Myrmidon

[jmstar]

I agree that lurking on the design process of others is rewarding and fascinating.

You know what I'd like to see? A game chef contest with some very rigid parameters - one constrained theme, one specific ingredient, one tightly-defined mechanic. The diversity of designs that sprang from that would be truly interesting to observe...

[PlotDevice]

Have you had a look through the historic Chef events? The restrictions were a bit tighter there (especially if you consider the simulationist year IMHO).

I think having one theme is neat as a core limit. History is quite broad in that sense, however... Look at the variety here!

I might talk to Andy K at some point after this years grand event for 24 hour RPGs... that could be a neat avenue for what you are suggesting.

Warm regards,
Evan

[PlotDevice]

More brain dumping:

Terms:
Myrmidon: The construct of the gods: granted on a prayer. Insect become human, they are the perfect worshipper. The Gods owe them a debt of life, and so they cannot die.
Prologue Phase: The start of the Story Arc, in which the gods gather and the type of story, setting, time and opponents are decided.
Story Phase: This is when the main action of the Story Arc takes place. Players are one of the Protagonist Myrmidons, the Narrator or the Adversary. Finishes when all the challenges are spent or when there is consensus that the story has played out.
Epilogue Phase: The end of the Story Arc where rewards are allocated among the Myrmidons and the gods.
Draught: One portion of the Wine of the gods. One Draught of Ambrosia is represented by a single Token.
Speaker: In the Prologue the person who has the floor. No one else may perform any bidding or challenging unless the Speaker yields the floor to them.
The Floor: Owning the floor is the same thing as being the Speaker.
Narrator: Person that is telling the story, providing the descriptions and adjudicating actions. The Narrator is responsible for the Setting and the incidental characters.
Adversary: Person who providing the challenges that the Protagonists face in the story. The Adversary is responsible for the key opponent characters and works with the Narrator to create the plot.
Protagonist: Person who is acting in the story, responsible for the central character (s).
The Stakes: The Stakes are what is at risk in any game. The stakes are committed in the Bidding phase of the Prologue. All the Drained Draughts in the are placed in the Centre Chalice. The Stakes are distributed in the Epilogue game phase.
Open Bidding action: An open bidding action is used to add resources to the stakes of the story. Placing an Open Bid Devotes the Draughts equal to the value of the bid from the God’s chalice to your Myrmidon’s Amber pool for that Story.
Closing Bidding action: An closing bidding action is used to commit to a role in the story, and give up the opportunity for the other roles.
Challenge: An open bidding action. To place a challenge is to open up resources for other bids to use. You can challenge with Pantheon cards or Motive Force cards.
Buy In: An open bidding action. To buy in is to add resources to any open challenge. You must match the resource cards of the original bid in type and number, and Devote the same number of Draughts.
Nominate: A closing bidding action. To nominate is to indicate who you want for Narrator or Adversary. The nominated player’s bid is then strengthened by your cards held of the relevant type: Narrator is strengthened by your Motives cards, Adversary by your Pantheon cards. You can immediately place more cards into play of the kind that you are supporting if you wish. You can Nominate twice, once for each position (unless you have first offered). The first time you nominate if you have not Offered you are indicating you are giving up your chance at Narrating or playing the Adversary.
Offer: A closing bidding action. To place an Offer on the Table is to indicate you are willing to be the Narrator or Adversary this Story Arc. To Offer Narration you must state a Time and Place, and a Central Theme. The Central theme can come from your Motives, or can come from any Open bids. To Offer Adversity you must place a minimum of one Pantheon card from your hand, face up in front of you. You can also use any open Pantheon cards to strengthen your Offer. Once you have Offered the only actions you can perform is to Claim an Open resource, Nominate someone for the other Role or Rescind.
Claim: Only bidding action available to someone that has made an Offer. A Claim allows the player to claim any one open resource of the kind relevant to their chosen Offer.
Rescind: An Open bidding action. In order to change your mind you must Drain one Draught to the Centre Chalice. You then rescind any Offer on the Table or Nominations you have made. You retain all resources and all losses you have undergone till then through your bidding strategy, however.
Foreshadowing: The transition from Prologue to Story phase. When all bids are closed, compare the Card totals of the Offers on the Table. The Offers with the Highest number of cards of their type win, ties are resolved by vote of the other players (show of hands): Bribing for votes is allowed. Any remaining ties are resolved by dice roll. Anyone with an Offer on the Table that is not taken up must buy in as a Protagonist, sacrificing their open Pantheon cards to the Adversary and buying in any Motives they want in play by Draining the number of Draughts (not Devoting them).
Ambrosia: The Wine of the Gods. Timeless and fragrant. Measured in Draughts, it represents eternity, immortality and actions that are heroic enough to transcend time itself.
Draining: Moving a Draught from any pool to the Centre Chalice.
Devoting: Moving a Draught from a God’s Chalice to a Myrmidon’s pool. The action is only available in the Prologue Phase, or if the God is Summoned into the story.
Discarding: Moving a Card to the Discard Pile.
Token: Any glass bead or poker chip can be used to represent a Token.
Companion: The one Pantheon card safe from the Adversaries influence. This is the Myrmidon’s only definite Divine Patron and Support.
Wine: See Ambrosia, Draining, Devoting and Draught. The Wine of the Gods is timeless, and returns if spent wisely.
Configuration: The status of a Myrmidon represented by their Entomology cards in play. Configuration can be Free, Locked, Reinforced and Modified.
Accuse: A Myrmidon can Accuse any other Myrmidon of transgression against any of the Four Lores. The accusation summons a god to Adjudicate between the two. The God can be as fickle or as honest as they wish.
Summoned: Summoned Gods are brought bodily into the story. They can act under the control of the Narrator for one scene per Draught Drained to maintain the Summoning.

