New NESes, ideas, development, etc

What would a map show? nations, with an overlay of where our power is significant?
 
gender: male (Needed?)
If the picture doesn't show it. I need to know if the god is a he, a she or an it.
What would a map show? nations, with an overlay of where our power is significant?
It would show terrain, with cities, villages, important locations, temples and such placed.
 
aspect: Earth

Okay, one more nitpick, because this is vital. That's not how aspects work. What the hell is "Earth"? The planet? Soil? The classical element? None of those require gods as such and exist beyond them. For this idea to work, gods should represent ideals or traits. For instance, replace "Earth" with "Fertility" (commonly misinterpreted in god-using fantasy as "Nature"), or with "Endurance" (Order?). It is also usually associated with practicality and materialism. That's also something you could work with. It could even be simply the god of humans. Or of trolls, as the case may be.

But not "Earth", because that is either too specific or too vague and is not really an aspect at all.
 
I was thinking in the lines of "god of water, god of law, god of tricks..." and so on. Are those too vague? The idea is that the aspect would be what the god mostly controls, so the god of earth would control the rocks mainly, but also the soil and land and so on. I want some overlap so that the gods can wrestle over influence in something but not too much (like the gods of earth and fertility battling over the control of the soil)



(Of course I want feedback and improvement, but I just test it and explain my ideas)
 
I think that what a god controls should proceed from his actions and his aspect, not vice versa. A god of water is as bad as a god of earth (another point to be raised against them is the sheer amount of aquatic and chthonic deities in Greek mythology alone, by the way. And none of them are gods of water or of earth, naturally). A god of law is good, though; a god of tricks is too specific (like calling a god of war a god of "killing people with swords") and is best replaced with a god of discord. As to overlapping, all aspects will inevitably overlap in one way or another anyway. That said, what does a god need soil for? A god of fertility needs merely to cultivate fertility, and if a god of earth is basically a god of the underworld then I fail to see any real conflict of interest, as if anything the latter benefits from the success of the former (the more things are born, the more things die). Both, however, will obviously have problems with a god of discord. The god of the underworld would likely not get along well with the god of healing. The god of fertility would likely have some conflict with the god of destruction.
 
*Dreams of sending Ice Maidens to terrorise a rival gods township, while sending sunshine to improve harvests and grow some DI points*

;)
 
I think that what a god controls should proceed from his actions and his aspect, not vice versa. A god of water is as bad as a god of earth (another point to be raised against them is the sheer amount of aquatic and chthonic deities in Greek mythology alone, by the way. And none of them are gods of water or of earth, naturally). A god of law is good, though; a god of tricks is too specific (like calling a god of war a god of "killing people with swords") and is best replaced with a god of discord. As to overlapping, all aspects will inevitably overlap in one way or another anyway. That said, what does a god need soil for? A god of fertility needs merely to cultivate fertility, and if a god of earth is basically a god of the underworld then I fail to see any real conflict of interest, as if anything the latter benefits from the success of the former (the more things are born, the more things die).
Ok. But it's up to the players after all, so I'll balance it so that the more vague and universal an aspect, the less powerful a god in it.
 
Fair enough, though personally I'd really rather not have such nonsense at all. Just define a god's aspect as some specific tenet or ideal.
 
Fair enough, though personally I'd really rather not have such nonsense at all. Just define a god's aspect as some specific tenet or ideal.

I think you'll definitely have balance issues if you do something like that. Just use your judgment and call people out who attempt to have an "earth" aspect. Given that its more of a story and less of a stats NES, they shouldn't have too big a problem with trying to be all-powerful, as that would be boring.

I would also like to echo das' complaint earlier about basing power off of number of mortals influenced. Not many people like the God of Death in any religion (although you will have freaky cultists, people in Greece and Rome didn't even like to talk about him because you might bring his attention on you), but he was still one of the most powerful gods. People tended to worship who they needed at the time (thats the benefit of a pantheon, specialization); for instance, a soldier might worship Mars primarily, or he might worship the divinity inherent in the Roman State. He might also worship Apollo, or Asclepius. When he goes back to his farm, though, he'll give offerings to Ceres for his grain, and Juno for his wife's health in childbirth.

Only gods that desire worshippers for some reason are even going to bother going after them (well, duh, LB). Zeus will get his sacrifices either way, and he will be the mightiest either way. If he has to create a new race to do it, well he has that power regardless of current number of worshippers.

Unless, of course, the god is trying to bring some specific event about in the world (like the God of Chaos wanting to bring darkness across the land), he's not going to require too many followers. Of course, if his actions upset the natural order too much, the other gods will oppose him in the heavens and then his followers will be out in the cold.

That said, I really like the avatar system (although that could be because thats how my nation was in Swiss's short-lived but ridiculously fun Magic NES). That sort of thing (invoking the gods) could be based off of followers or somesuch business I suppose. (Although they came and went as they pleased, but I guess we need some limits in-game :p)
 
I'm working on an 1865 NES, loosely inspired by Iggy's SteamNES, about Charles Babbage inventing the computer in 1858.

I'm finishing up a first draft of the map now, just doing some extra detail on the rebellions in China, the French Intervention in Mexico, and the cease-fire lines in the Civil War, following a Southern victory at Gettysburg.

I've received permission from North King to use a modified version of his ruleset, and am intending a tech tree with 16-24 techs becoming researchable every fifteen years. 1865's tech group is going to be a bit more realistic as I have to provide for countries that don't have a Babbage Machine, but 1880, '95, and onwards should see more Steampunk stuff.
 
And because of this, Shadowbound is my hero :D What style of map are you using?
 
I hope NK's
 
I have to clean up the map the bit, but most of the work is in text now.

Spoiler :


Working title is The Long Drum Roll, but I'm looking for a better one.
 
Here's a map of the world right after World War II (1/1/1946) using Symph's 2008 map as a base map. Feedback will be appreciated.

Spoiler :
 
Need to sort the colours out... Too many nations virtually the same red.

Personally I would prefere a the map on the "non-glow" version.
 
Ugly Soviet color. Color key is slightly flawed like every current sample (there's a duplicate of one of the colors). Abaddon is also apparently getting senile considering the only major red countries are Japan and the UK, so you should feel free to ignore him.
 
I have a friend who has designed a game called "playing gods" and he hopes to have it for sale in August. It could easily be turned into a NES and it uses a world map. His website is not up yet (www.playinggods.com). Players take the role of Buddha, Christ, not Mohammed, Shiva, or Moses. The goal is to get converts on a risk like world map.
 
Don't be an ass Symph, Russia not count as major anymore? An there are at least 10 nations all on a red that is very close to another.
 
@Abaddon: Occupation zones and colonies ring a bell?

Anyway, I have to agree that the USSR has to be not a dirty peach. Properly-applied shift (or something else) -clicking with zero-tolerance will do the trick for duplicates.
 
Shouldnt occupuied zones be indicated as such? It not like Germany was owned completly by the UK as the map implys..
 
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