ID:151329
 
Warning, most of this post was copy pasted from a conversation, so the sentences are relatively short and may seem a bit broken up.


I had an interesting RP game idea about 20 minutes ago.

The game focuses around gods and their supporters. Gods have absolute power over everything within their domain. They can create, destroy, or change whatever they want. The mortal followers, on the other hand, live their lives, and provide said gods with their power through worship. Everything the gods do, all the way down to simply existing, requires that power. Should they ever run out, they are instantly cast from the heavens and become a mortal. Any mortal with a following of believers can become a god.

If a god is malevolent or prone to fits of rage or abuse, his followers will disown him and put their faith in another, rival god, leaving him powerless and defenseless in the face of a rival who has now absorbed all of his power.

The world would start out as a simple series of plains/rivers/oceans, and through the actions of the gods, be transformed into something usable by their people.

"So it'd essentially be like Black and White." I hear you saying, and to some extent that's a decent comparison. It would be less restrictive, yet more restrictive at the same time. You have more power, more control over the world than simply being able to toss rocks and create food, but your power is severely tethered to the will of the mortals, because the mortals aren't AI controlled npcs, they're other players. They won't keep giving you strength after you blow up their house, they'll shout screw you and move to another god.

Now, you might thinking, "but what fun is it to be the mortals?", well, while the gods have oodles of power, the mortals are what make them tick. The mortals have a considerable amount of heft in how things happen, because without them, the god runs out of power. They can also interact with the world, just not to the same extent as the gods can. While a god can snap his fingers and create a forest, a mortal can sow the seeds of a grove, care for it until it grows, and nurture it, allowing it to spread and become the same forest, the only difference being the time it took to do it. A god might flick his wrist and create a lake, but a human can still route rivers for irrigation, dig channels for boats, and create man-made lakes, again, the only difference being in the amount of time it takes.

Obviously, all of this would be scaled to the number of players. It would have to keep track of the number of unique regular players and adjust costs/bonuses accordingly, but that is easier to handle than it might sound.

Obviously, some of the powers of gods have already been stated, creating lakes/rivers/forests and other landscapes, but they would also have the power to create things from nothing, destroy things that exist, and change things into something completely different. They could turn lead to gold, make it rain gems, and wipe out neighboring gods, provided they have enough support behind them. But, even with all these wonderful powers, they have to be careful. If they overuse their powers and run out of energy, they won't be able to sustain their godly form anymore and turn back into a mortal.


So, anyone here have any significant counterpoints that I missed, or anyone who just thinks this would be fun and would be interested in playing it? Anyone think this is just stupid and could never work? I'm game for any kind of feedback.
1. Is there a mechanism to prevent everyone from being a god?
2. I feel this is highly troll-susceptible.

It sounds viable, really. But I'm not sure how it will be received.
In response to Lugia319
Lugia319 wrote:
1. Is there a mechanism to prevent everyone from being a god?

The fact that a god dies without worshippers(it costs energy every cycle of time to maintain his existence) prevents everyone from being a god.

As does the fact that too many gods would leave them all incapable of doing anything significant, and would result in a few overpowering others by having a slightly larger base of followers, and thus more power.

2. I feel this is highly troll-susceptible.

It somewhat is, it's also highly solvable by the community. Someone talks his way into becoming a god and starts being a douche? Go worship the next god over and get him to wipe out the trolling douche.

It sounds viable, really. But I'm not sure how it will be received.

That's why I'm making a post about it here, to see what people think.
In response to Robertbanks2
What if the trolls overpower the good?
In response to Gr1m d4 r34p3r
Then your world will live in Trolltopia for all eternity.
In response to Gr1m d4 r34p3r
Then a majority of the players are trolls, meaning they aren't really trolling, just playing how they want.
What stops somebody from making a ton of alts just to worship themselves?
In response to Boxcar
As simple as limiting a comp_id/IP to one character, with the option of having a moderator raise the limit for siblings/shared computers. At the very worst, they would be able to get a bunch of friends to pitch in and have themselves a little party before being reported for obviously breaking character and disrupting the roleplay.
In response to Robertbanks2
Robertbanks2 wrote:
Then a majority of the players are trolls, meaning they aren't really trolling, just playing how they want.

So all the players who hate trolls now leave and you have a game of only trolls. For a while they'll try to troll each other but just leave because they will fail to do any good trolling.

Seems flawed. Perhaps if it cost the worshiper something to worship? Maybe they must collect a sacrifice or take a pilgrimage? This way you will find groups of people appoint the God and then the rest will do work to fund the God.

A very interesting concept for a socializing based game, I may actually give my own take on this in Castle Xyll for the socializers out there.

