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Author Topic: Playground of the Gods / Auran God / Turn 3 Strategy  (Read 9498 times)

Twinwolf

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Re: Playground of the Gods / Auran God / Turn 0 Design
« Reply #30 on: January 29, 2022, 10:06:40 pm »


Island - The Land of Plenty


It's a beautifully written vision based on Eastern principles of karmic reincarnation, BUT it doesn't obviously translate into an expansionist theocratic empire led by a manifested god?  There's a reason that kind of ideology historically led to isolationist kingdoms in the Orient.    If your ruling class is spends every waking hour on trivial hobbies within the supposed perfection of their heavenly palace, how does AR-style world domination logically precipitate from that?  The Chinese Middle Kingdom was so fascinated with their own sophistication they went pseudo-John Galt until Western Imperialists showed up on their doorstep centuries later.

It's not impossible, but it could use some work.
Fair enough; I could add an aspect on how the "warrior-class" does a lot more actual governance, or see the creation of the island as a sort of divine-mandate to bring the local lands under the "proper" domain of heaven (as part of the price for their paradise) as the price for paradise. Will make an edit of it later to be more militaristic.
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Of course, Twin is neither man nor woman but an unholy eldritch abomination like every other Bay12er. The difference is they hide it better.
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Man of Paper

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Re: Playground of the Gods / Auran God / Turn 0 Design
« Reply #31 on: January 29, 2022, 10:34:13 pm »

As written I'm assuming Geomantic Adept is not Geomantic as in Geomancy itself but Geomantic as a reference to the carving of symbols and shit on the ground, but correct me if I'm wrong. Outright increasing magical capacity or power without so much as dabbling into the basics of using magic first is going to lean this into the Hard/Very Hard range. Keep in mind that your magical "tech level" is about equivalent to "bang together rocks".
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Twinwolf

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Re: Playground of the Gods / Auran God / Turn 0 Design
« Reply #32 on: January 29, 2022, 11:21:52 pm »

As written I'm assuming Geomantic Adept is not Geomantic as in Geomancy itself but Geomantic as a reference to the carving of symbols and shit on the ground, but correct me if I'm wrong. Outright increasing magical capacity or power without so much as dabbling into the basics of using magic first is going to lean this into the Hard/Very Hard range. Keep in mind that your magical "tech level" is about equivalent to "bang together rocks".
That's correct.

I was aiming for "alternate method with a tradeoff", but that's understandable. More actual magic before we do some better magic users.

That in mind:

Spell: Breath of Flame

"Breath of Flame" is a simple offensive spell - it allows the magic user to convert their internal magic into a flame and then breath it out on the enemy. While it has rather short range and duration, and must be used with care not to hit allies, the fire sticks around after the spell is ended and if used well can spread beyond the initial target.

Spell: Running with Wind

There's no reason magic needs only be used in the thick of combat. "Running with the Wind" is a buffing spell that improves the endurance of those effected. Using this spell, the overall speed of the army on the march improves as they can march for longer without getting tired, improving their ability to choose their battleground and in the opening phase of battle, allows our troops to reach advantageous positions.
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Of course, Twin is neither man nor woman but an unholy eldritch abomination like every other Bay12er. The difference is they hide it better.
Quote from: Caellath on IRC
<Caellath>: Twinwolf, your thirst for blood has been noted.

ConscriptFive

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Re: Playground of the Gods / Auran God / Turn 0 Design
« Reply #33 on: January 29, 2022, 11:49:53 pm »


Fair enough; I could add an aspect on how the "warrior-class" does a lot more actual governance, or see the creation of the island as a sort of divine-mandate to bring the local lands under the "proper" domain of heaven (as part of the price for their paradise) as the price for paradise. Will make an edit of it later to be more militaristic.

Yeah, that's one direction to go: aloof figureheads at the very top, with the court actually governing.  Literally a Prime Minister handling all the real governance while the Royal Family does stupid Royal Family things.  Re-skin it as Seneschals, Majordomos, Viziers, Viceroys, or whatever other cultural title appeals to you.

One side note, too.  Since this is a divine/magical themed game, the lore question that comes to mind is if Karmic Reincarnation is real?  Is there really a divine system shuffling ALL souls between hierarchical castes based on some meritocratic system?  Do the mortals actually misunderstand the system and it only applies to certain souls under certain circumstances?  Or is it just the Oriental version of the Divine Right of Kings: a "noble lie" justifying obedience to repressive societal hierarchy, averting the rise of class struggle?  Admittedly, it's completely unnecessary tangent to explain, but could be an interesting narrative hook to throw out there.

