Bugman
Ladypug
VampiretwilightOk, here is everything I've written up on my game Tabula Rasa. As you can see, it gets a little dense but that's too be expected in a first draft of a game. Basically, players give actions or orders (similar to a NES ((Never-ending-story)) that seems to be popular on Civilization game fan sites) and the game master interprets those actions. I borrowed ideas from a dice-heavy world creation game my friends made a few years ago and the idea for The Void is directly pilfered from "Jerrys Map" (just google it) in order to introduce an end-game type scenario. Totally up for getting help in finishing and eventually playing this so comments/criticism are great guys! Also, @Gaebrael I hope I'm not hijacking your thread man, if I'm overstepping shut me down anytime. Thanks!
Tabula Rasa is a turn based story and world creation game that uses points to keep actions balanced and fair. Play progresses through turns in which players give orders/actions and a game master interprets that information and gives a turn summary, after which a new turn is started. In the middle-to-late Ages of play a new element called 'The Void' begins to invade the world.
As a god your responsible for keeping track of your faith and fabric points (more on that in a minute). You also need to keep a running record of all the things you create (races/monsters/cities/magic etc.) The GM will have this info too but its a good idea to keep your own record. A basic ledger looks something like:
The Void: An invader from a dimension of Chaos. The Void introduces an element of danger and end-game suspense whereby your races will have to work together to survive the undoing of reality.
Fabric: The very essence of reality. The ability to use this fabric is what gives your diety (and by extension, you) their powers. As actions are taken each turn, fabric is woven by your divine hand into the cloth of reality. Fabric replenishes automatically each turn.
Faith: Faith gives your god relevance and power in the mortal realm. Mortal followers feel a divine connection with your diety called faith Holy sites and followers create more faith. Faith is used to give direction to heroes, monsters and avatars.
Map: A map of the world divided by a grid into tiles with descriptions of each terrain,race, city, monster etc. on each tile.
Holy Site: A ruin, a temple, a natural feature. Holy sites are places of pilgrimage, learning, mysticism and protection. They create faith for your god and protect the world from The Void.
Gifts: Give up your turn (you may still give narrative exposition IC) to bestow a gift on a race you have created. This returns your Faith to 0 and your Fabric to _.
Cities:
City Description:
Actions within a city:
Races:
Races Description:
Race Traits?
Avatars: (Demi-gods) Avatars act as your agents in the mortal realm, gathering followers and raising Faith.
Monsters: Monsters are unique creations that are given free reign in the mortal realm. Depending on your faith level, a monster may listen to your orders or not. Mortal races may attempt to slay monsters.
Monster Description:
Monster Actions:
Avatar
Play is broken up into 'Ages' that follow a logical sequence. The Archaic Age sees the creation of the world, the Mythic Age is when races,monsters and magic are created. In the Age of Nations, countries are formed and war is waged. In the Twilight Era, our world comes to an end.
Before men, monsters and magic comes the world creation phase, to speed up this process, you might institute a 'grow' factor whereby terrain grows into adjacent spaces randomly each turn...
In which continents are formed, mountains, forests rivers and oceans take shape. The gods are concerned primarily with giving shape and name to the world in the Archaic Age, although some primordial races (at great expense!) may be given life.
1 Point Actions:
Create Terrain: Create any terrain imaginable on 1 empty grid space. (Give it a name so future mortals will know what to call it)
Destroy Terrain: Empties 1 grid space of all terrain and any occupying races/monsters/etc.
3 Point Actions:
Create Race: Give life to a race of your creation. Describe the race and set its alignment (evil, neutral, good)
An era of monsters, magic and the founding of the first cities. Avatars of the gods emerge and an invader from a dimension of chaos emerges.
2 Point Actions:
Create Race: Give life to a race of your creation. Describe the race and set its alignment (evil, neutral, good)
Build Holy Site: (direct your races to build a holy site in your honor to increase faith and protection from the void)
3 Point Actions:
Found City:
Form Magic:
Unique to the Archaic Age:
War on a large scale does not exist yet.
Primal forces are still at work.
Magic is perceptively weaker.
The Mythic Age
The era of heroes, gods, demi-gods and the foundations of magic.
The beginnings of civilization.
The Age of Nations
War is pretty common.
Actions become more expensive as mortals multiply.
The Twilight Era
The Void begins.
The ruin of time awaits.
Magic begins to waiver.
NOTES:
Decide starting number of Faith & Fabric Points. (amount of actions you can take each turn. Speculatively faith:0 and Fabric:3)
Possible 'Cool down' penalty for too many actions taken in one turn.
Players (Gods) may only have a certain number of magics/races/cities/holy sites on the ledger.
Tabula Rasa
Tabula Rasa is a turn based story and world creation game that uses points to keep actions balanced and fair. Play progresses through turns in which players give orders/actions and a game master interprets that information and gives a turn summary, after which a new turn is started. In the middle-to-late Ages of play a new element called 'The Void' begins to invade the world.
