You guys, I have two notebook pages covered in notes from all this. I'll put together a full response after dinner to try and help tie things up and add a few more suggestions.
Right, let's flex the comprehension skills taught to me in high school.
Firsly, I never read how Godspeed works. Anyone got a link for me so I can catch up there?
Ages
So, I'm going to lay out what I understand we're doing and I'll colour my suggestions in as we go: - The start of each turn includes an allowance of special MP (We're call them Freepoints (FP) to replace the previous mechanic). - FP may only be spent on acts relating to the theme of the current 'Age'. - We'll be starting in the 'Age of Creation' or some-such, wherein FP can be used to jazz up the world of Galbar and/or their allocated personal planes with all manner of baseline creations; geography, geology, flora, fauna, natural wonders, weird phenomena, and so on. - Other possible ages could be the 'Age of Monsters', 'Age of Cities', 'Age of Darkness', and so on. - The number of FP allocated per player per turn is equal, but the amount is dictated my the GM and may fluctuate between ages according to the acts expected. For example, the 'Age of Creation' may require many mighty acts to lift continents from the seas and populate the earth. The Age of Darkness may defined by scarcity, and what little might is provided must be used to rebuild atop the ruins of previous civilisations. - An age lasts until the GM decides that a new age shall start in the next turn. The change of ages represents a new way of life in the world and should be directed according to the overall story driven by the players. - The theme of a new age is also directed by the overall story driven by the players. The exact theme of the next age may be discussed by the players leading up to the end of the current age, but the GM has the final say*. - An age may influence the IC time window in turns, spanning many years in early ages and slowing down when mortal stories get more interesting. The 'Age of Creation' may even represent such a chaotic state of the universe that it has no time window, representing a fluctuating, pseudo-linear, time-before-time. - FP do not carry over to new ages.
* Waiting for consensus by less active players may not be too good when the turn/age needs to change to unblock other players.
The World
Spheres: - I like that each god will have their own personal plane from the beginning by default. I would propose that each may be lazily developed as needed rather than requiring a detailed pimp-out before even describing in passing. That way players can focus where they want to, either doing stuff elsewhere or detailing their plane as they wish. - I would prefer the exact location of the planes to be extra-dimensional from Galbar (in a loosely or undefined way) with solid gates between them. In fact, I would go as far as to suggest mandating that each plane must be connected to at least one permanent portal to Galbar in a thematic way chosen by the owning player which a mortal could discover and pass through during a quest. The obvious examples of this would be a cave which leads to Tartarus, an archway on a mountain leading to a monastery plane, a ring of toadstools in a clearing leading to the fairy world, etc. These gates don't have to be anything closely defined, just something attainable. -- This idea is along the lines of what BBeast was going for with the suns being a gate to a fire plane, etc. However, I would prefer them to be more attainable. And I would also want to make sure we aren't compelled to contrive unused planes for the sake of filling out the cosmology -- I think that would be a waste of time unless it provides groundwork for possible stories. - I'll add more on godly abilities later, but I feel it's still worth considering allowing gods to create temporary portals to their personal plane in a thematic way as it was mentioned before, such as through whirlpools or ritual circles. We can perhaps circumvent this being used to make travel across Galbar quicker by dictating that you must travel a distance in one plane equal to the distance you wish to travel in another plane. If someone's personal plane has a fully functioning subway system to make this process quicker, setting something like that up should cost the appropriate amount of might for an ability to speed up travel. - You'll notice I've been saying planes instead of spheres. I think it would get confusing if both planes and portfolios/domains are called spheres. I would prefer at least one of them not be called spheres.
