New NESes, ideas, development, etc

[JohannaK]

I'm trying really hard to think of a good name for my next NES, the RepublicNES thing.

I was thinking Knights of the Old Republic, because everybody loves Star Wars.

Thoughts?

Ehhh, Senators of the New Republic?

 

[Milarqui]

I'd be in favor of custom ships for the player, if its not too much work for you, instead. I understand this is going to be a silly game with characters from many universes, I'm planning on a non-major Vault Hunter from Borderlands, but for some reason this bother me. Plus people would probably feel more attached and involved if they can make their own ship that fits their character.

Take this thing into account - it's the same ship for the entire group. It'd make no sense for each player to have his/her own ship, because then everyone would go their way and that would be quite horrible to keep up with. I'd say yes to the custom ship, but no to one ship per player.

 

[merciary]

Ah that makes more sense, I can see either option working in that scenario. Though some semblance of a pre-made ship might be better if everyone is going to be on it because if not people will bicker about it for ages.

 

[Nintz]

Alright, so I'm still running the previous NES I proposed with some level of success. I've been thinking about doing a 2nd at some point. Not soon, I don't think, but eventually.

One idea I had is to continue the NES. Take the history, and develop a world somewhere around 700 A.D. and have that be the continuation. Make the focus on religion, and clashing worlds. All within the alt-history of course.

I had another idea though to completely start a new NES with the players being the gods themselves. They would command the nations of Earth to do their bidding. Their devotion would imply how attentive they are to that order. Depending on time frame, there could also be an "Established Church Corruption" or something to represent what religious bodies do when given power. Namely, I am thinking of the Catholic Church here. (Note: I am referring to the Catholic Church at time of, or before, the Protestant Reformation occurred.) Maybe even tiered levels of "godhood" to represent the actual powers of the gods. For example, a minor god would have trouble becoming a nation's patron, but positioning yourself into a strong point (such as Ra in Egypt, or Ares in Greece), where you represent and hold power over an important item would give you significant bonuses. Monotheism a work in progress.

So, thoughts? I'm looking more for general direction and ideas than refinement at this point.

 

[Terrance888]

GodNESes are always fun, but hard to mod. You need to really define how much "power" someone "has" and know how to handle "creative" uses of power.

Also, if this is "developing monotheism" process, you might want to start with each player in a regional pantheon which might include other players. Even if you do this, only mark the major gods, aka the NPCs that might be patrons. A god that is only a patron of a single city state can have a smaller, simpler stats.

For example, City A might have Zeus, Aphrodite and Apollo as major gods while City B might have Athena, Poseidon and Apollo. Apollo would get "faith" from both cities. Zeus might also have influence in City B, but it is not large enough to be in the top three/five/whatevernumberyoucanhandle. Of course, this is if you go into city-states-detail. Most likely you will be talking about nations, big and small, for simplicity sake.

Finally, I think a way to track "proclamations" or "official responses" would be helpful in determining long-term growth of gods and nations. Athena and Poseidon are rivals over Athens, which Athena won. Athena and Apollo were on different sides of the Trojan war. Although short term you might find it easier to "wing it", in my experience it is best to keep track, and seeing the importance of godly relationships, keep updated inthread.

Remember, GodNESes are hard to mod, but always fun.

 

[Nintz]

I figured go big or go home, right?

As to your ideas, they line up pretty closely with what I was thinking before. I didn't think of keeping track of the relationships though. That's a good idea.

On the subject of "power", I was thinking along these lines. Any given god would have ultimate ability within their sphere. They could potentially expand that sphere (Apollo taking Helion's job). I feel I could probably handle creativity and all that, won't know until I try for sure. I don't think it is my job to limit the player though, but to interpret their actions.

 

[Terrance888]

ultimate ability

Oh no! The Sun God destroys the sun and refuses to send it back until we all worship him! (Aztecs version: make everyone go quite as the Priests make several sacrificial offerings).

You should think less "Limit" than "Regulate". An ability I think is crucial is to let a god overextend... for a price. For a random example.

