So what he means is that you can take actions using FP now that earn you FP back. In my opinion so long as the amount of FP you get stays lower than the cost this should work but if it goes over you could get a runaway positive feedback loop. Which is not good and leads to imbalance, thankfully you as the gm can just reduce the amount of FP they get as this goes on, until they earn 0 FP for most things.
Well, if gods get less FP back than they put into something, one might wonder why they would bother.
I came up with the idea of aspects because I wanted a way for gods to get some FP without having to rely on worshipping so much. In a "normal" Gridhood, if the civs aren't worshipping much, then the gods will often spend turn after turn doing nothing. In a way, the civs have the gods by the balls in "normal" Gridhood. If the civs don't like you, you're screwed; you'll most likely have a pretty boring game.
It occurred to me that a feedback loop might happen, too. I thought that, at some point, there might be so much FP and stuff around that the game becomes unplayable. Or all the civs get destroyed, or something like that. This game is experimental. It could be that this aspect thing results in a broken game. If so, my apologies. Hopefully everyone has fun anyway, if that turns out to be true.
To pick on Mabel, take that Demihuman forest. All the modifier does is make demihumans, and all they really do, mechanics-wise, is give Mabel more FP.
What Mabel has done is what I expected gods to do in this game; that is, manipulate the game into triggering their aspect so they get more FP. To be fair, I don't think it was only about triggering her aspect; we have 2 civs who want to be cat-like, and Mabel was trying to help them out with that, I think.
As for Blarg's Zebras: I think Blarg's player was just being whimsical. I don't know if he expected to get FP back doing what he did. I thought it would be funny if the Zebras starting worshipping him after all that, so I made that happen. He has spent a lot of FP on the Zebras, the tile, and the protection, much more than he has gotten back, so I'm not sure if there is anything unbalanced going on there.
Giving a worker a "magical" ability isn't exactly the same as making the worker magical. I was considering "magical ability" to be fluff text. I didn't even realize that he was trying to buff the worker while also making the worker trigger his aspect. Though, I suppose I should have realized that.
This makes no sense to me. How in the world does Greenthumb even work if not by magic? I mean there should be a difference between having a magical ability and being inherently magical, because being inherently magical buffs all magic. A magical ability should basically be like being able to cast ONE spell innately with no reagent cost but no others. I was expecting to get FP from the worker using that magical ability (essentially 'casting that spell') which would then be subject to diminishing returns but ultimately pay for itself at the very least.
I'm seriously not getting how this was misinterpreted so drastically. And about research:
On turn 7 in the Dipnoi Republic
2 Workers research Blowdarts at I6. Blarg is amused, and gains 1 FP!
I think this is where the confusion about research comes from. Looking again I guess this is from research being done in the swamp rather than researching blowdarts. In that case I'd like to question why I never got any FP for activity done in K1 despite it being a magical forest.
Is the Xekarni's worker who was zapped by Malvol into a spear warrior also magical? Is The People's Champion magical? Are their abilities magical? Maybe the process that made them that way was magical, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they and their abilities are magical. I could see how the Greenthumb's ability could simply be knowledge that was imparted "magically" but now neither the ability nor the worker are magical. Maybe that doesn't really make sense, but we're talking about a fantasy world, and not much does.
Look at it this way: I have been charging extra FP when gods add properties to workers or whatever that trigger their aspect. When Mabel made a tile that makes workers both magical and demihuman, she had to pay extra to have the "demihuman" part mean something. It could have been just flavor text that didn't trigger her aspect, and it would have been cheaper. If, for example, Nagas wanted to make an artifact that makes someone stronger, he couldn't call it "snake strength" or something and expect it to trigger his aspect. Not without paying extra for the "snake" part, anyway.
The research example you gave was for an action taking place in a swamp. Dipnoi Republic was blatantly gaming the system by putting the swamp tile coords in the research action when you don't have to. I thought that was kind of funny, so I gave Blarg 1 FP. It was just that one time. I rewarded system gaming, my apologies. And I should have given Izzith FP when actions took place on the magical tile.
For some reason, I haven't been having research trigger aspects. I suppose there's not a good reason for that. It will mean another aspect of the game that I have to keep a sharp eye on, but that's fine. So let's say, from now on, that completed researches might trigger aspects. And I'll give Izzith 10 more FP for past magical researches.