Nuevo Galbar: - I like the idea of starting Galbar off as a rock-strewn ocean with only ice caps as large landmasses. I would suggest mandating or at least encouraging people to make landmasses close to existing landmasses to discourage isolation. The scale should be large enough that faraway lands can still be a thing without them being strictly disconnected until long-distance navigation by sail is a thing. - I wouldn't mind if a sun was premade if we don't start with a sun god. However, I don't think there's any reason to premake the moon in the absence of a moon god. Other gods can make satellites as required. Hell, a character might make a ton of moons like MkII. That was cool and ended up being the backdrop for a lot of awesome story events. - I absolutely would love to do stories in other players' nations. However, with all the blank space on the MkII map, starting a nation story as in Yorum was a fun project in and of itself. I think perhaps it could be useful to give license for boiler-plate societies to be conceived without such huge foundations as Yorum and Mesathelassa. Just little templates with scant details for people to expand into and mess with as they wish. In fact, you could probably extend the idea and word it as "If you need a thing for a narrative that could reasonably already exist in the world, just have it there free of charge if it lets you tell a cool story. This can be a farm, a city, a society, a forest, a mountain, or anything else considerably usual in the setting." I kind of already did this with Yorum's city states, but early on there was the tacit assumption that no one had the technology unless it was locally spread, so it might be worth adding the quoted point above explicitly in the rules. - To solidify stories being Galbar-centric, I would suggest one more thing about it: Make it so Galbar is the only place where mortals can naturally conceive offspring. All attempts outside of Galbar result in stillbirths never given a soul or something similar. This will ensure that any mortal stories have to return to Galbar eventually. Mortal forays into other planes should be special. It might also be a prompt for mortals turning...strange if they stay in certain planes for too long.
How Dieties Do
Domains: - I like the idea of having domain selection be largely unrestricted but benefiting from synergy ala clusters. - I would very much like it if we inherited the MkII rule wherein a more specific domain trumps a more generalised domain when trying to do the same domain actions in a contest. - I don't mind gods trading portfolios temporarily, but I don't think such a thing should be easy IC unless it's a very temporary arrangement. - A suggestion to add: If players are inactive, the GM should reserve the right to declare their domains 'fair game' to be reclaimed by new or existing characters. This was soft-canon in MkII, the explanation being what Toun observed as "When essence is scattered, it eventually reforms, though not always in the same form." or something along those lines. This basically meant that godly essence was immortal in the true sense, but reincarnates after a god 'dies'. This is how Toun got the Oaths portfolio after the Pacts lady lost her divinity, or how numerous demigods were born after other deaths of similarly-Portfolio'd gods. - I like the idea of keeping portfolio actions free or reduced while allowing any other action with a might cost to it. Toun did this a number of times and it allowed him to behave as powerfully as he was made out to be.
Levels and MP: - I am open to the idea of removing the levels system. It's nice to have an indicator for progression of power, but that can be largely filled with holy sites, creations, and abilities if we decide to adopt them. - I would say base MP allowance should remain constant per turn. This will stunt power escalation but it will also deal with another fundamental problem we were having in MkII; artefact power inflation. Seriously, we were looking at ancient artefacts built early in the game like discarded MMORPG gear. That's a tragedy I don't want to repeat. - I think comparing raw power by levels is not really needed anyway when people can resolve clashes through the narrative and reasonable assumption. The players here are cool like that. - Holy sites ought to have a 'cool thing it does for free' along with the might production, like some monument ability Capy alluded to. - I would like to keep the turn cooldowns for building holy sites and have some kind of cap on the maximum profit they can produce. These measures ought discourage players from not spending any might except on holy sites. I mean, I doubt they would do it, but it's better to not have the holy site incentive too strong in the first place. - An alternative chilling effect for holy sites would be to make them more vulnerable, such as allowing an adversary god to disable a holy site's production for a turn by spending a lesser proportion of the might it would produce.
