Game idea
Hey all, long time no post!
So I've got a lot more spare time since RM reduced my hours, at least for thinking and so, inevitably, I've had an idea for a RP game. Anyone surprised? No? Of course not.
But before I get too deep into actually writing stuff and waste a load of effort I need some idea whether anyone would actually play such a game. Can I ask folks for some feedback? Would any of you actually want to come play this game?
I offer you...
Profound Investments
Our world is a prosaic one. Some would call it Profane. It is moored in fact, in truth, in certainty. Each day the sun 'rises' due to the rotation of the earth. Each night the bulk of the planet swings round to block it once more. The exact time light can reach around the horizon and illuminate our patch of the world can be calculated based on definite principles. What that means is irrelevant. It is the case, and no amount of faith, hope, cunning or power will change it. That very truth is vital to the way we live, it governs our every decision. We open the door because we know it won't open for us. It never has before and just because we're in a hurry doesn't mean anything will be different. Our haste means nothing to the door. The door simply is.
Yet there is another world. Looming behind every aspect of our world is the Profound realm. There facts have little bearing in the face of meaning. There the door will make way if your need is great enough. There the sun rises to meet those who wake and waits for those who don't. There the sun sets to illuminate lovers and inspire artists, and would linger forever in twilight were it not chased out of the sky by the moon. There is no consistency as we understand it but it is only an inconsistency of Fact, not of Meaning. While today the door is a door, tomorrow it may leave to pursue a life as a boat; yet it will still open if asked properly, possibly with disastrous consequences for anyone on board whom the river dislikes.
These two worlds have always been, for as much as time or beginnings have any meaning in either. There are essential to one another, for what use are facts if they don't mean anything? What is meaning if it cannot be defined or measured? Without the Profound, the Profane world would lose all originality, all spontaneity, all colour. Without the Profane, the Profound would have no stability, nothing to anchor it, it would have nothing to apply its meaning to. These worlds are so intertwined, so co-dependent that it inevitable that there will be bleed between them, that each will seep into the other. In the Profane they say history repeats itself but these events are simply echoes of the greatest events of the Profound, epic truths so great that the Profane cannot help but recognise and seek to emulate them. In the Profane there is land, there is a sky, there is language, there are media in which beauty may be expressed, consistency stolen from the Profane to give meaning room to be.
The Profound is a realm saturated with raw meaning, unbound by the limits of fact and consistency. The beings whom rule that realm, thusly, are formless concepts, unquestionable, infallible and ineffable, with power beyond the understanding of mortal minds; the might to change and control whole precepts, to create and destroy anything within their domain. They are deities and titans of the most obscure kind, so oblique as to be almost irrelevant to their subjects, yet so directly applicable to everything as to be almost vital to their kingdoms. In order to interact more directly with the flighty and felicitous creatures of the Profane these Imperators demote their least obscure limbs to a near-mortal state, to serve as governors, champions and executives.
Of these dominions, none are so outstanding as the holdings of Lord Avarice. The Imperator of Desire visited the Profane once, banished for stealing Hope from all of reality to keep for itself, and when it returned it longed for the facts that it had left behind. When reforging its realm it stole rules, structure, life and ideas from the Profane. It built its world of Minds, Flesh and Spirits stolen from mankind and set its most distinct Powers to rule it. To keep these jealous aspects from tearing the land apart it set strict and powerful Pacts to limit their freedoms and even those of any facets they may separate themselves into.
Yet Lord Avarice cannot help but hunger and his Powers could not escape this flaw. They could create no vassals to countermand their bindings so they stole some. They drew mortals from the Profane and invested them with the Mind, Spirit and Flesh stolen to fuel the domain, finally flooding them with Meaning from their own being. These mortals became the champions, high-priests, spouses, scions and generals of the Powers, with potential limited only by the meaning they can accrue and the facts they can steal. For an age of the indefinable and capricious time of the Profound these Investments served their benefactors in a secret war of influence, trickery and bureaucracy. They could never overcome the Pacts of their masters and bring open warfare but they could seduce, con, barter and bully their rivals out of their holdings.
