Age of Ideas: Hello WorldA GREAT conflict was about to come off between the Birds and the Beasts. When the two armies were collected together the Bat hesitated which to join. The Birds that passed his perch said: "Come with us"; but he said: "I am a Beast." Later on, some Beasts who were passing underneath him looked up and said: "Come with us"; but he said: "I am a Bird." Luckily at the last moment peace was made, and no battle took place, so the Bat came to the Birds and wished to join in the rejoicings, but they all turned against him and he had to fly away. He then went to the Beasts, but had soon to beat a retreat, or else they would have torn him to pieces. "Ah," said the Bat, "I see now
He that is neither one thing nor the other has no friends."Aesop, "The Bat, the Birds, and the Beasts"
Identity has initiated a grand Project aimed at creating an entire realm where things beyond Ideas can exist. Participate by pledging Ideas to this Project and describing the effects/results and optionally vote for a World-Architect to limit the craziness of your fellow Idea.
(GLOBAL) WORLD. Creates a world. Action cost is halved if participants successfully elect an architect with support from at least 50% of all participants. Any participant may add any Idea-feature to the world unless vetoed by the architect (if there is one). (Accepts most any Idea unless vetoed by the architect, 15A)
Fate has uncovered another great Project with lighter participation requirements. Join the Temporal Compact as a free action to share in the blessing of coherence or flee outside of Fate's Orbit to avoid the curse of linear time.
(GLOBAL) BEGIN. Enforces chronology, speeding up Crystallization for everyone with an Orbit lower than Fate's. Action cost decreases as more Greater Ideas enter the Temporal Compact. (Accepts two of Continuity or Direction or Order, 9A)
Luck and Idol have what appear to be Leads for great Projects. Perhaps co-ruminating on them with spare actions would be helpful for uncovering them.
With the proliferation of sapient Ideas, something related to Naming is bound to turn up sooner or later. It may be a good idea for the discerning Idea to stockpile sapient Ideas...
With the threat of
Scarcity rendered scarce by the combined efforts of
Luck,
Fate, and
Chaos,
Luck halted
Luck alteration and focused on reabsorbing the fragment of
Luck released from
Scarcity's dissolution.
Luck also took Scarcity itself and synthesized it with Quantity to obtain Numbers.
Luck requests that Growth and Continuity be co-architects on the WORLD. Project rather than
Fate, but without their participation in the building process, it's uncertain whether this will happen.
Contradiction took in Bifurcation and ruminated on the Principle of Explosion. Contrary to its rather unexciting
conventional definition, it will likely provide a crude means of harnessing the mnemonic energy released when an unstable Idea decays and a Lead aimed at improving this process. (By process of elimination, the less thrilling principle of explosion is almost surely represented by the Lead about improved Synthesis actions.)
Silence reabsorbed
Silence and accreted Emptiness and Release into
Silence. It would appear this Greater Idea is the strong, silent type.
Fate captured Consistency and the wayward copy of
Fate (which
Fate immediately tasked with participation in the WORLD. Project (18A->17A)). Naturally,
Fate nominated
Fate for the position of World-Architect, but this vote is apparently purchasable for the negligible cost of joining the Temporal Compact.
Sound joined the Temporal Compact (12A->9A) and brought it a few steps closer to completion. Coincidentally, the barely formed world seems to be in less danger of accidental deletion/disaster.
Sound additionally absorbed Alignment and Glory and dithered the Idea of Rock into existence to
Idol's undoubted chagrin.
Chaos absorbed the Ideas of Ending and Alignment and invested Unique in the WORLD (17A->16A), but Alignment slipped into Sound's grasp.
Chaos has yet to specify what Unique means for the nascent world, and
Chaos' vote for
Chaos as World-Architect has been autocorrupted to a vote for Unique as World-Architect.
Idol absorbed Center and Glory and contributed Belief to the WORLD. (16A->15A) only to find that
Sound had snatched Glory and worse, Rock. As with
Chaos,
Idol may still specify what Belief means for the world. Regarding the World Architect position,
Idol nominated
Idol/Identity, but as neither are invested in the Project, this has been autocorrupted to a vote for Belief.
Chaos and
Idol are about halfway to gaining a point of Crystallization.
WORLD.Architect: None
- 1 vote for Belief: Belief
- 1 vote for Fate: Fate
- 1 vote for Unique: Unique
Metrics of unknown meaning:
- Total Ideas: 4
- Total Greater Idea-contributed Ideas: 3
- Anger: Unknown
- Balance: OK?
- Division: Unknown
- Multiplication: Unknown
- Stability: Very low
Ideas invested:
- Belief (sapient!, contributed by Idol): Please provide description
- Duty (contributed freely): (Lesser Ideas are not memorable enough to contribute detailed descriptions)
- Fate (sapient!, contributed by Fate): Almost all major events (i.e. those involving more than 16 people) of the world are fated to occur in a certain manner, time and place, building upon each other to form the unstoppable trend of history. However, many minor details have a broad range of variance and probability, from whether this person decides to eat toast or cereal for breakfast, or that wears a pink shirt or a white shirt. But they will inevitable find, through coincidence and contrivance that history and the timeline maintains certain shape, no matter how they try to break it, assuming they manage to gain time travel powers or future vision or something.