Use of Draughts:
· Narrator can Drain Draughts to resurrect something from the discard pile to their hand or back into play, or to modify any conflict one way or another in the name of drama. Narrator Draughts are the most powerful. The Narrator must Drain a Draught to take control of a challenge or opponent.
· The Adversary can Drain Draughts to add multiple layers to a challenge, or to force a stand off result on a dice roll where a Challenge is losing. Adversary Draughts are second in power. It does not cost the Adversary any Draughts to assume control of any Pantheon card in play, but they cannot assume control of the Companion of a Myrmidon.
· Myrmidons Drain Draughts to Modify or Reinforce their Configuration. They can also Drain to Accuse and to Summon Companion. Myrmidon Draughts rank third most powerful.
· Gods can give each other Draughts at will (including the Narrator and Adversary if wanted). Gods drain draughts to tweak a success level up or down. Summoned Gods can Devote a Draught to their Companion Myrmidon, and can Drain Draughts as an Adversary. God Draughts are the least powerful, unless Summoned.

[nyarly]

I'm astounded by the sheer volume you've produced about your plucky little ant people and their animating forces. Honestly, I'm a little lost about how it all ties together and have been wondering like a lost child through your postings. Fascinating. I've got no idea what's going on.

[PlotDevice]

I have only two more major hurdles and then I shall start drawing in all the threads. I hope it all pulls together. It works in my head, but it is a little different to things I have tried before.

I think there will need to be a lot of support text and stories, and I am not sure how much of it I will get time to do. And the bare bones of a monster this size will be harder than a brontosaurus to understand how it all hangs together.

It is a challenge. I have a few days left. We shall see if it is coherent at the end...

Remaining Key Issues:

(1) Myr task resolution
(2) Statting out all the Entymology cards.

I will hopefully finalize the turn descriptions for the Prologue phase and post it in a bit. Then I will attack the outstanding #1. Then number 2. THen plugging any holes. Then finally hanging it all together.

Argh.
Evan

[MikeSands]

[PlotDevice]

Indeed! but that would be piking out!

Hmmm... this stuff might be OK... lets pop it here.

Sample Prologue Dialogue:
Offer to Narrate: “I know a tale of things that transpired in South Africa, During the Boer War. Shall I tell it?”
Offer of Adversity: “I can tell that Hades is in this story. His pale hands and cold stare chills the heart of any he opposes.”
Challenge: “I am interested in hearing a tale of despair. Someone desiring their end, a Tragedy if you can.”
Nominating: “Selandra the Myrmidon was in South Africa at that time. I recall he prayed for help against the forces of death.”

Prologue Turn order
Set Up: Players each need to bring 1 cup or bowl for holding the draughts their Companion has in reserve. The number of Draughts in the each player gets starts at default of 10. If the players are playing an unending game this default stays each story. If they are playing the Epic Confrontation version, the amount reduces by one after each tale. At the start each player gets dealt 3 face down Pantheon cards (or 2 if this is not the first game) and can select up to four Motive Force cards (hidden). If this is the first session they also get dealt four face down Entomology cards.
Step 1: If this is the first session, conduct an open auction of Draughts for the right to choose the Speaker. If not the first session, the last Narrator has the right to choose the Speaker, but cannot choose themself. If no one bids or there is a tie, dice off for the right. Draughts spent in an Auction are Drained.
Step 2: Yield the floor to the Next Speaker. To Yield the floor to the next speaker, raise your cup and say something like “I have spoken, who next?” Each player indicates they want to be nominated by raising their cup. Those who have closed bids at this time, but want the Floor must raise their Chalice with two hands. Those who cannot accept the Floor (they have had an action that round) or who want to abstain from any action this round can place their hand over their chalice. You can yield to anyone who does not have their chalice covered, but if there is more than one person with their chalice raised you must choose between them rather than picking someone who had not raised their chalice.
Step 3: The Speaker must make a bid. Once you have the floor you must make a bidding action of some kind. (list is in the definitions above.)
Step 4: Bidding/ challenging and Nominating continue till all have bid or challenged once that round. If all have Bid, move to Foreshadowing (step 5). If there are players who have not placed closed bids, move to the next round (step 2)
Step 5: Forshadowing. When all bids are closed, compare the Card totals of the Offers on the Table. The Offers with the Highest number of cards of their type win, ties are resolved by vote of the other players (show of hands): Bribing for votes is allowed. Any remaining ties are resolved by dice roll. Anyone with an Offer on the Table that is not taken up must buy in as a Protagonist, sacrificing their open Pantheon cards to the Adversary and buying in any Motives they want in play by Draining the number of Draughts (not Devoting them).

