An Idea for Religions. Seriously, read it.

[Daklore]

Crazy idea'm'jigger:

Crazy, inane, and I have no idea how to describe it! This is the result of  my brain thinking. Well it always does that, but this is the result of it  actually thinking of ways to torture Thalia. Cause she'd have to code it.  Because we all know Chalgyr would blow the MUD up if he tried. So anyway,  this idea pertains to RELIGIONS. Like you people want anymore to do with  them.

As it stands, roleplay within religions is ... well... fairly stagnant.  Don't shake your head and nay-say, you all know it's true! Back in the day  people had to actually interact with their supreme, and vice versa -- it  was how you got promoted. Now, you don't even have to get their permission,  you don't have to do anything special to receive notice to get a new  religion rank. You just meet the hours, experience and RPXP requirements,  find the supreme (or a cardinal) and you can get promoted without them  saying no. At least I'm pretty sure you can do this, I don't think anyone  ever needs to get full requirements because you can promote at half reqs as  Supreme/Cardinal anyway... It may have spawned favourtism, but favourtism  is -reaaaal-.

So anyway, think of this idea as "runes for religions" as in they give  benefits (like runes) but only for people in religions. Yes, it totally  gyps atheists and heathens. But they don't need any special treatment. If  they want the benefits, join a frakkin religion! Mind you, this is all  partially done in my head, and some of it I'm even making up as I write  this... so bear with me >P

Grant the ability to place a "mark" upon the followers of your order. This  would not be a necessity to being in the religion, and would facilitate  favourtism to an extent I'm sure. There would be two levels of "marks" the  first being grantable by Elder, Cardinal and Supreme, while the second  level of mark would be grantable only by the Supreme.

+ BESTOW MARK <player>
+ BESTOW TRUEMARK <player>

This would add an additional line to the players description, like  bloodsworn. Bestowing a mark upon a player would require that A) the player  they are trying to bestow it upon has PERMISSION on, B) Is a follower of  the same religion you are, and C) that the person trying to bestow the mark  is at least the rank of Elder. Bestowing a mark would cost faithpray and  roleplay experience TO THE ONE GRANTING IT. Think of the mark as being a  reward, therefor it should cost the granter -- and thus making it something  not so nilly-willy thrown around. Yes, let's ignore the fact that Daklore  has 330,000 RPXP.

+ BESTOW MARK would cost 7500 RPXP, 100 faithprays as Elder
- As Cardinal it would cost 5000 RPXP, and 50 faithprays
- As Supreme it would cost 5000 RPXP and 25 faithprays

+ BESTOW TRUEMARK would cost the Supreme 10000 rpxp and 200 faithprays

The difference between the two marks will be elaborated further on, don't  worry. Lets start on what the mark would -do- for a player. It effects  would depend largely on the rank of the player. So I'll list them below:

Bearing MARK:
--INNATE BONUS SHARED BY ALL: Increased mana regeneration of COLOURLESS  type--
Member: Innate bonus only
Acolyte: Innate bonus only
Usher: 1 resonance + innate bonus
Lector: 1 resonance + innate bonus
Subdeacon: 2 resonance + innate bonus
Deacon: 2 resonance + innate bonus
Elder: 2 resonance + innate bonus
Cardinal: 2 resonance + innate bonus
Supreme: 2 resonnance + innate bonus

Bearing TRUEMARK:
--INNATE BONUS SHARED BY ALL: Increased mana regeneration of COLOURLESS  type--
Member: Innate bonus only
Acolyte: Innate bonus only
Usher: 1 resonance + innate bonus
Lector: 1 resonance + innate bonus
Subdeacon: 2 resonance + innate bonus
--SECONDARY INNATE BONUS: Boost to preset resistance --
Deacon: 2 resonance + innate bonus + secondary innate bonus
Elder: 3 resonance + innate bonus + secondary innate bonus
Cardinal: 3 resonance + innate bonus + secondary innate bonus
Supreme: 3 resonnance + innate bonus + secondary innate bonus

Now you're asking, what's a resonance? Resonance is what makes the marks so  -special- and yes, truemark does grant more bonuses for a reason.  Resonances would be like runes, except more easily swapped out and  replaced. Only the Supreme can empower a resonance upon a person bearing  the mark of their religion.

+ EMPOWER RESONANCE <person>
+ TOUCH MARK
+ TOUCH MARK SILENCE <1-3>

Empower resonance will allow a Supreme to charge a resonance, for a small  RPXP cost, of course. 1000 RPXP per empower. Each time this is done, a  random resonance will be activated in an open "slot" within the mark. TOUCH  MARK will allow you to view your mark and what resonances are currently  empowered, and TOUCH MARK SILENCE will allow you to remove on of those  resonance, for 2500 RPXP.

