Dawn of Worlds - OOC

[Sudanna]

Dawn of Worlds is a system that turns worldbuilding into roleplaying. Starting with a blank map, players create a world filled with interesting terrain, races, civilizations, and history. Players take on the role of gods shaping a new world through various stages of development. I'm playing this on another forum and it's working well, so now SW gets to play too. I'm aiming for about six players, but if more people than that want to play, I'll stretch it or hold a raffle or something. This is a forum-based play-by-post game, not an IM one.

 

Before you join - this is both roleplaying and a game. Other players will not necessarily have the same idea in mind for the shape this world is supposed to take. Don't expect to be able to act on all of your ideas, don't get too attached to anything, and don't be surprised if someone kicks over your sandcastle. That said, this is primarily a collaborative game, not a competitive one. The goal is to make an interesting world, not to beat everyone else. Roleplay your gods in interesting ways, make both friends and enemies, but don't be a dick. If someone saves up 22 points to create a race in the first age, don't throw a meteor at them (at least not right away). If someone has stated an idea they're aiming for in OOC, don't ruin it for no reason. Be fun to play with.

 

In addition to the normal rules in the PDF linked above, there a few rules to make online play work a little better and a few houserules.

 

-There's no turn order. Reserve a post when you start working on your turn and edit your actions into it. First come, first served, but don't reserve a post if you're not ready to finish it in a timely fashion.

-Players will not be rolling their own points. As GM, I'll roll points for everyone simultaneously at the beginning of each turn. That doesn't mean I'll necessarily be going first every turn, mind.

-If a player hasn't taken their turn two days after it begins, they're skipped, barring planned excuses. They can continue on the next turn, but if they continue to be absent they may be removed or replaced.

-Creating biomes like desert, forest, savannah, etc. will be done using the Shape Climate power, not Shape Land. Shape Land is for geological formations like mountains, rivers, craters, lakes, etc.

-There's no increased cost for created nonstandard races, except at GM discretion. Don't be OP. If you think your race might be OP, ask.

-The rules mention purifying or corrupting areas, but give no corresponding powers. We will be using Purify/Corrupt Area powers, at the same cost as Purify/Corrupt City.

 

If you want to see an example of this system in action on a forum, check out the game here. If you have any questions about the rules, let me know!

 

 

The black square is the stand-in for the 1" area specified in the rules. It's 100x100 pixels.

 

Turn Format

[size=150]Title [turn ##][/size]
[u]Summary[/u]
[b]Power Available[/b]: [##]
[b]Actions taken[/b]:
[list]
[Action name] - [type, ##cost]
[Action name] - [type, ##cost]
[/list]
[b]Power Remaining[/b]: [##]
[b]Running Bonus[/b]: [##]
[u]Actions[/u]
[b][Action name][/b]
[Description of above action]
[Roleplaying/flavour notes, if required]
[b][Action name][/b]
[Description of above action]
[Roleplaying/flavour notes, if required]

[tridash]

<- interested

[Dikiyoba]

-There's no increased cost for created nonstandard races, except at GM discretion. Don't be OP. If you think your race might be OP, ask.

Does OP stand for overpowered?

 

Dikiyoba is interested.

[Sudanna]

Yes, it does.

[keira]

I can be interested, if that's what you're into

[Mosquito---Slayer]

I'll like to play too.

[Ouroboros]

Ooh I'm interested. Can I play?

[The Reverend]

I'm interested, but realistically I probably don't have enough time to devote to it in the near-term. Perhaps it'd be better for me to just observe, and maybe join a future instance of the game (or substitute if someone needs to drop out part way through).

[Sudanna]

Alright, we've got six players. Me, someone I assume is Tridash, Diki, Sy, Mosquito, and Ouroboros. I'll make the first post.

[Sudanna]

First post is up. Few things:

 

One, the font size tags aren't working for whatever reason. You'll have to do that part manually unless you know how they work better than me.

 

Two, please be careful about where you upload edited world maps, and always save them in formats that won't compress the file. If it gets resized, there will be compression artifacts and editing it will be a pain. Imgur works fine for this.

 

And three, please be consistent in how you edit the map. Use the same colors for the same things that other players are. Once someone makes an image for, say, a mountain or a mesa or whatever, use that same one. If you think you can make it prettier, you'll probably have to run it by us in the thread and replace every one.