Anyhow, I think we have enough designs we can throw a votebox out there for the phase.  We still have the rest of the turn to nail down the theme, and there still writing going on there, so I'll leave that Avatar & Island off the vote for now.

Quote from: Design Votebox (pick two)
(1) Guide Spirit - Normal: ConscriptFive
(0) Bartholomew's Bees Fine Apiary Products - Normal:
(1) Society of Masons - Hard: ConscriptFive
(0) Archer's Quarrel - Very Hard+?:
(0) Geomantic Adept - Hard+?:

Two safe theme agnostic picks for me.  As much as I love Bartholomew's Bees, it's alittle too off-theme without the Vespoid King.  I could write it to be more theme agnostic, but I'd have to strip out and rewrite all the jokes in it, which I don't have enough time to do this weekend.  Some things are just too beautiful to live, eh?

Man of Paper

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Re: Playground of the Gods / Auran God / Turn 0 Design
« Reply #34 on: January 30, 2022, 12:23:13 pm »

Breath of Flame is a pretty Normal design all around,
Running with Wind is more Hard/Very Hard, being a spell meant to both be multitarget or AoE while also providing an effect sustained over an extended period.
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Twinwolf

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Re: Playground of the Gods / Auran God / Turn 0 Design
« Reply #35 on: January 30, 2022, 01:54:06 pm »

Quote from: Design Votebox (pick two)
(2) Guide Spirit - Normal: ConscriptFive, Twinwolf
(0) Bartholomew's Bees Fine Apiary Products - Normal:
(1) Society of Masons - Hard: ConscriptFive
(0) Archer's Quarrel - Very Hard+?:
(0) Geomantic Adept - Hard+?:
(1) Breath of Flame - Normal: Twinwolf
(0) Running with Wind - Hard+:
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Of course, Twin is neither man nor woman but an unholy eldritch abomination like every other Bay12er. The difference is they hide it better.
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<Caellath>: Twinwolf, your thirst for blood has been noted.

Taricus

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Re: Playground of the Gods / Auran God / Turn 0 Design
« Reply #36 on: January 30, 2022, 10:55:12 pm »

Quote from: Design Votebox (pick two)
(3) Guide Spirit - Normal: ConscriptFive, Twinwolf, Taricus
(0) Bartholomew's Bees Fine Apiary Products - Normal:
(2) Society of Masons - Hard: ConscriptFive, Taricus
(0) Archer's Quarrel - Very Hard+?:
(0) Geomantic Adept - Hard+?:
(1) Breath of Flame - Normal: Twinwolf
(0) Running with Wind - Hard+:
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Man of Paper

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Re: Playground of the Gods / Auran God / Turn 0 Design
« Reply #37 on: January 30, 2022, 10:58:46 pm »

Uh oh looks like people are making decisions. I want to roll for designs in the next day or two so get to debating and compromising and being salty because you disagree with someone, as is Arms Race tradition.
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Man of Paper

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Re: Playground of the Gods / Auran God / Turn 0 Design
« Reply #38 on: February 01, 2022, 07:30:02 am »

Got any more of them votes? Half the team hasn’t had their say yet, and voting is half the battle
« Last Edit: February 01, 2022, 08:14:40 am by Man of Paper »
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m1895

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Re: Playground of the Gods / Auran God / Turn 0 Design
« Reply #39 on: February 01, 2022, 01:21:58 pm »

Quote from: Design Votebox (pick two)
(3) Guide Spirit - Normal: ConscriptFive, Twinwolf, Taricus
(0) Bartholomew's Bees Fine Apiary Products - Normal:
(3) Society of Masons - Hard: ConscriptFive, Taricus, m1895
(0) Archer's Quarrel - Very Hard+?:
(0) Geomantic Adept - Hard+?:
(1) Breath of Flame - Normal: Twinwolf
(0) Running with Wind - Hard+:
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Man of Paper

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Playground of the Gods / Auran God / Turn 0 Revision
« Reply #40 on: February 02, 2022, 12:07:46 am »