Thanks for a daily dose of inspiration.
In response to Kyle_ZX
Obviously the idea would need to be refined a good deal perhaps, Robert.
Other then that though I think it could be interesting. Any plans to make it?
In response to Gr1m d4 r34p3r
Gr1m d4 r34p3r wrote:
What if the trolls overpower the good?
Hahah, do you guys know the definition of troll, because I think you guys just mean "idiots". In which case, there's tons of idiots in every roleplay. There may not be gods in most roleplays, but stupid gods and worshipers is the same as having a lot of RKers in mitadake high, which happens a lot.
In response to Xyphon101
Ohh, now I get it. I thought he meant RPG not RP. Dam, in that case I think this idea would be fairly useless.
In response to Majin Furble
Majin Furble wrote:
Obviously the idea would need to be refined a good deal perhaps, Robert.
Other then that though I think it could be interesting. Any plans to make it?

Yes, I'll probably end up making it at some point, and it definitely needs refinement. This post was the product of an idea while urinating and a 5 minute conversation with a friend. It will take a bit more than 5 minutes to properly plan things out, coming up with different ways to prevent the trolling that everyone is so worried about(I don't feel like it's that huge of an issue due to the "Majority Rules" nature of the game).

@Kyle
Seems flawed. Perhaps if it cost the worshiper something to worship? Maybe they must collect a sacrifice or take a pilgrimage? This way you will find groups of people appoint the God and then the rest will do work to fund the God.

That's actually a pretty good idea. Obviously REQUIRING a sacrifice would limit things a bit, but sacrificing things could give a more significant boost than simply going to the god's altar and praying.

@Xyphon
Hahah, do you guys know the definition of troll, because I think you guys just mean "idiots". In which case, there's tons of idiots in every roleplay. There may not be gods in most roleplays, but stupid gods and worshipers is the same as having a lot of RKers in mitadake high, which happens a lot.

The difference is that MH isn't RP enforced, no one is there to say that you have to stay IC, and there is no real punishment for not doing so. Someone comes on and starts causing trouble? Some moderately well off god decides, "That guy's being a douche, let's lightning bolt his face off.", and kills him for being a nuisance and disrupting roleplay, under the RP reason that, [screw it], he's a god, he can do what he wants, when he wants, and screw you if you don't like it. Most of the other players probably wouldn't mind too much, provided the person who got bolted in the face was actually being a nuisance and disrupting the RP.
In response to Robertbanks2
Robertbanks2 wrote:
The difference is that MH isn't RP enforced, no one is there to say that you have to stay IC, and there is no real punishment for not doing so.

That's a very bold statement about MH. Most hosts wont tolerate Random Killing, Metagaming, Rushing, ect. They'll boot your ass as fast as the next guy. Though there will always be a few hosts who just let whatever go on, but generally rules are enforced. Often very strictly, as far as I've witnessed of course.

On a more on-topic note, I would like to point out that fact that not all Trolls are bad, like myself for example. I'm the type of Troll who specializes in Trolling other Trolls, an Anti-Troll if you will. You'll get just as many of these Anti-Trolls as you will regular Trolls (And Omni-Trolls, Trolls who just Troll everyone). Anti-Trolls typically troll to the benefit of the community, driving away all of the pesky noobs that may wander into your server on that particular day (Real Noobs, not Newbs). In my opinion, making the Administration Team for your game a set of Anti-Trolls would be both effective and entertaining for the rest of the player base. They'll mock and boot Fail Trolls and keep the RP at least Semi-Intact.
In response to Danbriggs
Oh? It's been ages since I played MH, but every experience was filled with random slaughterings by the first person to find a decent weapon.

On the more on topic note, I expect at least one god at any given moment would be, to some degree, an anti-troll, and wouldn't mind causing a few trolls every now and again to spontaneously combust. Likely, what moderation is present will be myself and the host/game master, and then whatever IC moderation the gods want to do.
You made me think of something. What if a GM system was set up this way? For example, players have to support someone, and it allows them to become a GM and use their GM powers however they want, but if people stop supporting them (or down-vote), then they lose the fact that they're a GM and their powers.

I wonder if that's even a feasible thing for getting at least semi-good GMs. It has all of the same issues as the game concept you're talking about. Which makes me think it could be plausible, if designed well enough.

Also: Really good game concept. I would love to play it!
In response to Complex Robot
Your GM system has a flaw in that if GMs do their job and make everyone angry that they're actually following the rules, they lose the power they were properly following.
In response to Lugia319
Lugia319 wrote:
Your GM system has a flaw in that if GMs do their job and make everyone angry that they're actually following the rules, they lose the power they were properly following.

I guess that's a pretty big flaw. But, if we go off the assumption that what our players want is best (pretty big assumption), then it's perfect. Right? Right? O.O
I think the idea is brilliant!

My opinion on expanding it is to allow for the mortals to receive some kind of karma from their actions, turning them either good or evil. Then you could allow not only Gods, but also demons. Mortals would then have the ability to become farmers, blacksmiths etc, and you could allow the evil mortals the ability to work on their darker skills such thievery.

Gods could eventually fuel and oversee a war on evil, fueled by the demons. Also, allowing for research and such as the population grows and possible expansion of technology. It would be a big task to develop such an open-ended world, but what an idea you have here!
Also, I would like to offer my hand to you for any programming assistance you may require to work on this project. The game seems to be a great idea and I would like to see it become a reality.

If you're good, no problem. But I wanted to offer =)
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