Player (God) Ledger
As a god your responsible for keeping track of your faith and fabric points (more on that in a minute). You also need to keep a running record of all the things you create (races/monsters/cities/magic etc.) The GM will have this info too but its a good idea to keep your own record. A basic ledger looks something like:
God Name (player)
Fabric Points (or just points): note: Points roll over each turn but you may never have more than 5 points
Faith: Maximum 5, faith may reach into the negative numbers. For each negative faith point, your cumulative Fabric point each turn is diminished by 1 So if Howard Dean has -1 Faith at the beginning of his turn, he will only receive _ Fabric Points for actions that turn. Ways for Faith to Decrease: Monsters destroy your (i.e. you created) city, holy site, or attack your race. Ways to for Faith to Increase: Build Holy Sites, Bestow Gifts on your followers.
Races:
Cities:
Monsters:
Avatar: (You may have only one)
Fabric Points (or just points): note: Points roll over each turn but you may never have more than 5 points
Faith: Maximum 5, faith may reach into the negative numbers. For each negative faith point, your cumulative Fabric point each turn is diminished by 1 So if Howard Dean has -1 Faith at the beginning of his turn, he will only receive _ Fabric Points for actions that turn. Ways for Faith to Decrease: Monsters destroy your (i.e. you created) city, holy site, or attack your race. Ways to for Faith to Increase: Build Holy Sites, Bestow Gifts on your followers.
Races:
Cities:
Monsters:
Avatar: (You may have only one)
Game Terms:
The Void: An invader from a dimension of Chaos. The Void introduces an element of danger and end-game suspense whereby your races will have to work together to survive the undoing of reality.
Fabric: The very essence of reality. The ability to use this fabric is what gives your diety (and by extension, you) their powers. As actions are taken each turn, fabric is woven by your divine hand into the cloth of reality. Fabric replenishes automatically each turn.
Faith: Faith gives your god relevance and power in the mortal realm. Mortal followers feel a divine connection with your diety called faith Holy sites and followers create more faith. Faith is used to give direction to heroes, monsters and avatars.
Map: A map of the world divided by a grid into tiles with descriptions of each terrain,race, city, monster etc. on each tile.
Holy Site: A ruin, a temple, a natural feature. Holy sites are places of pilgrimage, learning, mysticism and protection. They create faith for your god and protect the world from The Void.
Gifts: Give up your turn (you may still give narrative exposition IC) to bestow a gift on a race you have created. This returns your Faith to 0 and your Fabric to _.
Cities:
City Description:
Actions within a city:
Races:
Races Description:
Race Traits?
Avatars: (Demi-gods) Avatars act as your agents in the mortal realm, gathering followers and raising Faith.
Monsters: Monsters are unique creations that are given free reign in the mortal realm. Depending on your faith level, a monster may listen to your orders or not. Mortal races may attempt to slay monsters.
Monster Description:
Monster Actions:
Avatar
Ages of Play:
Play is broken up into 'Ages' that follow a logical sequence. The Archaic Age sees the creation of the world, the Mythic Age is when races,monsters and magic are created. In the Age of Nations, countries are formed and war is waged. In the Twilight Era, our world comes to an end.
The Archaic Age
Before men, monsters and magic comes the world creation phase, to speed up this process, you might institute a 'grow' factor whereby terrain grows into adjacent spaces randomly each turn...
In which continents are formed, mountains, forests rivers and oceans take shape. The gods are concerned primarily with giving shape and name to the world in the Archaic Age, although some primordial races (at great expense!) may be given life.
1 Point Actions:
Create Terrain: Create any terrain imaginable on 1 empty grid space. (Give it a name so future mortals will know what to call it)
Destroy Terrain: Empties 1 grid space of all terrain and any occupying races/monsters/etc.
3 Point Actions:
Create Race: Give life to a race of your creation. Describe the race and set its alignment (evil, neutral, good)
The Mythic Age
An era of monsters, magic and the founding of the first cities. Avatars of the gods emerge and an invader from a dimension of chaos emerges.
2 Point Actions:
Create Race: Give life to a race of your creation. Describe the race and set its alignment (evil, neutral, good)
Build Holy Site: (direct your races to build a holy site in your honor to increase faith and protection from the void)
3 Point Actions:
Found City:
Form Magic:
Unique to the Archaic Age:
War on a large scale does not exist yet.
Primal forces are still at work.
Magic is perceptively weaker.
The Mythic Age
The era of heroes, gods, demi-gods and the foundations of magic.
The beginnings of civilization.
The Age of Nations
War is pretty common.
Actions become more expensive as mortals multiply.
The Twilight Era
The Void begins.
The ruin of time awaits.
Magic begins to waiver.
NOTES:
Decide starting number of Faith & Fabric Points. (amount of actions you can take each turn. Speculatively faith:0 and Fabric:3)
Possible 'Cool down' penalty for too many actions taken in one turn.
Players (Gods) may only have a certain number of magics/races/cities/holy sites on the ledger.