But that age is coming to a close. The Powers have become unsettled, nervous, restless, and no one has seen any greater aspects of Lord Avarice for long enough to let rumours flourish. Worse still, inconsistencies have started creeping into the domain, towns changing or swapping locations, towers reshuffling themselves around keeps, rivers wandering off course and roads leading into the sky or worse yet through to the Profane. Some whisper that Lord Avarice has grown bored of its jewel and left to seek new treasures, others proclaim that it is dead and its soldiers and guards have failed to appear and refute either claim.
The Powers continue to send their Investments to court, to hold to their Pacts and maintain the façade of normalcy, but they quietly muster their forces, pillage the Profane for resources and pressure their Investments to gather intelligence and quest for answers. This is the age you are brought into, Invested in preparation for the foreshadowed conflict, promised untold power in exchange for bringing the land to peace once more, either for Lord Avarice or for your Power. You will debate in court, build and direct armies throughout the territories of your Power and quest to rectify problems and discover truths. You will ally with, lie to, betray and kill those who serve other Powers, forge Pacts that will shape your future and better yourself with stolen Flesh, Spirit and Minds. You will succeed because that is what it means to be Invested by the Powers of Avarice. You will succeed or you will be succeeded.
Game Format
The game will be split into three distinct parts or layers, dealing with different aspects of the war for Avarice's Jewel;
Court - will take the form of “talking and walking around” LRP games, where there will be no combat (as combat is barred from Lord Avarice's court by potent Pacts) but where all actions and conversation will be considered to be IC. [Think of Cam/IoD court games and you'd be in the right ballpark.]
The point of these games will mostly be to socialise with the competition, forge alliances, air grievances, make Pacts for trade or mutual protection, gather companions for Quests and barter and trade Flesh, Minds, Spirit, services and Artefacts.
Court games will be monthly/bi-monthly/quarterly [TBC depending on player preferences.]
Conquest - will be done as a monthly “play-by-email” board game, where players will use Flesh, Minds and Spirit stolen from the Profane to create minions and then direct those minions to capture, defend or harvest territories to generate yet more resources and power.
This is the place where real gains and losses are made but will be heavily impacted by bargains made during Court and prizes garnered from Quests. There'll be a little bit of description attached to battles and such but this part won't be hugely RP-heavy.
I intend to make giving instructions for the conquest phase to be a pretty simple process which should boil down pretty neatly to a form or similar, so it shouldn't take up too much of people's 'free time'. I'm not looking for people to make a massive investment in order to get involved; if you can manage giving a direction for each of a dozen units and a list of purchases chosen from a list each month you should be able to keep up.
Quests - will be tabletop “pack games” done as and when we can get folks together to do so. They will be fed out to players at the start of each Court as pieces of plot, rumours, opportunities and problems they have discovered since the last game. There will be an IC cost to get involved, and obviously helping out opposing characters may be disadvantageous, but there is value in knowing what the other side are up to, and there's always the chance to steal a treasure or pervert a situation to one's own advantage!
Characters will be defined by a series of “Abilities” each of which will give some advantage in every aspect of the game so, for example, the Subterfuge ability will let the character tell convincing lies in Court, give a bonus to escaping battles in Conquest and aid disguise and stealth during Quests, while the Might ability will increase the character's effectiveness in battles, as well as enabling them to intimidate others in Court.
The “aim of the game” as it were, is pretty much what you make it. There's opportunity for those who like dramatic roleplay to get their fix at court games, there's room for 'winners' to challenge themselves with both Quests and Conquest, lovers of PvP and social politics can tie others up in Pacts and deals. Through plot Quests players will have the opportunity to choose different ways to 'win', from discovering the truth about Lord Avarice to conquering the entire land.
