The First Age: Bloodlines
Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2011 10:18 am
This is a setting creation game I constructed in the hopes of getting as many other people as possible to do the job of making my setting for me. The game itself has turned out to be quite a bit of fun, so I thought I'd bring it over here. It's a heavily modified version of the Peace War Game, with later ages planned to give it a closer resemblance to a board game than a game theory game.
The basic premise of the game is that each player controls one of the thirteen tribes, the progenitor of which is one of the thirteen sons of Tobias, one of the first humans ever to walk the earth and also basically a stand-in for the Biblical Cain. Tobias, his connection to his own family having been severed by his impulsiveness and envy, dedicates his life to keeping his own growing family in one piece, an endeavor which is doomed to failure, as his thirteen sons and their descendants go to war with one another almost immediately after he dies.
Each tribe either goes to war or peace with each other tribe every turn. During a mutual war, each tribe loses one point. During mutual peace, each tribe gains one point. If one side goes to war and the other to peace, the aggressor gains two points and the victim loses two points. Every tribe starts with 20 points. NPC tribes being run by a number of simple scripts I designed or stole for the purposes of the game.
Scripts designed were:
The Mindless War-Monger, who always goes to war with everyone.
The Mindless Pacifist, who always goes to peace with everyone.
The Madman, who goes to war or peace based on a die roll.
The Green Monster, who attacks anyone with more points and goes to peace with anyone with equal or fewer points.
The Bully, who goes to peace with anyone stronger and goes to war with anyone equal or lesser than himself.
Vengeful, who starts by going to peace with everyone, then goes to war with anyone who attacks him, never going back to peace with them for the rest of the game.
Tit-For-Tat Altruistic, the winning script in a tournament for standard Peace War scripts, which starts by going to peace with everyone and then reflects the last action of each other tribe.
Tit-For-Tat Misanthrope, which starts by going to war with everyone and then reflects the last action of each other tribe.
Tit-For-Tat Assassin, who works as his altruistic cousin, but always goes to war with a single PC tribe no matter what, until that tribe is destroyed, at which point he chooses a new target.
Kepheth is the magical sword forged by Tobias and used to kill his brother Adom. He also used it to cut off the head of the demoness who bore his thirteen children before she could kill any of them. Her tainted blood shattered the sword into thirteen shards, one held by each tribe. Every tribe desires the other shards greatly, thus whenever any tribe gets destroyed, all the tribes that had declared war on the destroyed tribe on the turn it was destroyed are also at war with each other. This turns tribes like the Mindless War-Monger into nukes, since practically everyone will want to go to war with them every turn, but if everyone keeps going to war with them every turn, it will ultimately cause them to all go to war with each other, losing them up to 12 points total, enough to kill most tribes.
Every even numbered turn, the Forge Eternal can be used to create a single mithril weapon by whichever tribe is currently the strongest. If several tribes are tied, they all get a weapon. The tribe that gets the weapon is responsible for describing it for fluff purposes, while the weapon itself can be used either to slay a monster from the Muck Pond or to attack a tribe. If used to attack a tribe, you act as though you gain two points and the other tribe loses two, even if they went to war with you. If they went to peace with you, the weapon is wasted. Regardless of why it is used, the weapon is either lost in battle, buried with its wielder, or in some other way removed from play after it is used.
The Muck Pond produces a new batch of monsters every three turns. On the third turn it produces one monster, on the sixth turn two, etc. etc. The weakest tribe(s) create the monsters, each making one, and then sic them on the strongest tribes, depleting one point from them every turn until they're killed with a mithril weapon. Oddly enough, if there are seven tribes left on the twelfth turn, the middle tribe must make a monster to sic on itself. Monsters in question can be intelligent, solitary creatures (dragon), monstrous beasts (hydra), or packs of unintelligent monsters (dire wolves), but not a monster race, as sentient, social races emerge from the Tears of Chaos instead.
The Tears of Chaos create one helpful race for the weakest tribe and one spiteful race for the strongest tribe every four turns. The spiteful race makes one outcome (war/war, war/peace, peace/war, or peace/peace) worse by one point for one tribe, while the helpful race makes one outcome better by one point for one tribe. The spiteful race may be set upon whatever tribe the strongest player wishes, but the helpful race always helps the weakest tribe.
Finally, on the sixth and twelfth turns, the Edenites, descendants of Tobias' brother, arrive. The Edenites can be gone to peace or war with just like any other tribe, however they are much stronger than any of the individual Tobiate tribes, since they do not fight amongst themselves. If at least seven Tobiate tribes go to war with the Edenites, then the Edenites lose the war and the victors gain seven points, minus one for every tribe past the seventh who joined the war. Those who went to peace with the Edenites lose one for every tribe past the seventh who joined the war. If less than seven tribes go to war with the Edenites, the tribes who went to peace get seven points minus one for every tribe past the seventh, and the warring tribes lose one point for every tribe past the seventh (put simply: the reverse of what happens if the Tobiate Tribes win).