Abilities: - I'm open to Capy's idea of abilities so long as they do not become too dense and complex. - I like the baseline abilities Capy put together for gods. I would be tempted to add in the travel mechanics I outlined earlier if they are agreed upon. - I would like to suggest that the first 'form' ability chosen by a god can come for free on their CS. This was assumed in MkII and giving the first one a cost would be a gotcha for new players who didn't catch that part as they write their first post. -- A wilder suggestion I have would be to make shapeshifting a baseline ability. A lot of the weird and unique looks for gods in MkII came from their ability to shift forms, even in a limited way. It would be a shame to lose that. -- Perhaps as a compromise, the ability to disguise should be an acquired ability rather than a baseline ability. So any god that wants to do a Zeus gap year and conceive lots of children won't necessarily have an easy time convincing mortals to sleep with them with baseline shapeshifting. - I suggest also allowing one or two free abilities thematic to a god on their CS. This will help us establish examples of how abilities should work so we can get settled into the idea. - We should probably have a think about how baseline and/or acquired abilities should work with demigods and heroes, if at all. I imagine their choices would be much more restricted, perhaps restricted to domain for a demigod, perhaps restricted to a hard cap on number of abilities for heroes. Maybe we don't want them for heroes at all and leave that for artefacts they get or something. - I don't mind gods losing the baseline ability to instantly travel, but I would still like them to travel fast without help. This could be done just by having them run tirelessly across the land. It doesn't have to be something that supersedes the benefit of a special mount or other form of transport.
Demigods - Ascension to godhood was prohibitively difficult in MkII, I can agree. It should remain a difficult thing to do, but it should be possible at the end of a good story earning it. I don't exactly know how quests worked in Godspeed if they were a thing, but having a demigod ascend after an appropriate quest is a fantastic way to do it.
Right, so my next point is...
...er...
Hm, that's all I've got. Thoughts, guys?
EDIT: Cyclone is talking to me on Discord to clear up some things. His reply here will probably feature that, I think.
Okay, I tried codifying my thoughts on innate powers and also on the concept of abilities. This is what I came up with.
What are Abilities: Abilities are aspects of a god’s existence and power usage. It represents traits, quirks and skills. Abilities should be used to customize the RP experience and define the deity beyond just his Portfolios.
Acquiring Abilities: Abilities are purchased with Might. They cannot be instantaneously developed, as they need to be justified through acts such as training or meditation to alter the god’s form, and therefore cannot be developed in the middle of battles or anything of the sort. The one exception should be the early game, where gods will need to quickly define themselves.
Abilities vs Relics and Monuments: Abilities are usually weaker than relics and monuments that do similar actions. A sword relic tends to be stronger than a sharp claw ability, a magical chariot will be faster than a speed ability, the disadvantage of relics and monuments is that they can be stolen or lost. Abilities also cannot be bought for others and only change the god, as such, one cannot pass the ability of strenght to someone else, unlike relics, which typically can be gifted.
Abilities vs Portfolio: Having a portfolio grants any baseline ability imaginable for the area involved. A god of animals does not need the ability to turn into animals, as the portfolio grants it. A god of thunder, however, must invest might into a shapeshifting ability.
Abilities and Relics vs Might Usage: The difference between a one-time great action versus a continuous ability. A Chimera created by might is greater than the sum of its parts, a legendary beast. While the ability to mix two animal together will create weaker beasts but is a permanent skill.
Form Likely the first thing anyone will want to spend in, setting up the bodily traits that define their god.
Default: The deity has their humanoid or special form. They are clearly a god.
Some examples of possible abilities:
• Humanoid Form: For deities who are gigantic, magical beasts, or just hard to comprehend and want to have a more compact form. • Special Form: Not simple animal forms, but the form of great magical beasts, colossal giants, living storms. Can be acquired multiple times.
• Shapeshifting: The ability to turn into mortal creatures at will. • Mortal-like: Can conceal godhood and turn oneself into an unassuming mortal. • Swarm Form: Can turn oneself into schools of fish, flocks of bird, swarms of insects... • Immaterial Form: Turning into smoke, water, fire, lightning…
• Blinding Sight: Mortals cannot behold the visage of the god without bleeding from their eyes. Even heroes and demi-gods struggle to focus on them. • Awe: The visage of the god is awe-inspiring, beauty to make a person mad, an aura of crushing authority, or terrors beyond imagination...
