The Pantheon Game

[Kappa]

Okay, so there's this game in the Pantheon universe and some of us seem to want to legit invent it.

Current topics of interest:

- What do we call the darn thing?

- Does anybody know where to round up all the in-character references to it/does Aestrix have any notes she'd like to share?

- Who else has bright ideas and what are they?

[Bluelantern]

I like "Pantheon" but it is not necessarily accurate.

I think we should cannibalize as many ideas from Risk as we can.

Are developing this to play online somehow?

3D&D had "domains" for Gods, we can use some for inspiration.

edit: I think this is the first mention of the game http://alicornutopia.dreamwidth.org/591 ... cmt2395418 Idania uses the term "Arabek board", but it might be the term for the board not the game itself.

edit:

Idania grins, and then gets to explaining the rules. The game is based around each player being a god of a randomly chosen domain and working to defeat all other gods present. There are different (simplified) methods available to convert mortals to your religion, including sending priests, acolytes, armies, plagues, or the like. When you gain more followers, you get more of a domain to work in and more power to use in various methods. Overall it's quite strategic, requiring a lot of forethought and planning, but is relatively simple to play once set up.

I suppose that it could work like this:
You can use your forces to Convert or Destroy mortals. With the four types of forces each having different strenghts.
Priest: Good at converting. Might have some destructive power.
Armies: Can only destroy.
Acolytes: The best converters with some destructive power.
Plagues: The best destroyers with some converting power.

edit 3:

Idania helpfully starts explaining what's going on to Aya and helps her set up. There is a little dice with eight sides and symbols drawn on them, for various domains. Desert, plains, mountains, volcano, swamp, tundra, deciduous forest and rainforest. Aya gets to roll the die, and get her domain randomly selected from the eight.

Rae informs Aya a little smugly, "My favorite part of the game is that ocean gods are not included."

I think we can prioritize the standard 8 terrains, but it would be interesting to come up with new ones if they are interesting enough.

[Aestrix]

I think Arabek was my working title that I forgot about and so I decided to play the wonderful game of 'let's never mention the name ever again in case I said it already or if I decide it's stupid, later.' We can use it here, if people like it, but I am not enamored with it.

Also, I don't really have notes on it. It was basically 'Idania will want to play a board game, I do not have any foreign board games. Do I cop out and go with chess or something, or do I make a thing?' And that is how the game was born. xD

[PlainDealingVillain]

Cannibalizing Risk is a good plan. Not the part where you roll 5 dice over and over and it takes hours, though. That is not a good part.

Should there actually be distinct powers that go with each god domain? That's often hard to do, and always even harder to make balanced. It also usually puts a floor on the complexity of the game; i.e. you probably couldn't come up with eight distinct semi-balanced powers to add into Risk without adding new mechanics.

Things that could matter about god domains: There could be some terrain types which are closer than others and are easier to convert between (though this doesn't really match what we've seen in Incandescence). It could matter just for who it's easiest to take followers from (I imagine you're more likely to get a forest god's worshippers to convert to plains or rainforest than to desert or tundra). It could be both for worshippers and for the land itself. It could matter exclusively for determining where you start on the board. It could just matter for the acolytes (desert acolytes move faster because they're flying, etc).

I have some ideas about a basic outline; It seems like there are three 'resources': space, worshippers, and belief, which are needed in different amounts for making priests, armies, plagues, and acolytes. I'll have more detail later today.

[Kappa]

I feel like armies might have some conversion power the same way plagues might - "convert or die" is a time-honoured method for religious expansion, after all.

[Aestrix]

In universe, 'convert or die' methods work extremely well to get followers, but it's really bad at keeping them. Friendlier methods are slower but followers are far more loyal. This can be reflected in-game, if it seems interesting.

[Kappa]

That definitely sounds like a fun game mechanic! XD

[Bluelantern]

In universe, 'convert or die' methods work extremely well to get followers, but it's really bad at keeping them. Friendlier methods are slower but followers are far more loyal. This can be reflected in-game, if it seems interesting.

Create the game mechanic "follower mood".

Follower mood could work in two ways:
*Per territory. sounds more complicated but somehow more "realistic". The follower mood could be either positive or negative.
*Per Deity. Probably easier to keep track. This way, follower mood are two separated "traits" called "Loyalty" and "Fear".
**Loyalty. Says how likely the followers can be converted or not. In D&D terms, it says if the conversion works or fails.
**Fear. Says how many followers will be converted. In D&D term, it amplifies the "damage" from the conversion

Either way, maybe you can spend follower mood to certain actions. Acolytes for example can be recruited with either loyalty or fear (but it is more costly with fear, the idea is that you found *one* sick f*** that likes your evil methods)

[Adelene]

How about this: Follower count and follower mood are tracked per territory, and can only be positive; follower count can't be higher than follower mood, and if you do something that would make that not be the case in a particular territory, you lose enough followers to a randomly-chosen neighboring one (or the neighboring one with the most mood-capacity to take on new followers?) to make the numbers equal.

Follower mood and follower count are tracked in each territory with markers; either the number of each is small, or the markers come in different denominations, probably the former.

[Lambda]

I'm imagining follower mood as a sort of unit rank, so more devoted followers are more powerful units.