, meaning you can only be one thing at any given time. Civilization players need to work on tiles to get resources and basically not die, while god players compete with eachother for mortal worship and make changes to the grid world.
Note that new rules will be added as the game progresses. If you want to do something that there are no rules for, that will probably trigger the creation of new rules that cover the aforementioned something.
Remember to check this post for the most current rules that are in effect.Keep in mind that things do not officially exist until they appear on an update post. This means you cannot settle a civilization on a tile until you actually see the tile on the grid map.
The game will update whenever. If actions aren't in, players will idle.
To start playing, you will need to pick a tile on the map to start at. The tile needs to be unoccupied and you cannot start on a blank tile. You will need to decide on the following things: Civilization name, Civilization color, Starting tile, Government. Alternatively, if there is an inactive civilization player you can take over their civilization instead of making a new one from scratch.
At game start, new civilizations start with 5 people and 5 food.
Each turn, each person in a civilization can do one of the following things:
- Scavenge a tile to find resources. At the beginning you will only be able to find the resource "Food" but this will probably change. You can only scavenge a tile that is either on or adjacent to a tile you control
- Pray to a God, generating 1 FP for that god.
- Attempt to research something. The more complicated a topic is, the longer it takes to figure it out. If you try to research something too complicated without the prerequisites, unpredictable things may happen instead of you getting the desired outcome.
- Attack another civilization. Note that defenders get an advantage in combat situations. The precise mechanics of combat are deliberately kept secret from players.
- Use a special action granted by a researched technology
- The entire tribe may pack-up and move a single tile. This is a free action, but all worked tiles must be in workable range of both the current tile and destination.
At game start, you may only carry 2xpop resources (With 5 pop, you'll be able to carry 10 food). Resources left behind will quickly rot, rust, or otherwise become unusable.
If a certain action requires "Labor" that means you need to have one of your people spend a turn working on that action.
If an event moves the tribe (such as retreating from an attack, or fleeing god-created dangerous terrain), they will still take actions in squares that the new location could not ordinarily support, but resources will likely be lost in the confusion.
Civilizations as a whole have a stat called "Logistics". Depending on government, this will start at 4 or 5. Each turn you can reliably perform an amount of distinct actions equal to your logistics. For example, having 2 people forage at tile A counts as one action, but having one person forage at A and another forage at B counts as two actions. You can perform more actions than your logistics allow, but random things can potentially go wrong if you go over the limit.
Civilizations now have a stat called "Housing". Depending on the chosen government, this will start at 8 or 10. If a civilization has more population than housing, unhappiness can be generated. Unhappiness can cause bad things to happen, and if it gets too bad a large amount of the population might leave to form a new civilization!
Take note of the "Common Knowledge" spoiler on each update post. The techs in that spoiler are available to all civilizations!
Every turn, your civilization will consume 1 food for each person in it. If there is not enough food people will starve and die.
At any time you may spend N+1 food to create one new person for your civilization, where N is your current population. Newly created units cannot work on the turn they are made, and do not require food.
Available governments are Chiefdom and Elder Council.
Chiefdoms start with 1 Makeshift Stone Tool, and have a minor combat bonus, but only have 4 logistics and 8 housing.
Elder Councils have 5 logistics and 10 housing.
Initially you may only change governments by a major crises, such as losing at least 1/3 of your population in one turn.
To limit edit wars, if two civilizations have actions in conflict, the one with the oldest post or edit has a minor bonus.
Civilizations are encouraged to spoiler their actions and only read what their rivals are doing after posting their own turn.
To start playing, you merely need to announce that you exist as a god and provide a name for yourself. You will get 1 FP that you can immediately use.
All gods will gain 1 FP per turn, and additional FP for any mortals that pray to them. In the event that two gods attempt to affect a tile in the same turn, the god that posted first takes precedence. Deliberately editing a post to affect a tile after another player attempts to do something with the tile is cheating, and should be reported to the GM if you notice it happening. If another god beats you to the tile, your FP will not be lost.
You may collaborate with other gods to accomplish a single action. All gods involved in such an action need to reference the fact that it is a group action, including the names of each god they are working with.
FP may be used to do anything on the below list. Additional things will appear as the game progresses.
1 FP: Create a basic landscape tile to replace any empty tile. Things like Grasslands, Mountain, Ocean etc.
3 FP: Replace an existing landscape tile with a new basic landscape tile.
5 FP: Create an advanced landscape tile with unique or special features. Can be used to replace a basic landscape tile.
10 FP: Create an interactive landscape tile. This tile will do something when "Triggered". Any tile that affects things outside the tile must be at least this expensive. Modifying away from such a tile costs +2 FP.
15 FP: Create a superior tile. This is a true gem of a tile, pushing up against the limits of what can be done without absolutely drowning an area in divine energy. Modifying away from such a tile costs +3 FP.
30 FP: Create an Epic level tile. There are limits on how what most tiles can do, but an Epic tile can break some of these limits. The flood of carefully sculpted divine energy contained herein is likely to have unpredictable effects when broken, beware! Modifying away from such a tile costs +5 FP.
Note that the inherent protection from expensive tiles does not count as a discount for replacing it with another expensive tile. Eg, you can't spend 10FP to turn an epic tile into an interactive tile.
1+X FP: Create weather. X is the number of tiles covered. Weather is likely to have unpredictable target tiles, especially if a god is trying to spend 'exactly enough' to accomplish their ends.
Spend double this number for dangerous or magical weather.
X2 FP: An action may be a "Secret" action by sending a PM to the GM. Any secret actions will cost twice as much as a regular action. Secret actions cannot take priority over non-secret actions.
2X FP: A tile may be protected to prevent other gods from messing it up. If any god wants to change a protected tile they must first break the protection. Breaking the protection of a tile costs X. You can modify then protect a tile, or un-protect then modify a tile in the same turn. You can dispel your own protections for free, but you cannot modify a tile while it is still protected even if you protected it yourself.
The following will increase in cost as mortals gain more power:
10 FP: Create a minor game-changing effect, such as making the world one row bigger, or adding up to 4 techs known by at least 2/3 civilizations into the common knowledge pool.
20 FP: Create a moderate game-changing effect, such as making the world permanently more fertile, or adding up to 2 techs known by at least 1/3 civilizations into the common knowledge pool.
40 FP: Create an epic game-changing effect, such as adding a magical system usable by mortals (must be researched), or adding a single new tech to the common knowledge pool (pre-requisites may still need to be researched, but may be revealed and may have a bonus).
Your action posts must include your god/civilization name in them.
For civilizations, you must declare which tile you want to forage (Even if there is only one tile available). You must also reference a god by their proper name when praying.
All actions that affect a tile or involve a tile must include the tiles co-ordinates. No exceptions.