• Avatar (relic): A second body of the god. Can have a normal or special form. Can be autonomous or not. Can hide godhood.
Etc.
So, for example, both Teknall and Ilunabar would have Shapeshifting, but only Ilunabar would have Awe and Immaterial Form (she can become raw dream energy and is never mentioned as having inner organs like Tek) and only Teknall would have Mortal-like.
All assumes no might usage, no portfolio affinity and that the the deity is in Galbar, not their own Sphere.
Climatization As immortals, there is no place that will be unsurvivable by a deity. However, larger storms, the depths of a molten lava lake or the blizzards of the poles are hard to navigate without affinity to such locations.
Strength All gods are powerful by nature, they will not be harmed by most mundane threats and can do acts such as smashing large boulders with one kick no matter their domains.
Senses Gods can see in great detail up to the horizon line, able to see even in the true darkness of deep space, and can observe aspects such as heat, magnetic fields or souls. They can hear as far as they can see, are able to pinpoint the direction of sounds and are able to simultaneously understand all speakers of a large crowd. Gods have a metaphysical sense that can perceive reality as raw information. (what we call perceive in MK2)
Senses - Mind Reading All gods can read a mind and understand thoughts and memories, however, this is an act that requires some focus and a target for deities unrelated to the domains of the mind.
Travel Gods can run and jump at inhuman speeds, float on air, walk on water. They can access the realms beyond. Weather Changing the weather costs might for gods without a domain related to it.
Craftsmanship All gods can create relics with might points, but do not have a natural ability to craft mundane high-quality crafts unless it is pertinent to their portfolio or cluster. (A deity of the hunt is able to naturally craft great bows, but a deity of nature might struggle to do the same.)
Fauna and Flora All gods can create any life using might. All gods may mutate life using their essence for free, though the changes are limited to their domain. All gods are able to discern the thoughts of animals and can communicate with any animal, but plants require affinity. The innate ability to create existing animals from nothing requires a domain related to the life being created. Plants can be created from nothing but will grow at natural speed without affinity.
Materials Without might or affinity related to the material, a god will have trouble creating matter from nothing. Simple things such as sand and rocks are easier to create than metals or rare materials. All gods have the ability to control elements within their vicinity using only their minds, they may raise rocks and water from the ground, purify or mix materials, extract a particular element out the ground, or compress, melt, ignite or freeze something.
In simple words, most gods cannot just take a bar of gold from their sleeve, but if they are near a gold deposit (which they can perceive) they can reach into the ground and extract a pure bar of gold from the very soil.
I like this. Something very similar will almost certainly find its way into the rough draft of an OP that I'll construct over the next few days.
Re: Spheres
Going back to my original proposal of the idea, I did define them as being actual places that could be visited and that occupy space somewhere. That's not to say that I'm opposed to the notion of Non-Euclidean geometry where there can be parallel or overlapping Spheres (as in, a fae world that overlaps with Galbar and that can only be reached on certain nights in mushroom circles or with fairy magic) but I would like to have every Sphere have at least a vague location even if it's only in relation to the others. This is because,
Since these spheres are physical places, they aren't entirely cut off from others; it'd be much easier to trespass into others' places, and in some cases it might be necessary to travel through somebody else's sphere to get to where you need to go. The gods of the upper spheres and those of the lower spheres might also come to dislike one another.
Though a god might well take measures to keep others out like putting monstrous guardians at the entryways of the Spheres or even hiding said entryways behind barriers or illusionary magic, I do very much want Spheres to be places that can be entered by the gods and potentially even invaded. Part of the appeal of the concentric Spheres is that it necessitates travel through others' realms, which in turn leads to interaction like potential conflicts. If nothing else, handling the logistics of creating transportation networks around the universe can be something interesting to occupy the gods' attention for the early part of Mk. 3.