A god of rain has 5 Faith Points and at 6 Strength. He wants to break a drought another god is imposing far away. You tell him that 5 Faith Points might be enough for him to bring rain, but it would be less successful because he doesn't have many worshippers there at that time. He can decide to sacrifice 2 of his strength for, say 6+5=11 Faith Points, spend 3 on a Prophet appearing there, 8 on brining rain, and 3 directly to counter the drought god and 2 to sustaining minor miracles closer to home.

At the end of it he is at 4 strength, but now he has 6 Faithpoints from the new region which is now under his control, and he can start to rebuild.

If he failed, he will might fewer faithpoints as his worshippers start noticing his weakness. It might not start immediately unless he sacraficed ALOT of strength, but they will eventually notice. Other gods might see this lack of strength as reason to attack and gain influence for themselves.

EDIT: Again, this is my ideas and impressions from playing/observing other GodNESes. Make it as simple or complex as YOU need it, and answer questions as specifically (this costs exactly 5 Faith Points) or open ended (6 is probably enough, but you might get away with 4; describe it) as you want. . As long as I know what I'm buying/playing, I'll eagerly contribute (time pending.)

 

[MoreEpicThanYou]

I'd like a continuation of your current NES, but I think the best way to do it would be a Punic Wars/Roman Empire era NES that focuses on internal politics as much as external.

 

[Nintz]

Oh no! The Sun God destroys the sun and refuses to send it back until we all worship him! (Aztecs version: make everyone go quite as the Priests make several sacrificial offerings).

So? Devotion(Faith) would drop like a cliff as people lose trust in the well-meaning of their god. He might gain some power and followers, but it would backfire bigtime in the long run. Basically, what you outlined in the rest of your post would happen. Over-extension=bad. I should still put a ban on world-wide cataclysms though. Thus preventing such events.

I'd like a continuation of your current NES, but I think the best way to do it would be a Punic Wars/Roman Empire era NES that focuses on internal politics as much as external.

Hmm... I can see the appeal. I imagine that is the natural Classical Era game. I'll think on it for sure. Ideally, I would like this NES to be a massive era-spawning game that makes it through as much as possible. Idealism obviously, but one can dream.

 

[Eltain]

KhaNES: A Republic NES

KhaNES: A Republic Fallen

KhaNES: Revenge of Chubbles

 

[Terrance888]

KhaNES: The United Federation of Nessos

 

[Grandkhan]

KhaNES: The United Federation of Nessos

You know, since I made my username I've basically just been waiting for somebody to make that joke.

I'm not too keen on names like 'Fall of the Republic', because the Republic doesn't necessarily have to fall. A big theme of the NES would be about the crisis of democracy, and its fall would have to be a very present threat, but its entirely possible for me to call an end to the NES when the Republican faction wins a civil war and is basically unchallengable and dominant.

 

[JohannaK]

KhaNES - Senatus Populus Que Romanus

 

[Milarqui]

KhaNES - Senatus Populus Que Romanus

KhaNES - Sono Pazzi Questi Romani

Spoiler :

If you don't get it, it's Italian for "These Romans are crazy", Obelix's catchphrase. If you don't know who Obelix is, then you are inferior beings for not knowing who's Asterix.

 

[JohannaK]

I see you're not only addressing me! That's a relief, I nearly felt offended at you thinking I would not know Asterix or Obelix or his catchphrase.
Also, a nice twist to my proposal, let's leave it as "SPQR"

 

[Milarqui]

Here it is the third installment of the preparations for CFC.com - The MES: the Actions!

Actions are what the Chrono-Travelers do during their adventures across the Multiverse. Depending on the situation the CTs are in, they may do between 1 and 5 actions per "update". The level of success or failure will depend on your attributes and a random number between 0 and 100, which will be determined through the throwing of 2d10.