 

Anyways, everything's good to go now, have fun!

[Sudanna]

Yeah, sorry about that, Mosquito. We all serve at the mercy of the dice.

[tridash]

I think it might be sensible for the legend to be a separate image, otherwise we'll run out of space for it.

[Mosquito---Slayer]

IMO it will look better if we drew the trees rather than just coloring the area green.

 

Also having 10 points makes me remember He-man.

[Sudanna]

I dunno, any excuse to not have things on a white background seems good to me. And forests can occupy the same space as hills or mountains, sharing space with the icons seems crowded.

[keira]

I would propose that biomes are colour-based on the map, and geologic features are icon or heightfield-based?

[Sudanna]

. . . I have no idea how we're supposed to do the same thing for the mountains as that. What program are you using, if we're going to be getting fancy about it?

[keira]

I'm using the GIMP 2.8.x branch. It's a variant of a method I've found online. Tbh it works a lot better at higher resolutions but oh well. I'll link it when/if I ever get home from work

[Mosquito---Slayer]

@Ouroboros, you don't get a running bonus if you finish with 5+ points.

[Sudanna]

Yeah, I'll put that in for next turns' rolls.

 

I've replaced the things that make editing a pain - the antialiased mountains and biome edges - with clearer alternatives. Also changed the volcanoes just for cosistency.

[Ouroboros]

@Ouroboros, you don't get a running bonus if you finish with 5+ points.

 

Yeah sorry just noticed that.

 

A couple of question here, can I create a special object or creature (Not a race, just one creature) ? If yes how many power does it cost?

[Sudanna]

Creature, no. You can make an avatar, but only after a civilization for them to be a part of has been created. They're not much use otherwise anyways.

 

Special object, like some sort of artifact? No. That would be a part of the Command Race or Command City powers, to have them make it.

 

Special object, like a holy mountain or haunted forest? Yes. You'll notice one of Sy's mountains is larger than the others - that's intentional. Make it as you would normally make it, and tell us how it's special when you're doing your roleplaying. Just be reasonable with any special qualities you give it. Any really cool powers would probably require you to Purify or Corrupt the area. Use the Purify/Corrupt City power for affecting areas of land.

[tridash]

(hope what I did there was ok)

[Sudanna]

Um. . . No, actually. Store Power isn't one of the powers. Not sure what it's really meant to do, even. You'll have to edit your post of I'll just refund the points next turn.

 

Thanks for merging the maps, though. That's my bad, I didn't notice Diki's post.

[tridash]

oh, ok, in the rules there seemed to be some idea of allowing the pooling of powers, that's what it was meant to enable.

 

feel free to refund the points.

[Sudanna]

Pooling power means that two or more gods combine their power points to do one big action. It's giving your points to someone else, basically. Was that supposed to just be giving your points to whoever wanted them?

[tridash]

right

[Sudanna]

Alright, that's fine then. Just be a little clearer in the future.

[Ouroboros]

We might need to update the legend.

[Sudanna]

Okay, like I said, giving an area special powers requires the use of Corrupt or Purify.

[keira]

everyone

 

i'd just like to point out that some of the river topography on this map is getting ridiculous

 

Firstly, rivers very seldom split into two unless it's at the mouth of the river where it meets a larger body. I strongly encourage everyone to look at Real Rivers and see how they perform. Let's take a look at a map of the missouri-mississippi river structure. Note that smaller rivers combine to create a large river. the mississippi doesn't say "hey screw this i'm gonna become two small rivers" at any point.

 

Secondly, I would ask that before anyone places any more rivers, if they do not already know how watersheds work, they take a look at wikipedia immediately. because as it stands, this will only work if there is antigravity water on this world.

 

 

I think antigravity water is taking the "because magic" handwave a little bit to far and maybe we should take the time to make this all make some sort of sense. It really ruins the immersion factor when there is water flowing up a plateau and then coming down the other side. Or when a river starts on the western shoreline of a continent and ends on the east.

 

[Sudanna]

It's a fantastical landscape. You can make rivers realistically if you like. You can even fix other peoples' rivers if you want to. But they can make them however they like, too. Basically nothing really works the way we're using it here, rivers being weird too isn't any different.

