New/different Deities - also retiring characters

Started by Chalgyr, 03/20/13, 09:20

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Chalgyr

This is just more of a hypothetical question, but I'm curious since I've seen all sorts of different approaches here over the years.

First - what Gods would you like to see on the MUD/a MUD.

If you look at help old_religions on the MUD, you can see the structure we used to have and the different themes we supported.

On an old MUD several of us used to play on, the gods were: Life, Death, Disease, Destruction, War, Magic, Luck, Time, Knowledge and later they added Balance.

Some worlds like Forgotten Realms have a ridiculous number with some major ones showing up more commonly in tales. Others like Dragonlance basically took on one for each of the nine combinations of alignment/order

Say all of the current Gods here got blown away by Daklore's siege turtles or something, what sorts of new deities would you want to see in their place?

Also, waaaay back in the past, there was some talk about offering people a chance to retire their characters. The idea is that character would be made into an NPC (sort of like what we did with the playerwipe several years ago) and making them an important character and potentially a future part of storylines down the road. Mostly likely though, they'd be un-fightable characters just relegated to a small themed space, but maybe with the owner's cooperation, they could be used in future storylines too.

Maybe running a step further with removal of gods, these characters could be part of the new deities down the road. So the second half of this question is would players have an interest in doing this or not? They would lose access to that character, it would be a very final thing - I wouldn't want to have to un-make an NPC and restore a playerfile later, but I know a handful of players in the past thought it might be cool to have unplayed, maxed-out characters as a permenant part of the game's lore going forward. Others hate the idea of losing their characters, which is understandable too.
I must be here, 'cause I'm not all there.

Daklore

Siege tortoises >.>

I think the Dieties we have now are fine, considering the player base. Even Achaea just went through a period of killing off a large number of Divine a few months back. Because there were too many. (To be fair, though, active Divine were actually played by volunteer staff, and it tended to be a demanding job... most eventually just stopped doing it). There weren't new Divine created(often), so the same ones would eventually return and arise, while others would just slid into dormancy and poof.

If we -had- to add new dieties.... Daklore.

Daklore's end-goal is to become a God of Terror, Darkness, and the Abyss, after all. When he ascends, the world will silently slip into nothingness.
"Okay, who let Odin out of his cage?"
*A blue bouncy ball bounces by*
"That's it, I'm outta here."

Tylon

I think I'd much more prefer Gods that were a little more intuitive for what they do. Instead of Athorien call it "Justice" or whatnot. I'm a big fan of RP additions influencing character playability as well, such as "Darkness" making night fighting slightly better, etc. It could be small bonuses, or large bonuses.

As far as character retirement goes, I'm kind of torn. On the one hand there's the potential for game history revolving around former characters, but I think it could also be some kind of dramatic way to /emoquit.

elios

Chalgyr,

I do think that once there is enough of a player-base that there be one more Deity.  And it would be Bacchus the God of wine and assorted hedonistic pleasures.  As for the retirement of characters I do not think it would be too good of an idea with the exception of those players who get elevated to Administration positions. 

Thalia

Another option for "retiring" characters is to turn them into "Notables" like Deus.  The player could still come online and "play" (chat, RP), but couldn't be involved in combat.


Chalgyr

Also a good point, Thalia. Hadn't really considered that, but that would work (we'd have to refine a bit of code on that, but it would work).

I'd like to stress/ask/point out that this is not a player base run concern. If it makes sense 15 or 20 gods and goddesses - I'm more interested in themes (like what Elios posted) or better defining those themes like Tylon said. Player run, not player run, just thinking toward themes. What if we did a whole new KotL with no concenrs about ranks, just what kinds of deities would you like to see that would make good ic sense for players to become invested in? :)
I must be here, 'cause I'm not all there.

Daklore

Lord Daklore, God of Terror, Darkness, and the Abyss.

Obviously, in an alternate reality where Daklore ascended to Godhood and tore reality asunder...

I like the themes we -do- have currently, they're broad... but sometimes, they just don't make sense. Part of it, is obviously, the lack of development of the realm said divine would encompass. You probably won't find much problem with the Strife realm of that came from Tyrek. ... More because I'm still here and able to propagate it >P

I think the discussion you -should- be having, is, "What does each existing religion stand for, what does it mean(currently), and how can we improve what is lacking in this realm?"

It really helps if there's some sort of background lore on the beliefs and/or goals of each religious realm, rather than just a vague concept... like what is currently. If there are gaps noticed from that, then you could start looking at, "okay, what could we -add- to it".

Obviously, I don't think we need a god(dess) of hedonistic pleasures. That's more of a fallacy of mortality thing anyway.

And it would probably realistically fall under the realm of Dias(suffering through deception).
"Okay, who let Odin out of his cage?"
*A blue bouncy ball bounces by*
"That's it, I'm outta here."

Tylon


Algorgon

I like the idea of retiring characters. It would be fun to see the old characters in the history of KOTL.

Elendil

Hmmmmm,

As for deities, I would suggest the following:

Tiw:  In norse mythology, the god of war.  That would be one most fighter types would follow.
Hippocrates: It would be fitting that the father of modern medicine be a god of healers.
Vishnu: hindu goddess of destruction and rebirth.
Pluto: roman god of the underworld, god of death.

So far I have sampled from the differing belief systems, hopefully those have given you some ideas, Chal  ;D

sye

I'd like to see all the religions go away.
The point of one person holding a position for an UBER spell and never logging on is kinda stinky.

I think that whatever religions/dieties we have, we should balance out the spells some,  You can easily see that Athorien is the main one for choice spells.  Buff some stuff up add more even.

Have them <ALL> be attainable, even the supreme one, but make it take a long time, so they aren't restricted to one character.   So i'd say lose all the ranks up to supreme and re rank it have all spells be attainable over time even the highest one, and revamp some of the weaker religions to be more appealing  (the familiars could be stronger.. and do more damage, and maybe offer some kind of bonus depending on which religion you follow.  I'd like to see familiars cast buffs on the person the follow, like damroll plus 100 or ac plus 100, or resitsance all plus 10 or whatever.  Would add some flavor) also make their level 15 levels higher than the character and give them a random name when they spawn. :)

id' say you can do the same thing to kingdoms later on too.. make every ability/skill/reward achievable and people can rp how they want inside a kingdom or a religion.  Imms would step in for any issues as always.  Just a thought!

Sye
Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new - Albert Einstein