So I've got a lot more spare time since RM reduced my hours, at least for thinking and so, inevitably, I've had an idea for a RP game. Anyone surprised? No? Of course not.
But before I get too deep into actually writing stuff and waste a load of effort I need some idea whether anyone would actually play such a game. Can I ask folks for some feedback? Would any of you actually want to come play this game?
I offer you...
Profound Investments
Our world is a prosaic one. Some would call it Profane. It is moored in fact, in truth, in certainty. Each day the sun 'rises' due to the rotation of the earth. Each night the bulk of the planet swings round to block it once more. The exact time light can reach around the horizon and illuminate our patch of the world can be calculated based on definite principles. What that means is irrelevant. It is the case, and no amount of faith, hope, cunning or power will change it. That very truth is vital to the way we live, it governs our every decision. We open the door because we know it won't open for us. It never has before and just because we're in a hurry doesn't mean anything will be different. Our haste means nothing to the door. The door simply is.
Yet there is another world. Looming behind every aspect of our world is the Profound realm. There facts have little bearing in the face of meaning. There the door will make way if your need is great enough. There the sun rises to meet those who wake and waits for those who don't. There the sun sets to illuminate lovers and inspire artists, and would linger forever in twilight were it not chased out of the sky by the moon. There is no consistency as we understand it but it is only an inconsistency of Fact, not of Meaning. While today the door is a door, tomorrow it may leave to pursue a life as a boat; yet it will still open if asked properly, possibly with disastrous consequences for anyone on board whom the river dislikes.
These two worlds have always been, for as much as time or beginnings have any meaning in either. There are essential to one another, for what use are facts if they don't mean anything? What is meaning if it cannot be defined or measured? Without the Profound, the Profane world would lose all originality, all spontaneity, all colour. Without the Profane, the Profound would have no stability, nothing to anchor it, it would have nothing to apply its meaning to. These worlds are so intertwined, so co-dependent that it inevitable that there will be bleed between them, that each will seep into the other. In the Profane they say history repeats itself but these events are simply echoes of the greatest events of the Profound, epic truths so great that the Profane cannot help but recognise and seek to emulate them. In the Profane there is land, there is a sky, there is language, there are media in which beauty may be expressed, consistency stolen from the Profane to give meaning room to be.
The Profound is a realm saturated with raw meaning, unbound by the limits of fact and consistency. The beings whom rule that realm, thusly, are formless concepts, unquestionable, infallible and ineffable, with power beyond the understanding of mortal minds; the might to change and control whole precepts, to create and destroy anything within their domain. They are deities and titans of the most obscure kind, so oblique as to be almost irrelevant to their subjects, yet so directly applicable to everything as to be almost vital to their kingdoms. In order to interact more directly with the flighty and felicitous creatures of the Profane these Imperators demote their least obscure limbs to a near-mortal state, to serve as governors, champions and executives.
Of these dominions, none are so outstanding as the holdings of Lord Avarice. The Imperator of Desire visited the Profane once, banished for stealing Hope from all of reality to keep for itself, and when it returned it longed for the facts that it had left behind. When reforging its realm it stole rules, structure, life and ideas from the Profane. It built its world of Minds, Flesh and Spirits stolen from mankind and set its most distinct Powers to rule it. To keep these jealous aspects from tearing the land apart it set strict and powerful Pacts to limit their freedoms and even those of any facets they may separate themselves into.
Yet Lord Avarice cannot help but hunger and his Powers could not escape this flaw. They could create no vassals to countermand their bindings so they stole some. They drew mortals from the Profane and invested them with the Mind, Spirit and Flesh stolen to fuel the domain, finally flooding them with Meaning from their own being. These mortals became the champions, high-priests, spouses, scions and generals of the Powers, with potential limited only by the meaning they can accrue and the facts they can steal. For an age of the indefinable and capricious time of the Profound these Investments served their benefactors in a secret war of influence, trickery and bureaucracy. They could never overcome the Pacts of their masters and bring open warfare but they could seduce, con, barter and bully their rivals out of their holdings.