[PlotDevice]

OK only one major issue left, then I shall madly try to get the timing right in producing the full three courses.

Myrmidon stats: Entomology cards are rated from 1 (best) to 5 (worst) in the four stat areas. The colour of the stat dice is determined by the colour of the faces of the cards pointing in the Stat direction (see normal colour combinations). The number of faces on the dice determined from the chart below: Add the scores on that side together and times 2. See below:

Multiplication result
4 = d4
6 = d6
8 = d8
10 = d10
12 = d12
14+ = d20

Myrmidon Action Declaration:

Protagonist declares action to be attempted. Unopposed actions automatically succeed as described byt the player.

Adversary (or involved Protagonist or the Narrator) declares resistance to the action, and shows the Opposition dice. Protagonist then puts in the active Statistic dice. The Narrator declares any situational modifiers and adds in the Setting dice. (Note that the Narrator must play two d10s of the theme colour of the story if they oppose an action without the support of the Antagonist)

Myrmidon Action Target
Count the number of dice that are the same colour as each other. This determines the target number of the effort. This outlines the chance of success or failure.
No colour the same: Target 1
Two colours the same: Target 2
All colours the same: Target 3

Myrmidon Action Result
Roll the dice. Anyone can roll them, usually the Protagonist, because it feels good.
The lowest number indicates success of the action. If it is under or equal to the target the action succeeds. If it is over the target the action fails. A failed action takes as long as indicated on the high dice, and still has a magnitude of effect from the second dice.
The highest number is the resilience of the opposition. It indicates how long the action takes to complete by comparison to an unopposed action of the same kind. So a result of 6 would mean that the action takes six times as long to complete than if it were unopposed. This is mostly relevant for description purposes, or if there are other actions going on at the same time, so as to see who ends and action first.
The middle number represents the Magnitude of the result.
Magnitude
1 Godlike
2 Legendary / Cataclysmic failure
3 Superheroic / Abysmal failure
4 Heroic / Dismal failure
5+ Mortal / Simple failure

Adversary notes:
Pantheon Cards:

Every pantheon card in play gets 24 sides worth of dice as a non-renewable resource. When it comes into play the dice are allocated to challenges. A Companion Pantheon card can only come into play when Summoned. So a Pantheon card might have a d4 challenge and a d20 challenge, or 3d8 challenges, or 2d6 and 1d12 or any other combination thereof. The sides can be allocated at will as the need for them arrises. The Adversary does not need to declare which pantheon card is posing which challenge, but they must record the dice bought against each card privately. The Adversary can buy dice of different colours to the Card that plays them, but the cost increases depending on how far the colours are from each other.

Pantheon Card (White): Buying white dice is default, Buying any other dice is +2 faces.
Example 1: 3 white d6 (18 ) and one orange d4 (6)
Example 2: 2 white d4 (8 ) one red d8 (10) and one blue d4 (6)

Mortal Card (Yellow): Buying yellow dice is default. Buying Green and Orange is +2 faces. Buying all other colours is +4 faces.
Example 1: 1 yellow d12 (12), 1 blue d8 (12)
Example 2: 1 orange d4 (6), 1 purple d10 (14), 1 yellow d4 (4)

Chthonian Card (Blue): Buying Blue dice is default. Buying Green and Purple is +2 faces. Buying all other colours is +4 faces.
Example 1: 3 blue d4 (12), 1 white d8 (12)
Example 2: 2 blue d6 (12), 2 green d4 (12)

Universal Card (Red): Buying Red dice is default. Buying Purple and Orange is +2 faces. Buying all other colours is +4 faces.
Example 1: 1 red d4 (4), 2 white d6 (20)
Example 2: 1 purple d12 (14), 1 Orange d8 (10)

OK... now to stat out the Entymology cards...

Eep.

[PlotDevice]

[PlotDevice]

Based on how long it took me to do this, I am not going to get time to do up all the cards before the end of the weekend.

anyhow, here is a view of how the Entomology cards are laid out. In essense, this is the character info...



Definately bitten off more that I can chew here *sigh*