I agree with you completely here- methods of inter-Sphere travel should be fully customisable. My point was that inter-Sphere travel will be so not-a-problem that it is a poor measure of godhood (unlike Mk 2, where only fully fledged gods could perform at-will inter-planar travel). While only a fully fledged god would have the power to create links between the Spheres, I still think that owning a Sphere is a much better milestone for ascension (we can also consider that only the god who owns a Sphere can create links to it, which would make owning a Sphere a prerequisite to making inter-Sphere links).
Another thing that I've said from the beginning is that travel between Spheres should indeed always be possible somehow, but quite difficult. You may recall that I mentioned all objects and life being bound to their Sphere of origin, and that's the primary obstacle to a demigod simply strolling on out of Galbar and up into the heavens (or underworld). Though I think it's best to leave the specifics for each writer to determine himself, it's reasonable to assume that beyond some cheesy magical barrier that prevents a mortal bound to Galbar from stepping into the portal to another Sphere, there'd also be significant physical limitations or hurdles. For instance, the way down to the Underworld might be a massive cavern system with strange rivers and numerous obstacles, at the very end of which is Cerberus. And then once you're in the Underworld, getting to the Sphere of Tartarus involves descending down an abyssal pit that extends straight down for unfathomable distances. Likewise, while any mortal could temporarily visit (or maybe just see) the Sphere of Dreams when they sleep, there's the handicap in that they can't stick around because they eventually will wake up. And while sorcerers might derive their powers from accessing the Sphere of Magic, they'd be opening tiny rifts to it rather than stepping into it.
Additionally, if we want all the Spheres to be connected to Galbar, it doesn't make sense to have a strictly concentric model, because then only two Spheres will be in direct contact with Galbar and the other Spheres have to push through the Spheres in between.
I actually like the idea of the magic and "essence" of upper Spheres trickling all the way down, and that of the lower Spheres bubbling up. All of it would meet in the middle Sphere that's Galbar, making it even more special and important. And the "pressure" of all the Sphere pushing on it from both above and below would also provide a convenient in-universe explanation for why the mortals of Galbar would struggle very much to leave their Sphere; the barriers are stronger between the Spheres nearest the middle, and mortals are bound much tighter to Galbar than extradimensional (extraspherical? lol) beings are to their own Spheres. That's why angels coming down or demons being summoned could happen with more frequency than something as truly epic as a mortal somehow finding the magic and the secrets and the powers required to run down into the Underworld on some Orpheus adventure.
For some of the reasons outlined above I'm generally adverse to mandating a true "portal" to every Sphere be present on Galbar. I'd be happy with at a minimum just mandating that the effects of every Sphere be felt; the Solar Sphere's essence would radiate out as light and heat and would obviously affect Galbar and everything between, whilst a luck god's Sphere might occasionally have its powers leak into the Galbar to cause miraculous events. Or just make gold and rainbows appear.
In conclusion, BBeast and I seem to have similar ideas about Spheres, but I take a much more literal view on the concentric Spheres model and on them having actual locations even if said locations can still overlap. The ramifications of this difference in viewpoint are mainly that this provides yet another difficulty for gods in traveling, which is further reinforced by my dislike for the idea of making all Spheres easily accessible through portals and the like on Galbar.
That was more an attempt at me clarifying my initial conception rather than on necessarily trying to refute or demerit those posited by others; thoughts on all of the above is of course welcome. If my conceptualization of the Spheres is ultimately deemed too convoluted or if it has too many disadvantages compared to some other system, I'm happy to ultimately change it; however, perhaps we should hold off on ironing out the very specific details of Spheres until I can write out a comprehensive description of how I imagine them. It's clear that not everyone is imaging the Spheres as I do, and that's completely understandable as they're a very technical thing, and all that you all have to go off of is what you can read between the lines in all of these scattered points across various posts.
EDIT: Cyclone is talking to me on Discord to clear up some things. His reply here will probably feature that, I think.
Some of that clarification was on my notion of Spheres, which is partially covered above. I feel like I've already gotten a bit carried away on that topic, so I'll once again reiterate that perhaps it's best we simply wait until I can write down some mechanics as I envision them. Then it'll be more clear and everyone can poke holes in them.
