Myrmidon

[PlotDevice]

Cool! shall be a neat compare and contrast!

I like the caste thing, should turn out quite interesting.


Evan

[PlotDevice]

[PlotDevice]

having a bad case of insomnia tonight (2:30am here) so trying to get out of it by doing some work. Not sure how this is all hanging together yet, it may be too complex because of the multiple structure layers.

Something in the insect seems to be alien to the habits, morals, and psychology of this world, as if it had come from some other planet: more monstrous, more energetic, more insensate, more atrocious, more infernal than our own.
—Maurice Maeterlinck (1862-1949)

3 decks of cards needed:

Pantheon Cards (1 set), Motive Force Cards (1 set per player), and Entomology cards (1 set per player).

Dice use still not firmed in, it will be relevant in phase 2 (see below)

Pantheon Cards
Olympian
Zeus is the most senior god, the ruler of Mount Olympus
Poseidon, together with Hades is one of the two next most senior gods, controlling the oceans
Athena is the goddess of wisdom, the arts, inner beauty, education and war
Ares is the god of war and heroes
Artemis is the goddess of the hunt, animals, fertility and chastity
Hephaestus is the god of fire, worksmanship, artisans and weaponary
Apollo is the god of dance, music, healing and medicine, archery and reason
Hermes is the god of guidance, travellers, shepards, concelation and reunions
Aphrodite is the goddess of love, committed sexuality, outer beauty and attraction
Hera is the consort of Zeus, and the goddess of marriage, sacrifices and fidelity
Dionysus is the youngest god of the Pantheon, and is the god of intoxication and open sexuality
Hestia is the goddess of the home, family and the hearth

Chthonian
Hades is the second of the next most senior gods, taking care of all souls after they leave the earth
Demeter is the goddess of the earth, flowers and plants, food, preservation of marriage and agriculture
Persephone was the daughter produced by the union of Zeus and Demeter.
Gaia is the earth and the all mother
Hecate is the goddess of magic
Erinyes are the furies, and creatures of vengeance
Atlas (the stong)
Promethius (fore thought)
Epimitheus (after thought)
Menoetius (ruined strength)
Mnemnosyne (memory)
Nemesis (vengeance)

Universal
Clotho is the spinner of life thread
Lachesis is the alotter the drawer of lots
Atropos is the inevitable, the cutter of the thread
Ouranos is the Greek name of the sky,
Chaos is the primeval state of existence from which the first gods appeared
Nyx was the primordial goddess of the night.
Erebus was a primordial god, personification of darkness
Eros was the god responsible for lust, love, and sex
Tartarus is both a deity and a place in the underworld
Chronos (time)
Aether (the barrier, upper space)
Ouranos is the Greek name of the sky,

Mortal
Euterpe (music)
Calliope (epic poetry)
Clio (history)
Erato (lyric poetry)
Melpomene (tragedy)
Polyhymnia (sacred poetry)
Terpsichore (dancing)
Thalia (comedy)
Urania (astronomy)
Aglaea ("splendor, brilliant, shining one")
Euphrosyne (Mirth, joy)
Nike (victory)

Motive Force Cards
annihilation destroy everything
approval gain respect of others.
assimilation make others part of you
assumption become one with divine
authority have others obey you
chrysalis change into new being
comprehension know all
consumption eat others
continuance maintain status quo
emergence make divine enter world
ethics do what is right
freedom avoid all control
hedonism enjoy that which is
hibernate hide till things are better
independence remove all compulsions
morality make everything better
mortality become human
oblivion to be not
procreation to increase species
projection make others be as you
reversion make it as it was
stasis freeze everything
symbiosis to be with
unity all shall be as one

and a minor ajustment or two on the Entomological ones. won't bother to put it here till final version.

Game play is on two levels, in three basic phases:

God-Myrmidon-God

The gods gather in the modern age. They need to gather to share the Ambrosia, much harder to gather than it used to be. The bees and doves are not as forthcoming as they once were. Whats more, they used to only have to gather once a century, then it was once a decade, then once a year. Now it is once a season...

Deal out 3 cards to each player. This represents their potential gods they have to play in this scenario. They choose one god as the Companion, and place it face up in front of them. Keep the other cards.

Play a scene with these gods getting together in the modern age, near the End of the Era. Describe what form they come in, and how the mortals react. They partake of the Ambrosia, renewing their immortal blood, but there is less ambrosia than they recall. Still, there is more than they need, so after the sustaining draught, they traditionally gamble with the remainder of their wine. At start they have 12 draughts, one drunk, each. So they tell of the past, of the only remaining beings that truly worship them, the Myrmidons.

They may choose to brag of whom they know a story, (or bluff…) speaking of the remaining cards in their hands. An option to not play is allowed. Buying in is one drink. Three cards are dealt out open. Players then bid their wine upon their cards, or fold... some mechanical questions yet to sort out here. There will be hand guestures in this mini-game, and rewards for winning as well as rewards for what roles are chosen...