But that age is coming to a close. The Powers have become unsettled, nervous, restless, and no one has seen any greater aspects of Lord Avarice for long enough to let rumours flourish. Worse still, inconsistencies have started creeping into the domain, towns changing or swapping locations, towers reshuffling themselves around keeps, rivers wandering off course and roads leading into the sky or worse yet through to the Profane. Some whisper that Lord Avarice has grown bored of its jewel and left to seek new treasures, others proclaim that it is dead and its soldiers and guards have failed to appear and refute either claim.
The Powers continue to send their Investments to court, to hold to their Pacts and maintain the façade of normalcy, but they quietly muster their forces, pillage the Profane for resources and pressure their Investments to gather intelligence and quest for answers. This is the age you are brought into, Invested in preparation for the foreshadowed conflict, promised untold power in exchange for bringing the land to peace once more, either for Lord Avarice or for your Power. You will debate in court, build and direct armies throughout the territories of your Power and quest to rectify problems and discover truths. You will ally with, lie to, betray and kill those who serve other Powers, forge Pacts that will shape your future and better yourself with stolen Flesh, Spirit and Minds. You will succeed because that is what it means to be Invested by the Powers of Avarice. You will succeed or you will be succeeded.
Game Format
The game will be split into three distinct parts or layers, dealing with different aspects of the war for Avarice's Jewel;
Court - will take the form of “talking and walking around” LRP games, where there will be no combat (as combat is barred from Lord Avarice's court by potent Pacts) but where all actions and conversation will be considered to be IC. [Think of Cam/IoD court games and you'd be in the right ballpark.]
The point of these games will mostly be to socialise with the competition, forge alliances, air grievances, make Pacts for trade or mutual protection, gather companions for Quests and barter and trade Flesh, Minds, Spirit, services and Artefacts.
Court games will be monthly/bi-monthly/quarterly [TBC depending on player preferences.]
Conquest - will be done as a monthly “play-by-email” board game, where players will use Flesh, Minds and Spirit stolen from the Profane to create minions and then direct those minions to capture, defend or harvest territories to generate yet more resources and power.
This is the place where real gains and losses are made but will be heavily impacted by bargains made during Court and prizes garnered from Quests. There'll be a little bit of description attached to battles and such but this part won't be hugely RP-heavy.
I intend to make giving instructions for the conquest phase to be a pretty simple process which should boil down pretty neatly to a form or similar, so it shouldn't take up too much of people's 'free time'. I'm not looking for people to make a massive investment in order to get involved; if you can manage giving a direction for each of a dozen units and a list of purchases chosen from a list each month you should be able to keep up.
Quests - will be tabletop “pack games” done as and when we can get folks together to do so. They will be fed out to players at the start of each Court as pieces of plot, rumours, opportunities and problems they have discovered since the last game. There will be an IC cost to get involved, and obviously helping out opposing characters may be disadvantageous, but there is value in knowing what the other side are up to, and there's always the chance to steal a treasure or pervert a situation to one's own advantage!
Characters will be defined by a series of “Abilities” each of which will give some advantage in every aspect of the game so, for example, the Subterfuge ability will let the character tell convincing lies in Court, give a bonus to escaping battles in Conquest and aid disguise and stealth during Quests, while the Might ability will increase the character's effectiveness in battles, as well as enabling them to intimidate others in Court.
The “aim of the game” as it were, is pretty much what you make it. There's opportunity for those who like dramatic roleplay to get their fix at court games, there's room for 'winners' to challenge themselves with both Quests and Conquest, lovers of PvP and social politics can tie others up in Pacts and deals. Through plot Quests players will have the opportunity to choose different ways to 'win', from discovering the truth about Lord Avarice to conquering the entire land.