Proposal: Guide Spirit
Difficulty: Normal
Result: 5+5=10, Superior

Guide Spirits are small conjured beings capable of crossing into the plane assigned to them at "birth". These magic-based beings can infiltrate the plane they are attuned to and are very adept at remaining unnoticed. As they travel about their plane they gather any intel they can on the factions and layout of the land. Once they feel satisfied, Guide Spirits return to the mortal plane where they find a mortal to imprint upon and "bless" them with their knowledge as an interplanar diplomat. The Guide Spirit shadows them their entire life, only ever visible to their chosen "diplomat", before moving on to a new mortal in a continuous cycle. Guide Spirits are active in any contacted magic Plane. While not very effective at gaining influence on their own, Guide Spirits are familiar enough with the traditions and cultures of the planar species (and how to best manipulate them) to make future influential endeavors more effective in their implementation.

Guide Spirits are Common, which allows them to be active in every contacted plane without issue.


Proposal: Society of Masons
Difficulty: Hard
Result: (1+1)(1+1)-1=1, Utter Failure (I reroll natural utter failures in prelims once out of fairness, but if fate demands something then who am I to deny it? Sorry fellers)

The Society of Masons is in theory a military corp of highly skilled architects and mechanical engineers. In practice it is a small circle of people with a lot of ambition and zero restraint attempting to out-build one another in a competition where the winner gets an even bigger ego. Structures designed by the Society of Masons are phenomenal wonders of stone and alchemical adhesive that are extremely appealing and sometimes even functional. The largest issue is that the adhesive, which gives Masonic architecture its trademark seamless appearance, requires constant reapplication or it wears away and the entire structure weakens and crumbles.

Since the Society of Masons is Unique, there are only enough of them to maintain some structures on one combat front at a time as chosen by your team in the Strategy Phase

----------------

It is now the Revision Phase.

You are to select two proposals that alter, upgrade, downgrade, manipulate, or utilize your current equipment in some way, shape or form. As with the Design Phase, I will be assessing the Revisions proposed this turn.

Spoiler: Equipment (click to show/hide)
Spoiler: The Map and Key (click to show/hide)
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Powder Miner

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Re: Playground of the Gods / Auran God / Turn 0 Design
« Reply #41 on: February 02, 2022, 01:31:11 am »

Class today gave me some inspirations for society with themes of lavish wealth (specifically taking some notes from postrevolutionary Algerian factional oligarchy), although I would have to catch up on the whole thread, which'll probably have to wait a day or two.
« Last Edit: February 02, 2022, 01:59:19 am by Powder Miner »
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Taricus

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Re: Playground of the Gods / Auran God / Turn 0 Design
« Reply #42 on: February 02, 2022, 01:40:24 am »

Well, we're gonna need to revise the masons at the very least. Two points of failure we can patch up there are the structure of the society, and the adhesive they use for stonework. We fix those and we go a long way to making it usable.
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ConscriptFive

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Re: Playground of the Gods / Auran God / Turn 0 Revision
« Reply #43 on: February 02, 2022, 11:18:50 am »

Revision: Erika Erikson's Esoteric Epoxy

Quote
"Is a sunset not more beautiful because it is fleeting?  Is the fruit not sweetest before it spoils?  Is the maiden not destined to become the hag?  For all that is truly beautiful is ephemeral."

Such poetic axioms are what Master Masons cite when asked about the impermanence of their works.  Like all things in life, on a long enough timeline, alchemical adhesive fails.  Except that timeline is impractically short for practical applications.  Of course, the Society of Masons will gladly reapply alchemical adhesive per client request.  ...but not for free of course.  Still gotta invoice for billable hours, right?

Erika Erikson, the daughter of a 30th Degree Mason, managed to get into her father's supply of adhesive and tinker with it abit.  Hoping to be the first woman to join the fraternal society, her so-called "Esoteric Epoxy" claims to be more durable than the traditional alchemical adhesive.  Parties outside the Society have expressed an interest in her formula, and it prove wise for the Society to take her in before a rival does.
« Last Edit: February 02, 2022, 08:32:53 pm by ConscriptFive »
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Man of Paper

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Re: Playground of the Gods / Auran God / Turn 0 Revision
« Reply #44 on: February 02, 2022, 07:45:02 pm »

Erika' Erikson's Esoteric Epoxy is a Normal thing. The Aurans are still new to the whole magic thing, including alchemy, which is the only reason why this isn't much easier.
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