EDIT: Added in the most recent version of the game is Judgement. The Edenites draw the wrath of the gods, who sink the island they and the Tobiates are living on, dealing removing ten points from every tribe at the end of the thirteenth turn. Surviving tribes become either NPC kingdoms or PC empires in the next age.
The basic premise of the game is that each player controls one of the thirteen tribes, the progenitor of which is one of the thirteen sons of Tobias, one of the first humans ever to walk the earth and also basically a stand-in for the Biblical Cain. Tobias, his connection to his own family having been severed by his impulsiveness and envy, dedicates his life to keeping his own growing family in one piece, an endeavor which is doomed to failure, as his thirteen sons and their descendants go to war with one another almost immediately after he dies.
Each tribe either goes to war or peace with each other tribe every turn. During a mutual war, each tribe loses one point. During mutual peace, each tribe gains one point. If one side goes to war and the other to peace, the aggressor gains two points and the victim loses two points. Every tribe starts with 20 points. NPC tribes being run by a number of simple scripts I designed or stole for the purposes of the game.
Scripts designed were:
The Mindless War-Monger, who always goes to war with everyone.
The Mindless Pacifist, who always goes to peace with everyone.
The Madman, who goes to war or peace based on a die roll.
The Green Monster, who attacks anyone with more points and goes to peace with anyone with equal or fewer points.
The Bully, who goes to peace with anyone stronger and goes to war with anyone equal or lesser than himself.
Vengeful, who starts by going to peace with everyone, then goes to war with anyone who attacks him, never going back to peace with them for the rest of the game.
Tit-For-Tat Altruistic, the winning script in a tournament for standard Peace War scripts, which starts by going to peace with everyone and then reflects the last action of each other tribe.
Tit-For-Tat Misanthrope, which starts by going to war with everyone and then reflects the last action of each other tribe.
Tit-For-Tat Assassin, who works as his altruistic cousin, but always goes to war with a single PC tribe no matter what, until that tribe is destroyed, at which point he chooses a new target.
Kepheth is the magical sword forged by Tobias and used to kill his brother Adom. He also used it to cut off the head of the demoness who bore his thirteen children before she could kill any of them. Her tainted blood shattered the sword into thirteen shards, one held by each tribe. Every tribe desires the other shards greatly, thus whenever any tribe gets destroyed, all the tribes that had declared war on the destroyed tribe on the turn it was destroyed are also at war with each other. This turns tribes like the Mindless War-Monger into nukes, since practically everyone will want to go to war with them every turn, but if everyone keeps going to war with them every turn, it will ultimately cause them to all go to war with each other, losing them up to 12 points total, enough to kill most tribes.
Every even numbered turn, the Forge Eternal can be used to create a single mithril weapon by whichever tribe is currently the strongest. If several tribes are tied, they all get a weapon. The tribe that gets the weapon is responsible for describing it for fluff purposes, while the weapon itself can be used either to slay a monster from the Muck Pond or to attack a tribe. If used to attack a tribe, you act as though you gain two points and the other tribe loses two, even if they went to war with you. If they went to peace with you, the weapon is wasted. Regardless of why it is used, the weapon is either lost in battle, buried with its wielder, or in some other way removed from play after it is used.
The Muck Pond produces a new batch of monsters every three turns. On the third turn it produces one monster, on the sixth turn two, etc. etc. The weakest tribe(s) create the monsters, each making one, and then sic them on the strongest tribes, depleting one point from them every turn until they're killed with a mithril weapon. Oddly enough, if there are seven tribes left on the twelfth turn, the middle tribe must make a monster to sic on itself. Monsters in question can be intelligent, solitary creatures (dragon), monstrous beasts (hydra), or packs of unintelligent monsters (dire wolves), but not a monster race, as sentient, social races emerge from the Tears of Chaos instead.
The Tears of Chaos create one helpful race for the weakest tribe and one spiteful race for the strongest tribe every four turns. The spiteful race makes one outcome (war/war, war/peace, peace/war, or peace/peace) worse by one point for one tribe, while the helpful race makes one outcome better by one point for one tribe. The spiteful race may be set upon whatever tribe the strongest player wishes, but the helpful race always helps the weakest tribe.
Finally, on the sixth and twelfth turns, the Edenites, descendants of Tobias' brother, arrive. The Edenites can be gone to peace or war with just like any other tribe, however they are much stronger than any of the individual Tobiate tribes, since they do not fight amongst themselves. If at least seven Tobiate tribes go to war with the Edenites, then the Edenites lose the war and the victors gain seven points, minus one for every tribe past the seventh who joined the war. Those who went to peace with the Edenites lose one for every tribe past the seventh who joined the war. If less than seven tribes go to war with the Edenites, the tribes who went to peace get seven points minus one for every tribe past the seventh, and the warring tribes lose one point for every tribe past the seventh (put simply: the reverse of what happens if the Tobiate Tribes win).
EDIT: Added in the most recent version of the game is Judgement. The Edenites draw the wrath of the gods, who sink the island they and the Tobiates are living on, dealing removing ten points from every tribe at the end of the thirteenth turn. Surviving tribes become either NPC kingdoms or PC empires in the next age.