Now, I'll address each of Mutton's colored suggestions as well as a few of his thoughts that triggering musings of my own.
- The number of FP allocated per player per turn is equal, but the amount is dictated my the GM and may fluctuate between ages according to the acts expected. For example, the 'Age of Creation' may require many mighty acts to lift continents from the seas and populate the earth. The Age of Darkness may defined by scarcity, and what little might is provided must be used to rebuild atop the ruins of previous civilisations.
This is already the general consensus. In case anybody else missed it, I've been saying that the amount of FP will vary Turn by Turn based on the current Age, and I've announced my intention to "frontload" the initial Age of Creation with quite a bit of FP.
- The theme of a new age is also directed by the overall story driven by the players. The exact theme of the next age may be discussed by the players leading up to the end of the current age, but the GM has the final say*.
This makes sense and is mostly how I imagined it. I won't plan too far ahead and will try to steer the Ages in a direction that makes sense based on IC developments, but ultimately somebody has got to decide what to call the next Age, what actions to encourage, and exactly how much FP to give. I'll try to muse on these things aloud so that others can help me figure out specifics, see them coming and either plan accordingly, and/or shout out their objections.
The 'Age of Creation' may even represent such a chaotic state of the universe that it has no time window, representing a fluctuating, pseudo-linear, time-before-time.
I actually like this quite a bit and hadn't previously considered it. This vagueness might well make more sense than either doing some Biblical few weeks of creating sprees or some more scientifically acceptable numbers that go into the millions or billions of years.
I like that each god will have their own personal plane from the beginning by default. I would propose that each may be lazily developed as needed rather than requiring a detailed pimp-out before even describing in passing. That way players can focus where they want to, either doing stuff elsewhere or detailing their plane as they wish.
I was intending to have the Spheres fleshed out organically and over time IC, with them starting as empty shells of a sort that can then be filled in and altered by the gods that claim them (or get assigned to them). Initially all the gods would be detached beings or spirits (or even stray souls, perhaps) that the Architect just brings in for this purpose.
I'd like it if a person included on their sheet at least some short and vague description of their plans for their Sphere's function, location, and effect upon Galbar. Hades can build his palace in the Underworld and divide up all the various regions and create various guardians as the RP goes on, but in the beginning all that really matters is that Hades' writer says that his dude will occupy a lower Sphere that is used to house the souls of the dead.
- You'll notice I've been saying planes instead of spheres. I think it would get confusing if both planes and portfolios/domains are called spheres. I would prefer at least one of them not be called spheres.
This was one thing I clarified for Mutton on the Discord, and one thing that perhaps bears reiterating here: Domains are gone. We aren't renaming them to Spheres; Spheres refer only to Mk. 3's conception of what we have been calling planes. The implication of Domains no longer existing is that a god can take any number of completely unrelated Portfolios over time. However, you're encouraged to take several related Portfolios because doing so creates a 'Cluster'. As I mentioned before, having a Cluster over some theme would generally increase the power level of all its pertinent Portfolios that you've already adopted in addition to implying significant prowess and powers over related things even if they don't fall under one of your portfolios.
Zephyrion starts with a Portfolio of (Wind). His Sphere is just a bit above Galbar up in the Clouds, and it's the source of all winds. This Sphere sets a general theme to him as a god and implies some powers, but it's not a Domain of Sky. Just because he lives up in the clouds and controls the wind doesn't imply he can innately drop lightning down onto the ground or do other sky-related actions without spending MP like everybody else.
However, Zeph adopts the second (completely unrelated) Portfolio of (Seasons). Then he adopts (Transmutation), in the sense of turning certain substances in others. Then (Mutation) in the sense of changing lifeforms. Now, with those three Portfolios, he could reasonably claim a Cluster of Change. This would act similarly to a Domain; it'd potentially amplify his powers of the Portfolios that he already has as well as enable him to have power over certain things related to Change that don't strictly fall under a Portfolio he's claimed, like with (Deforestation) or (Aging). Note that things like (Deforestation) and (Aging) might also be implied under Clusters of Civilization and Life, respectively. Clusters are vague and broad, like Domains (although perhaps a bit weaker), and simply having a related Cluster doesn't grant anything close to a level of claim that the Portfolio would.