 

EDIT: Just to be clear, if Sy convinces you to fix some rivers, go ahead, but there's no compulsion to do so.

[tridash]

I changed my action to fit in better.

[Sudanna]

XD My apologies, Tridash.

[Sudanna]

Ouroboros, I subtracted the cost of a Purify Area from your points. Giving things special powers like you did with the Tree of Life forest isn't free.

 

Of special note: This is the last mandatory turn of the first Age. If you want to vote to advance to the next one, do so in your post. If three or more players vote to, then the age will advance.

[Ouroboros]

@Nayld Thanks for doing it, please let me know if I forget something again

 

@Syl I'll try to fix it later, and post it in OOC first so you can examine it.

[Dikiyoba]

everyone

 

i'd just like to point out that some of the river topography on this map is getting ridiculous

Just about everything else on the map is ridiculous and unrealistic. I mean, perfectly round mountain ranges? Tundra closer to the equator than tropical rainforests? This game is not going to generate an accurate fantasy world.

 

Dikiyoba.

[Mosquito---Slayer]

Also cursed plateau, Tree of life, blessed forest.... so..

[Ouroboros]

Alright before I try to fix my river I have a question, will it cost power or not?

[Sudanna]

Yes. It's a normal use of Shape Land.

 

However, since it's apparently bothering Sy, you might ask her to split the cost with you.

 

And, again, you don't have to do it if you don't want.

[Ouroboros]

After much consideration I will not repair the river after all. Sorry Syl, I will take your advice on future rivermaking though.

[Mosquito---Slayer]

Sylae, I have sort of corrected the Plateau-River thingy, I'm not convinced about the "Rivers can't span a whole continent thing" though, so it's up to you if you wish to do something about it.

[Dikiyoba]

Sylae, I have sort of corrected the Plateau-River thingy, I'm not convinced about the "Rivers can't span a whole continent thing" though, so it's up to you if you wish to do something about it.

In real life, water can only move down elevation, and never up elevation. So rivers always start at a high point (like a mountain slope) and end at the lowest point they can reach (usually an ocean). No river can travel from ocean to ocean because oceans are already the lowest point and water would have to travel uphill to form a river, which it can't do. However, some mountain ranges are found along one edge of a continent (not directly on the coastline, more like 50-100 miles inland), and if the water falls on the inland side of the mountain range, it may have to travel over most of the continent (always traveling downhill) before reaching an ocean.

 

(Also, don't forget that the plateau was cursed to -1 earlier, so the water source is blessed to 0, not to +1. It really shouldn't have any special properties, just normal ones.)

 

---

 

Dikiyoba votes NO to advancing. There's still a lot of blank space on the map, after all.

[Mosquito---Slayer]

In real life, water can only move down elevation, and never up elevation.

I know, the point is that the water source is the one I created on the plateau and all Rivers are starting from it and moving outwards, so they aren't moving up elevation.(Something like Himalyas, lots of rivers start from there, some move south towards India, some north towards china and other countries.)

But yeah, I will give a second blessing.

[Sudanna]

Diki was responding to this part of your post when talking about rivers:

 

I'm not convinced about the "Rivers can't span a whole continent thing" though

 

Anyways, if all you're doing is making that a water source, then you don't really need to Purify the area to do it. Lakes and rivers and springs are things that happen naturally; Shape Land is fine. Purify and Corrupt are for making things nicer or more awful.

 

If you want it to be a normal lake and not an awful one, one use of Purify would be necessary, since the area was corrupt to begin with, and if you're giving it special powers or something(even just making it a REALLY nice lake), you would use two. However, if you're just trying to make it a mostly normal water source for those rivers and lakes, all you need is Shape Land.

[Mosquito---Slayer]

Ah, now I get it.

 

So the problem is with the eastern rivers that start from sea and end at sea.

 

I think I will just go with two blessings, I will give some special power to it.

[Sudanna]

Yoohoo. . . Sy, Tri, and Ouroboros. . . You're due.

[Sudanna]

Okay, guys. Sy is dropping out. Much sadface. However, if anyone's interested in taking her place, there's now room for another player.

 

There might be room for more than that, too. Ouroboros and Tridash, you guys have until this time tomorrow before we're moving on without you.

[tridash]

should get it done tonight

[Ouroboros]

Sorry I have been busy with the preparations for final exams I should get it done tonight