Play of the cards is for the roles in the story. At the end of the card game, one person will be the Narrater (and will set the scene in the past for the story that happened), another will be the Adversary (and will have the gods in their hand to play as opponents to the Myrmidons in their actions, and the remainder will be the Protagonists for the story.

Players then assess their Myrmidon's position (entymology cards) and may change it for this era. Depending on what Entymology cards they put in play it will determine what their abilities are. Also this will determine what Motives they can bring into play.

The second phase then starts with the players taking on the role of the Myrmidons in the period in history that the Narrater dictates. they are playing to advance their Motives. If at the end of the historical play the character has advanced thier motives and still qualify for them (ie their Enymology cards have not been changed so they no longer qualify for them) they get the bonuses for those motives permanently added to those E. cards in play.

The third phase is resolution of the HisStory phase and the Gods repartitioning the Ambrosia depending on how the story went (and other things perhaps).

Some more notes on the Myrmidon:

The four lores of the Myrmidon

First Oath: A Myrmidon must not harm or through inaction allow others to harm any child of Gaia. (Natural Lore)

Second Oath: A Myrmidon must not break an oath sworn in the name of the gods, save if it breaks the first Oath. (Divine Lore)

Third Oath: A Myrmidon must not disobey any order given them in their own name except where it conflicts with their previous Oaths. (Myrmidon Lore)

Fourth Oath: A Myrmidon may not turn away any that claim asylum save if this cause any previous Oath to be broken. A bond of honesty and service then exists between host and guest until the sun sets on the day after asylum is claimed. (Mortal Lore)

- Myrmidons can accuse one another of transgression. Such accusation requires a God to judge who must not be the companion of either party. The accuser begins the ritual and makes the sacrifice, and the defender nominates an Olympian to judge.

OK, that is enough of a dump for the minute... might try to roll over and close eyes and see if it helps...

g'night all! or G'day. Whatever.
Evan

[PlotDevice]

I think I have surmounted most of the problems I have with the uber (diety) system now...

But I still have an action resolution system for the Myrmidons to concoct. They have four stats, determined by the Entomological Cards they have in play. The stats have numeric values and chromatic qualities. The stats are directly related to the effects that the character can evoke with them, rather than based on any vital statistics.

Obtain (which covers everything from learning to theiving)
Alter (which covers craft and creation, and most Olympian powers)
Control (all the social skills and abilities to influence)
Harm (causing damage and avoiding it)

The numbers are rated from 0 to X where X can be set still... probably 10 or 12.

Ummm.... thinking now.

OK the colours... and the Qualities of stats.
Purple Monster
Orange Hive
Green Titan
Red Insect
Yellow Human
Blue Chthonian
White Olympic

The Colour indicates How the Myrmidon performs the action, so for example, Aquire Yellow 10 means that the character is as good as a Human at aquiring things at rank 10.

The quality is not just magnitude, it is also attitude. An Olympic entity who is Aquiring something is likely to demand it as if it is their right to receive it. If they have high enough rank, this may in fact occur. A Human aquiring something might use subterfuge, trickery or mutual exchange to obtain their object. In any case, the effect is the same and uses the same resolution system... which is...

hm... so many options... need to incorperate the three items from one roll thing here. Will sleep on it.

G'night again all!

Evan

[jmstar]

It may be a little late in the game to be offering unsolicited advice, but have you considered some three-dimensional representation? I'm thinking of a cube, which would give you six general options/choices instead of cards, which are either dual-choice or require funky physical combinations/facing.

you could use blank dice, or assign numbers to the facets that are important to your design. They would no longer be randomizers, just - representers.

Just a thought.

[PlotDevice]

Thanks for that!

I was thinking of using dice to represent a Myrmidon's current statistics, because they are so potentially fluid. So dice colour represents stat quality, and dice face indicates current value.

Was that what you were talking about? Or did you have another possible application?

Warm regards,
Evan

[jmstar]

It just seems like a good way to control a character facet with numerous possibilities - instead of manipulating card combination or position, you just turn the die to another face. That's what I was trying to get at. The down side, of course, is that you can't cram much information on a die.

[PlotDevice]

Got you now.

Don't think it exactly fits with what I have in head, but idea has merit.

I think I might instead limit the ability to move a card's Position once it is in play significantly, but allow it to be turned so a different face points in a different direction, thus generating different effects. This limits the multiplicity of the situation enough that I would hope it was both maleable and managable.

But I have taken the underlying point on board. Anomaly said to me yesterday that now I have a fairly complex set of situations so I need to simplify as much as possible from here on in.

Warm regards,
Evan

[Anomaly]

I don't recall saying that, but I'll happily take credit for it.

The use of this forum as a developer diary makes for fascinating reading. I find it distracting as I keep wanting to see how others develop their ideas (I've still got a bit to do before mine is finished).

Michael.

[PlotDevice]