- Unique (weak, sapient!, contributed by Chaos): Please provide description
Silence ominously eclipsed
Fate and
Sound as part of the already-described alignment of
Chaos,
Silence, and
Fate, and the
Chaos-
Luck-
Contradiction alignment persists, but there are new near-conjunctions involving
Luck,
Contradiction,
Fate, and
Sound.
Luck is the least affected of the group with only a conjunction of
Fate and
Sound (and no prophecies to speak of), but
Contradiction and
Sound are in relatively close opposition with respect to
Fate. This alignment is still not expected to do too much, but maybe it would be lucky for
Contradiction to speak more loudly than usual. Not being part of any formations or alignments,
Idol remains lonely, but this will probably change soon.
From the WORLD site,
Fate and
Chaos are in opposition, and this is likely to be good for balance but not for the agendas of either Greater Idea. Hard work on the WORLD will likely be fiercer for these two. There is (and was) a near-conjunction of
Silence,
Fate, and
Sound which, overall, is expected to tip the scales in favor of
Fate slightly.
The Idea of Duty spontaneously left to become one with the WORLD. Project as was its Duty, and so did a number of other less significant Ideas. It's likely that the number of Lesser Ideas doing this will increase. Incidentally, the Idea of Gluttony has merged with the Idea of Labor for no particularly good reason.
- Desistence (:2)
- Gluttony (:2)
- Conformity (:1)
Identity (:1, sapient!)- Compliance (:3)
- Conflict (:4, sentient)
- Energy (:5, strong, sentient)
- Pattern (:2, weak)
- Shape (:3)
- Subversion (:3)
- Wonder (:5, strong, sentient)
It is currently the Age of Ideas. Speech has been discovered but not Naming. Three actions are available for each Greater Idea.
Unnameable One (Glass)
- Orbit: 0
- Ideas: Luck (weak, sapient!), Growth (strong, sentient), Numbers (strong, sapient!), Manipulation, Luck (weak, sapient!)
- Crystallization: 1
- Leads:
- Luck alteration (2/2A)
- Improved Luck alteration (0/
32A) - Something big involving Growth, Quantity, and Desire (0/6A)
- Better Scramble outcomes (0/3A)
- Projects:
- (TURN-TO-TURN) Internal Luck alteration: Minuscule improvement to all personal rolls (Accepts Luck, 1A/turn)
- (TURN-TO-TURN, ACTIVE) External Luck alteration: Minuscule change to all of another Greater Idea's rolls (Accepts Luck, 2A/turn)
Unnameable One (Nakéen)
- Orbit: 2
- Ideas: Contradiction (sapient!), Tradition, Correspondence (sentient), Bifurcation
- Crystallization: 0
- Leads:
- Unstable Ideas (2/2A)
- Piratical project (2/2A)
- Improved synthesis (0/3A)
- Principle of Explosion (2/4A)
- Proof by Contradiction (0/3A)
- Poof by Contradiction aka Improved refute (3/3A)
- Projects:
- (GLOBAL UNLOCK) Improved Copy action: Regardless of how many Greater Ideas target an Idea with the Copy action at once, the targeted Idea is only weakened once. (Requires 3A, accepts Quantity or (Unique and Contradiction))
Unnameable One (Stirk)
- Orbit: 3
- Ideas: Persistence (sapient!)
Unnameable One (micelus)
- Orbit: 4
- Ideas: Silence (strong, sapient!), Rejection (strong), Silence (weak, sapient!)
- Crystallization: 0
- Leads:
- Improved denial (3/3A)
- Rhetorical training (0/3A)
- Projects:
- (TURN-TO-TURN) Silence Lesser Idea aka Improved Refute (Accepts Silence or Rejection, 1A)
Unnameable One (Demonic Spoon)
- Orbit: 8
- Ideas: Fate (sapient!), Continuity, Direction, Order, Boundary (sentient), Consistency (weak, sapient!), Fate (sapient!, busy in WORLD.)
- Crystallization: 0
- Leads:
- Interesting big thing of some sort: Time (6/6A)
- Projects:
- (GLOBAL) BEGIN. Enforces chronology, speeding up Crystallization for everyone with an Orbit lower than Fate's. Action cost decreases as more Greater Ideas enter the Temporal Compact. (Accepts two of Continuity or Direction or Order, 9A)
Unnameable One (Naturegirl1999)
- Orbit: 9
- Ideas: Sound (sapient!), Alignment (sentient), Glory (sentient), Rock (sapient!)
