I've decided to try and run a game which has been lurking in the back of my mind for a while now. This game, which I am calling Mankind, is a sandbox type role-playing game where you take on the personae of five new gods leading primitive tribes of humans. 'Leading' might be the wrong word here though, because these tribes also sustain you. Lose your followers and you wither away.
Before I get into the rules and how this game will play out, I’d like everyone who comes here to please pay attention to the following:
*If you are not serious, and are only here ‘for the luls’ please don’t apply.
*If you cannot, at the very least, use proper capitalization and punctuation, or at least make a real effort to do so, please do not apply. (I know many of our members are not native English speakers. If you want to play and you make an honest effort, I’m fine with that. I just don’t want to see LoL I CaSt FiReBalLL!?) This is because posts with good grammar, spelling, and punctuation are infinitely more legible and convey your message and intent more clearly.That said, Welcome to Mankind.
The BasicsIn this game, five players will become the gods of five different tribes of humans. You will not have to worry about the rules or math, I will worry about that. I have a fairly easy and fair system behind the scenes for conflict resolution which scales from 1 on 1 battles to epic confrontations of hundreds of thousands of armed units. I have a good system worked out for divine miracles and powers as well.
So if I’m doing all that, what will you be doing? Essentially, you will role-play. You will describe each action you attempt, and I will give you the results. None of you start with any knowledge of how to be a god, because all five of you were created simultaneously from the combined belief of your individual tribes. You are born into the world with no experience and no direction. Your tribe’s dominant beliefs will determine what type of god you are, and I will tell you that once we start. You will be free, within reason, to detail what sort of religious rituals, superstitions, and festivals your people have if you want to, and you will be able to set out a list of commandments your people must follow.
You will also, as the god of your tribe, direct your people in their seasonal activities. Each turn equates to one season, with four turns passing one in-game year.
For now, all I need is for you to indicate that you want to play. If you want to determine your god’s personality and religion beforehand, you may but your domains are semi-randomly assigned so you may end up being an evil tyrannical god of goats and plants or something equally odd.
Play will take place on a specially drawn super-duper hex map with most resources represented by tokens. I’ll explain more as we go, mostly because I want to see if there is any interest.
Each god will have three key facts which define him or her as a deity. You will have an inclination towards a certain type of Miracle, and you will have a primary and secondary domain. Your inclination and domains together determine the cost of miracles which you attempt. What domains you start with are determined by your people’s dominant beliefs, but you will be able to pick your inclination once we start.
The last thing you will be able to choose is the general type of tribe which created you. You may choose between Physical, Intellectual, Spiritual, or Balanced. This choice has no disadvantages at all; it merely sets what percentage of your tribe’s populace has an exceptional attribute. I’m not going into more detail because it’s not necessary; I will handle that in the background. If you’re unsure, choose balanced and you will have a bit of everything. If you wish something more specific, describe it to me in as much detail as possible and I will set the choice based on what I think is appropriate.
Your tribe is represented by Tokens. One Token represents roughly 100 active, productive people. While your tribe may number more than 100 people, those extra people are the children, the sick, or the elderly and do not contribute to the workforce. A Token can be Black, White, or Red.
A Black Token represents established, productive people. These families have well-made dwellings and a steady food supply. They do not have to struggle daily for survival, finding food and building shelters, and have free time to take part in the seasonal activities which you direct. You begin play with a single Black Token.
A White Token represents a population struggling to survive. They must spend all of their free time establishing shelter, gathering or hunting for food, finding water, etc. They have no time to devote to most seasonal activities.
A Red Token represents a military presence. One Red Token represents roughly 50 soldiers and other assorted support personnel and supplies. Red Tokens are autonomous military units which can project your tribe's might across the map.
The Gods:
Primary Domain is: Wealth
Secondary Domain is: Intrigue
You are known as the God of the Golden Scales.
Name: Noner
Inclination:Control
Physical Manifistation: Unchosen, Noner will chose when he goes down to earth for the first time, in heaven he is just a amorphous shiny blob.
Commandments:
Never get caught.
Never be wasteful.
Never bow to one from another tribe
Follow the letter of the law if you must, but never the spirit.
Your Primary: Light
Your Secondary: Zeal
Your Title: The Magnificent
Physical Manifestation: A pure white light in the vague form of a man, speaks in a deep, echoing voice. Too bright to look at directly.
Commandments: Man shall not worship the darkness. A Man shall not kill another man in My presence without My blessing. No man shall be killed for an unworthy cause. No man may allow himself to die for an unworthy cause. Two men who both worship Me shall not war against one another.
Inclination: Transformation.
Primary: Healing
Secondary: Dreams
Title: The Most Wise
Physical Manifestation: An old man with a long flowing beard. Wears grey robes and a hat(one of those round pointed hats, I can't remember the name of them at the moment.). He is thin and seems frail and carrys a walking stick to help hold up his own weight.
Commandments.
1.If it be in your power let not any life around thee fail.
2.Listen to the wisdom of thy elders, and listen to the wisdom of the young.
3.War is a horrid thing but one should be ready if others choose to attack.
4.Share thy dreams for many hold hidden meaning.
Inclination: Transformation
Primary: Darkness
Secondary: Lightning
Title: The Wrathful God
My physical manifestation... Hmm. I shall take the form of a large, muscular human clad in a full suit of steel plate armor with a steel great sword. Let those who worship me know that their god is no push-over.
Commandments!
There is no more sacred time than that of a thunderstorm.
Do not slay another who worships me during a thunderstorm.
Let thy conflict between each other be settled not with swords, but with bare hands.
When settling a conflict by a trial of arms, the victor must surrender judgment over the loser to me. His fate is mine alone to choose.
When facing The Enemies on the battlefield, know that I will be with you.
The Enemies refers to, of course, any hostile gods along with their respective tribes.
And for my inclination, I will choose control.
Primary: Civilization
Secondary: Construction
Title: The Architect
Physical Manifestation: A short man with a large, orange beard stretching down to his knees. He wears a hard hat, along with a ruffled t-shirt which a pair of slacks. He also wears a belt in which he carries a rolled up blueprint and a hammer.
Commandments:
1. War should only be used as a last resort.
2. Nature structures should not be torn down, but instead should be moddified to fit my vision.
3. The men that stand behind me shall never tear down a building they or another member under me owns.
Inclination: Creation
Known Technologies: Fishing
Waiting List: NewsMuffin, Scood, Criptfeind, dragnar, Demantiae, ragnarok97071
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