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[FallacyofUrist]

The red-colored Entity was displeased. It took only moments to make their decision. They would simply have to teach the blue Entity the error of their ways, in the only way they could understand.

They called up their advisors, fragments of self that nonetheless possessed individual names, personalities, identities.

They began their creation. Though they had power to destroy or shape a thousand worlds, it would be wrong to use that to directly strike the other Entity. There was no need to escalate things beyond the total conquest of this battlefield.


Core Thread.

Spoiler: Current Designs (click to show/hide)

A humanoid construct made of fragile metacrystal. Colored according to the color of the faction it belongs to. Moves at a slow walk, but exists in great numbers. Simple intelligence, may follow simple directions and move in simple formations. Wields a metacrystal spear that does minor damage. Full Usage.

A humanoid construct made of fragile metacrystal, plated with plates of thin durable metacrystal. Colored according to the color of the faction it belongs to. Moves at a brisk walk, and may sprint for short durations. Complex intelligence, may follow complex directions, but cannot move in formation due to lack of coordination. Wields a metacrystal sword that does moderate damage and may parry melee attacks. Partial Usage.

A humanoid construct made of durable metacrystal. Colored according to the color of the faction it belongs to. Moves at a brisk walk, and may communicate at short to moderate distances. Complex intelligence, may direct other constructs and share information. Emits short-ranged energy beams that deal severe damage, and may be aimed precisely, but fire slowly. Low Usage.

A tall ring of metacrystal, energy humming within. Colored a deeper version of the color of the faction it belongs to. Immobile, unintelligent, but may be controlled by other constructs. Slowly fabricates other constructs according to the controller. Can only assemble another Gate in segments which have to be painstakingly assembled. Disassembly is impossible without breaking it. Low Usage.

It is the first Shift Phase. What would you like to change about the game? I'll recommend that you use a vote box to keep track of the votes.

[Rockeater]

PTW

[NUKE9.13]

Shift: Shifting Battlefield
At the end of each Battle Phase, the terrain of the entire battlefield changes randomly.
Eg, changing from flat granite to dense woodland one turn, then changing to scattered islands the next, and so on.

[Man of Paper]

Shift: Disintegrating Battlefield for Discerning Badasses

At the end of each Battle Phase, the terrain of the entire battlefield changes randomly.
Eg, changing from flat granite to dense woodland one turn, then changing to scattered islands the next, and so on.

However, as each battle progresses, the battlefield falls apart and fades back into the featureless grey expanse. This comes about both through a natural slow erosion as the rules maintaining the battlefield fade as well as erosion and destruction caused by marauding armies. This inevitably results in a final clash between opposing forces in the aetheric fading and destroyed environments blended with the default state of the universe.

———

I take your idea and add to it.

[NUKE9.13]

Shift: Disintegrating Battlefield for Discerning Badasses

Okay, so. This is a more interesting concept. But, I would argue it is a less appealing Shift. I have two main problems with it:
1: As the battle progresses, the battlefield gets less interesting. That seems undesirable.
2: Mechanically, how would this work? For both players and GM. For players, what design changes would be made? Other than "if we turtle long enough we can always fight in the same environment", which again, not very interesting. For the GM, more importantly, they have to now consider the duration of a battle and constantly adjust how strong each side is in the terrain present. How granular are they supposed to get with that? This would make writing BRs considerably more taxing, for a result that is at best not a lot more interesting, and at worst less interesting.

[Man of Paper]

I don't expect the battlefield rules to go unmodified for more than a turn, so having a neat concept play out once or twice doesn't seem like that big of a deal. If both sides get to change the rules once a turn, we're going to roll through options pretty quickly if both sides shift everything but the map. And if it doesn't work?

If you don't like how something works, go ahead and Shift it.

The first point is entirely reliant on the writer anyways. The battlefield might become plain, but that isn't the battle.
The second point isn't our concern as stated in the OP. I think Fal has made it pretty clear that anything we toss into the blender will be(rightfully) picked over with a comb.