- Crystallization: 0
- Effects:
Unnameable One (crazyabe)
- Orbit: a
- Ideas: Chaos (sapient!), Exchange, Complexity (sapient!), Confusion (sentient, weak), Inversion (strong), Unique (weak, sapient!, busy in WORLD.), Incomprehensibility (sapient!), Ending
- Crystallization: 0
- Leads:
- "Trade" action (2/2A)
- Scramble Project (3/3A)
- Improved Teach action (2/2A)
- Stronger Scramble (0/3A)
- Frequent Scramble (0/3A)
- Projects:
- (TURN-TO-TURN) Scramble: All actions can go horribly right...or horribly wrong, of course. (Accepts Chaos or Confusion or Inversion, 1A/turn)
Unnameable One (TricMagic)
- Orbit: c
- Ideas: Idol (sapient!), Image (sapient!), Desire, Belief (sapient!, busy in WORLD), Harvest, Merriment (sentient), Addiction (sentient), Center
- Crystallization: 4
- Leads:
- Something big and interesting (requires Boundary?, Direction, ? ? ?) (0/6A)
- Something big involving Growth, Quantity, and Desire (0/6A)
- Faster Ascension (0/2A)
Greater Ideas can perform
twothree actions every turn despite the lack of coherent time:
- Absorb: Absorb an Idea from the ambient Ideosphere. Where two Greater Ideas compete for the same Idea, the targeted Idea is given to low-Crystallization and low-Orbit Ideas in equal measure (with Orbit taking precedence in ties). Opposition by other means (such as Refute actions) result in opposed rolls also with Orbit and Crystallization modifiers.
- Accrete: Strengthen an owned Idea by sacrificing another one. May fail and annihilate both Ideas if the sacrifice is too close to an inverse of the target Idea.
- Agree: Create a related target-owned Idea of your choice and an owned Idea of the target's choice. Both sides must have a sapient Idea, and both sides must sacrifice an Idea. This action must be accompanied by at least one line of dialog from both sides.
- Argue: Attempt to remove an Idea owned by another Greater Idea. Requires an owned sapient Idea and must be accompanied by at least one line of dialog. Modifiers: -Rebuttal from target, -High target Crystallization
- Ascend: Decrease Orbit by 1. Fails if a Greater Idea occupies the resulting Orbit. Can be stacked to move across multiple Orbits.
- Compare: Select two owned Ideas to generate a related but random new Idea.
- Copy: Attempt to weaken a target-owned Idea and create a weakened owned copy. Cannot be stacked by the same Greater Idea. Modifiers: +Higher Orbit.
- Co-Ruminate: Contribute to investigating a Lead.
- Create/Destroy/Modify: Create, destroy, or modify something. Nothing interesting happens, strangely enough...
- Descend: Increase Orbit by 1. Fails if a Greater Idea occupies the resulting Orbit.
- Disavow: Disown an owned Idea.
- Dither: Create an entirely new owned Idea.
- Extrapolate: Attempt to generate a new Idea from an existing owned one of your choice (within reason). Modifiers: +Lower Crystallization.
- Fade: Default action. Greater Ideas fade to irrelevance over 3 turns, after which another Greater Idea may arise in their Orbit.
- Forget: Attempt to decrease Crystallization by sacrificing an Idea. The older the Idea or the closer to the Core Idea, the greater the resulting decrease. Recently acquired Ideas are unlikely to reduce Crystallization by more than 1-2.
- Practice: Use an Idea to run a Project. This renders the Idea unavailable for as long as it remains bound to the Project but still vulnerable to hostile action. An Idea can be loaned to anyone else's Project, but only the owner(s) of a Project can control the results. Actions are not needed to maintain a Project unless the Project inputs include actions. The Practice action is only needed to add an Idea to a Project.
- Refute: Attempt to destroy an unowned Idea. Can only be attempted by a given Greater Idea against a given Idea once a turn. Modifiers: +Similar owned Idea, +High Orbit
- Resolve: Increment Crystallization.
- Retract: Attempt to invert an owned Idea. Modifiers: +Lower Crystallization, -High similarity to core Idea (if not core Idea).
- Ruminate: Work on turning a Lead into a Project. Most Leads take 1-4 actions to complete.
- Synthesize: Sacrifice opposing owned Ideas to generate a stronger Idea not opposed to either. Result can be specified within reason.
- Teach: Weaken an owned Idea and create a target-owned also weakened copy. Modifiers: +Lower target Crystallization, -Higher Orbit
- Trade: Offer an Idea to a Greater Idea using the Trade action to offer an Idea.
A number of actions are unknown as of now.
Notes on action resolution:
- Actions with modifiers or described as attempts are random, i.e. rolled with a 3d6.
- Action randomness propagates to all actions involving the same target(s).
- Orbit modifiers work out to half the difference in Orbits rounded down.
Exchanging Leads/Projects
Informal arguments that don't put Ideas at stake
Joining the Temporal Compact
Swapping Orbits with a willing Greater Idea in a neighboring Orbit
Talking (if sapient)
The next update is scheduled for 72h (3d) from now or after everyone posts whichever comes first.
Author
Topic: Age of Ideas IC: Hello World (7/16) (Read 4820 times)