This is the level of success/failure that a player can achieve, depending on the corresponding attribute (ATR) and the difference between 100 and ATR (DIF=100-ATR):

• 0 = Perfect Success: You not only achieve what you wanted, but it succeeds beyond all expectations. Maybe it goes a bit overboard, though.
• 1 to 20% of ATR = Big Success: You achieve what you wanted, and a little extra to boot.
• 21% to 50% of ATR = Success: You achieve what you wanted, no more, no less.
• 51% to 100% of ATR = Just Success: You nearly achieve what you wanted, but not completely like you wanted.
• ATR+1 to ATR+50% of DIF = Just Failure: You do not achieve what you wanted, but you still get something out of it.
• ATR+51% of DIF to ATR+80% of DIF = Failure: You do not achieve what you wanted, no more, no less.
• ATR+81% of DIF to 99 = Big Failure: Not only you do not achieve what you wanted, but you accidentally do something that runs against what you wanted to do.
• 100 = Perfect Failure: Not only you do not achieve what you wanted, but it all goes catastrophically wrong.

So, how would actions work?

• You want to throw a grenade that is about to explode as far from you as possible. You have STR 70, so in this case ATR=70. Dice thrown, you get a 22. That is a Success, so you just throw it away, and it explodes mid-air. If it had been a 71, it might have exploded near and caused some injuries on you, while, if it had been a 5, then not only it would explode away, but it might also help you find out something that could be useful.
• You have a grenade that you want to throw in a trench. You have STR 70 and PER 55. In this case, ATR=55 (the smaller number) and the dice say 92. This would be a Big Failure, which means you could have sent it at your partners instead of your enemies. A 0 would have killed all of your enemies, and perhaps cause a brutal explosion that may hurt you and/or your partners if the explosion wave also hit something else. A 100 would have probably either end up with the grenade flying out of your hand in such a way that it would end up right behind you.

Every action will also give experience towards getting Abilities. Thus, after a few times of dealing with repairing a machine, you would get the Mechanic ability. This is fundamental, as the more complicated tasks will reduce the ATR factor, thus making it more difficult to succeed. To put an example, it is not the same to heal a cut than to make an appendix extraction operation.

Also, some extra about the ship. In the end, I think it'll be better if the ship is semi-customized by the players.

• Initially, the ship will have the following: Pilot Cabin (from where the ship is directed), 2 Bunk Dorms (where everyone will sleep) w/ Bathrooms, Armory (for the weapons, ammo and other instruments of death), Meeting Room (to plan and all of that), 2 Shuttles (in case you want to "park" the ship on space and then reach the alt-Earth's surface, or if you want to travel with something more discreet), Storage (where you can keep everything that is not a weapon) and Motor Room (which you kind of need to have access to if you want to repair it).
• The stats of the ship (Motor, Shields, Weapons, etc) will be decided by the players after the first mission. It will be also then when a Multi-Dimensional Expansion is done (basically, making it bigger on the inside than in the outside), thus allowing the players to install whichever expansions they want.
• Expansions can be either built by the players or bought in the Hub (the central timeline). The former will require several successful throws and materials, while the latter will require money, and can be individual rooms, a kitchen, bigger storage space, a shooting range (to practice, of course), a mechanic's workshop, a medical wing... if it is useful (or even if it isn't, like a swimming pool or a cinema room), then you can build and equip it.

Next post will deal with Abilities and Disabilities. If you want your ideas to be known, send them on PMs, that way the thread can be dedicated to comments on this and other NES suggestions.

 

[JohannaK]

This somehow reminds me of how an AC works. Actually, it sounds as if this was an AC...

 

[Milarqui]

This somehow reminds me of how an AC works. Actually, it sounds as if this was an AC...

What's an AC?

 

[JohannaK]

I knew someone would ask that.

It's a kind of game in which players create their characters and buy stuff in the thread and do missions on a chat. Very dinamic... and lulzy.

I believe there are a couple going on currently in Forum Games. Well, basically Saviors of a Broken World 1.5, but I believe Under the Mask is still going on...

 

[Milarqui]

Hmmm. I've checked them both, and sound interesting.

My idea is a bit different, but yeah, mine and theirs are similar ideas. Though, I am using different systems for the stats, abilities and others. My system does not have leveling like in the AC, either: in my system, players get experience in the abilities as they use them.