Yeah, I get that those are concerns. Entirely valid. But I do they look more like concerns from a gm's own experience and player blurring the lines they should be thinking along a little bit. Fal might not see things through often (not like many of us do), but I do at least think what they have done shows an ability to keep things interesting. There was the one discord-run one back in the old days that had some halfcocked movement mechanic for the bases, but it was still interesting.


tl;dr I think you're putting too much stock in the longevity and reach of Shifts, and my opinion is we should focus more on the temporary, short term fun stuff. We're not setting rules in stone, so we aren't defining the entire game. We should take this opportunity to fiddle with an arms race like this, I think, since it's not like we get this ruleset often (or Arms Races often, either).

[Kashyyk]

Shifting Battle Royale
At the end of each Battle Phase, the terrain of the entire battlefield changes randomly.
Eg, changing from flat granite to dense woodland one turn, then changing to scattered islands the next, and so on.

However, as each battle progresses, the battlefield falls apart, with these s falling into the endless void. This comes about as a slow erosion along the battlefield edges, plus any terrain damage caused by combatants.


Hits MoP's vibe whilst addressing Nuke's concerns I think.

[Man of Paper]

What if we XBox 180

Shift: Natural Feature Creep

At the end of each Battle Phase, the terrain of the entire battlefield changes randomly (Eg, changing from flat granite to dense woodland one turn, then changing to scattered islands the next, and so on). However, each battlefield starts off as a very small individual feature that makes up the terrain. As the battles progress, the field around them expands and transforms to "reveal" more of the landscape while the number of forces on the field naturally grows to match (obviously the same ratios are maintained).

[Crystalizedmire]

Fallacy: If we use a shift to cause the battle terrain to change randomly, but we haven't created any terrains, what would happen?

[FallacyofUrist]

I'd fill in the blanks by defining a short list of generic, bland-ish, terrains. Examples would be 'Forest', 'Desert', 'Plains', 'Wetlands'.

A later Shift could redefine those terrains, of course, or you could try to do it all at once, at higher risk of running into the 'scope' and 'complexity' limits.

[Crystalizedmire]

Shift: Shifting Battlefield
At the end of each Battle Phase, the terrain of the entire battlefield changes randomly.
Eg, changing from flat granite to dense woodland one turn, then changing to scattered islands the next, and so on.

+1

[SamSpeeds]

Shift: Shifting Battlefield
At the end of each Battle Phase, the terrain of the entire battlefield changes randomly.
Eg, changing from flat granite to dense woodland one turn, then changing to scattered islands the next, and so on.

+1

Shifting Battlefield: Crystalizedmire, SamSpeeds

[NUKE9.13]

Shifting Battlefield: (3) Crystalizedmire, SamSpeeds, NUKE9.13

I stand by my original proposal.


E: Thinking forward to other potential Shifts we could employ.
-Tech/Theme Shifts, such as "Gunpowder weapons exist now", or "Rune magic exists now". There are a lot of options in this category, and I would like to do one next turn (if Blue doesn't already do one this turn), though I have no real preference for what.
-Non-Combat Shifts, such as "Revision phase exists now", or "Designs cost [N] Dice to perform. You get [N+X] Dice per turn. You can spend extra dice on a design to make it easier, or save up to perform two designs in one turn"
-Combat Shifts, such as "There is now an aerial theatre that can be contested", or "Players are required to describe the tactics their forces employ"
-Les Buggereurs Risible Shifts, such as "All design proposals must be in haiku format", or "Several players from each team are put into a secret third team whose goals are determined by the GM"

[Crystalizedmire]

Is mostly everyone happy with the shift?

[Kashyyk]

Shifting Battlefield: (4) Crystalizedmire, SamSpeeds, NUKE9.13, Kashyyk

Sure. It's less likely to be an overreach than my version.