So while grabbing (Masonry) (Agriculture) and (Carpentry) before going on to adopt a Cluster of Civilization would probably be enough for Teknall to be able to turn towards gaining other things and still do most of the Civilization-related things that he'd want to do, he would still have reason to eventually come back and perhaps grab some more Civilization-related Portfolios like (Blacksmithing) if he's going to be doing a lot of things related to that Portfolio.
- I would say base MP allowance should remain constant per turn. This will stunt power escalation but it will also deal with another fundamental problem we were having in MkII; artefact power inflation. Seriously, we were looking at ancient artefacts built early in the game like discarded MMORPG gear. That's a tragedy I don't want to repeat.
On the Discord, this prompted me to say, "What if artifacts grow in power over time and as they are used for various purposes, similarly to heroes? Perhaps that's just too much. But it's certainly thematic to have an item created near the beginning of the universe be quite a powerful one even by default, and for the sword of a demigod that butchered thousands to become a powerful artifact by mere virtue of all that it's done.
He responded, "I have a better idea, one that doesn't require rules accretion: If an artefact is used for something cool in a story, have the Master of the Spheres give it a permanent power increase arbitrarily. That way artefacts don't have to be made with the intention of being investments."
My main issue with a literal concentric Sphere model is that it establishes a tiered hierarchy. The person with an inner Sphere (next to Galbar) will have easy access to Galbar and will experience a lot of interaction, while the person with an outer Sphere (far from Galbar) will be relatively isolated, with very few mortals being able to reach their Sphere while also making it difficult for divine beings (including themselves) to travel between Galbar and their Sphere. Rather than encouraging interaction and involvement, we instead isolate half of the players to the far corners of the universe. And then we also have to somehow determine which player gets what Sphere, since they aren't all equal. It's a cool cosmology, but might work poorly for a game.
I'll hold off from deeper and more specific comments until you have had a chance to properly expound your ideas.
As a side note, I'll raise the possibility of Galbar being flat rather than spherical. In an Earth-like Universe, with planets orbiting stars and the vastness of space, spherical worlds make sense because of Newtonian physics. However, for a highly geocentric cosmology as we are planning, a flat world makes as much sense as a spherical one. Granted, we'll probably have to rename 'Spheres' as 'Planes' and they would be stacked rather than concentric, and there won't be a horizon any longer, but it's an option. (To be clear, I'm not saying we should have a flat world; I'm currently neutral on the matter; but I'm indicating that we can have a flat world if we want.)
I'm still somewhat against making spheres tiered in the sense of being inaccessible directly from Galbar. Galbar should be the hotspot for interaction between gods. Interposing spheres between other spheres and Galbar is more of a division than a unification. I'm fine with the spheres being conceptually tiered so you can still have high and low planes, and I'm fine with mortals and demigods needing to traverse a number of spheres to get somewhere off-planet, but otherwise it'll essentially just make for a long commute for the gods. At any rate, I'll wait until the full explanation like BBeast.
As for a flat planet, it's neat idea, but I don't really think it'll bring advantages unless someone wants to build a story around it. I personally prefer a spheroid Galbar.
I feel like trying to set up the world without knowing our gods will be hard, especially now that planes have such a functional role, I myself can barely define the role of my character even if I have their theme and personality set down. Depending on what we get a flat Galbar might be interesting, with each cardinal direction leading to the sphere of a different god, or maybe a spherical galbar might work better
I feel much the same way as Mutton on the flat-Galbar idea.
The Mk. 3 universe’s theme is Aristotelian physics, which was quite clear about the world being spherical itself (you always hear about how the Greeks figured out that the world was round thousands of years ago, but not about how strange their model was with everything else being arranged in spheres) so it seems both thematic and appropriate to have a round world.
I don’t see much purpose to a flat world since it’s going to bring the aforementioned weirdness with horizons, break the concentric spheres theme, and not really offer any advantage beyond some measure of uniqueness.
I feel like trying to set up the world without knowing our gods will be hard, especially now that planes have such a functional role...
Right. Much of Mk. 3’s world will depend upon the gods that we get. A sun, ocean, and some islands are guaranteed but that’s about it.
I myself am going for a theme of travel with a focus on wandering and impermanence/passage (of time, of sights...) Really don't want to play a gatekeeper of worlds, so I have been thinking about the topic of spheres. Cyclone even talked about the possibility of tuning oneself to the sphere of Galbar itself, which was a thought that has been on my table, but depending on what other ideas people throw around and what areas lack a god, I have a few ideas of my own concerning seasons (the big one for me), or the moon, or the stars, or wilderness, or even death.
I myself am going for a theme of travel with a focus on wandering and impermanence/passage (of time, of sights...) Really don't want to play a gatekeeper of worlds, so I have been thinking about the topic of spheres. Cyclone even talked about the possibility of tuning oneself to the sphere of Galbar itself, which was a thought that has been on my table, but depending on what other ideas people throw around and what areas lack a god, I have a few ideas of my own concerning seasons (the big one for me), or the moon, or the stars, or wilderness, or even death.
Your idea sounds interesting. Re: Attuning to Galbar itself, it was a thought that got spat out, but I'm not sure how much sense it makes. Spheres are a big deal and allowing one of the original gods to choose Galbar as their Sphere probably is illogical since that's sort of our definition of a demigod--someone trapped down there and without their own Sphere. Maybe later on there could arise some God-Emperor figure that ascends and takes on a Portfolio of (Humans) or (Mortals), and that'd be a rare situation where I feel it'd make a lot of sense for said god to have Galbar as their Sphere.
...but even then, they could just as easily go on to make some Sphere like Valhalla where they can dwell alongside the greatest of men.
I call tech god ya nerds
dork
In other news, I'm going to publicly state (so that I feel like it's now an official deadline and I get the motivation that comes with time pressure) that it's my goal to take all of this talk into consideration, fill out some Google doc with a description of Mk. 3's most important mechanics, and get that posted on here within the next 36-60 hours.
That'll make it much easier to continue these talks whilst all being on the same page, so that we can iron out the final details.
i like how fast this went from we got no idea to ironing out the details and posting everything on google docs etc... reminds me back when we first started brainstorming mk2. things went out of control real fast xP we planned to start it in the summer, but the hype got real and ended up starting it on february LOL
More seriously, my stance towards Divinus hasn't really changed since the last time I commented on it. I need to focus on closing what I opened here, correcting my flagged discipline (towards which... no real progress has been made), and begin developing the skills I need to start independent, long-form multimedia narrative projects.
Then I might be able to consider taking on something new. But only then.
i like how fast this went from we got no idea to ironing out the details and posting everything on google docs etc... reminds me back when we first started brainstorming mk2. things went out of control real fast xP we planned to start it in the summer, but the hype got real and ended up starting it on february LOL
Got no idea?! Bro we got like 3 or 4 masterminds in here, not to mention my secret Think-Tank of monkeys locked in cages with nothing but typewriters and caffeine.
More seriously, my stance towards Divinus hasn't really changed since the last time I commented on it. I need to focus on closing what I opened here, correcting my flagged discipline (towards which... no real progress has been made), and begin developing the skills I need to start independent, long-form multimedia narrative projects.
Then I might be able to consider taking on something new. But only then.
Well, I haven't been able to contribute much to the discussion so far - I don't have anywhere as extensive an experience with the cogs and pieces of Divinus as most people here, and whenever I thought of a point someone had already made it by the time I logged in. But I did say I'd stick with this no matter what shape it took, so, if you'll have me, I'd be more than happy to tag along for Mk3. With this group, I know it'll be well worth it, whatever it ends up being.