--TOUCH MARK
*Rank Member/Acolyte: The mark lies dormant, barely pulsing with energy.
*Rank Usher/Lector: The mark faintly resonates with power, granting you the  power of...
*Rank Subdeacon/Deacon [and Elder to Supreme(without truemark)]:The mark  pulses with power, granting you the power of...
*Rank Elder/Cardinal/Supreme(with truemark):The mark resonates with the  true power of <Diety's name>, granting you the powers of...

An example of Daklore with a truemark:
The mark resonates with the true power of Dias, granting you the powers  of...
1 | harmonic   | Increase to religion spells
2 | resist     | Slight increase to resdark
3 | spiritual  | Increase to mana cap

Well, that's a preview of resonances, which are below. Below I say! Mind  you, this is only a tentative list, and more could be added, tweaked, and  some removed. Resonances are not meant to stack, meaning if you have one  already. Empowering your mark should not be able to grant it again! The  exception to this is resist.

harmonic - Increases damage for religion spells slightly, increases  buff/debuff values for religion spells slightly
agressor - Increases damage for all religion spells moderately (greater  than harmonic) (can stack with harmonic)
pacifist - Increases buff/debuff values for all religion spells moderately  (greater than harmonic) (can stack with harmonic)
resist - Improve a random resistance by 5
spiritual - Increase mana cap based on your base class: Mages +25 per  religion rank to white/grey/black, Scouts +25 to fire/water/wind/earth per  religion rank, Priests +50 to Spirit per religion rank, Rogues and Fighters  +30 to Colourless per religion rank
fading - Static increase to invisibility value, works like armour
faith - Increase to religion experience gains
hearty - Increase to maximum health by +100 per religion rank


There is certainly room for more, these are just the ones off the top of my  head. Now you're going to ask, but what if I leave the religion or get  kicked out? Well here's where the real interesting bit is. If you leave or  get kicked out of the religion, you still keep the mark -- but it becomes a  penalty. Joining another religion does not make the mark fade, either!  While bearing the mark of a religion you don't belong too, your natural  colourless regeneration decreases, and any resonances you possess will now  do the opposite of what they were meant to do. Harmonic, aggressor and  pacifist will affect religion spells once you join a new religion, of  course, in the opposite direction and making them weaker.

But what if I rejoin the religion I left while I still possess the mark? It  won't do any good. When you leave the religion the mark changes from a  mark, or a true mark to a disbeliever's mark. You can only get it removed  by a Supreme. Think carefully before you leave a religion with the mark!  And yes, your own Supreme can remove it if you're leaving under amiable  circumstances... and if he or she wants to spend the RPXP.

+BESTOW MARK <player> REMOVE
- As a Supreme, you have the ability to remove the mark, or truemark, from  a player that serves your religion. this will cost you 5000 RPXP to do.  This can be either a punishment or a mutual agreement. Permission is not  needed.Removing a disbeliever's mark will cost you 10,000RPXP, however.

Benefits for being Cardinal and Supreme:
Resonance would return a slightly increased benefit toward Cardinals and  Supremes. For resistance, Cardinals would receive 7 and Supreme 9 versus  the 5 for all other members. If a damage increase grants 20%, Cardinals  gain 25% and Supremes 30%. Mana caps and health bonuses would grant roughly  20% more for both Cardinal and Supreme.

Commands for Marks:
+ BESTOW MARK <player> -- bestow a mark upon a player
+ BESTOW TRUEMARK <player> -- bestow a truemark upon a player (Supreme)
+ BESTOW MARK <player> REMOVE -- remove a mark(and truemark) from player
+ TOUCH MARK -- view the resonances of your mark
+ EMPOWER RESONANCE <player> -- bestow a resonance upon player
+ TOUCH MARK SILENCE <1-3> -- silence a resonance (1, 2, or 3)
+ TRUEEMPOWER RESONANCE <resonance> -- bestow a selected resonance upon  yourself (Supreme only benefit) (5000 RPXP)
+ TOUCH MARK <player> -- view the resonance of a religion follower  (Cardinal/Supreme only. Must be in same room)

A note for seconary innate bonus with truemark:
Resist is preset according to religions, general spread idea as follows:
Dias: resharm
Es'trenal: researth
Sys'kee: resdark or resnegative
Galr: reswind
Athorien: reslight or resholy

This resist would be about 5 points, with no more than 10 (small, but a  bonus nonetheless!)

Anyway. Read, rant, review, suggest. Hope the imms look at this idea and  consider it. I want to know if you like it, or hate it, or want to be it.  Whatever!

- Daklore

[Zelos]

shouldn't be able to mark yourself. just in case that wasn't in there.

[Daklore]

Which would preclude the Supreme from being able to get the true mark, as only the supreme can grant it, so no, you can grant yourself your own mark (which will cost you equally as much RPXP)

[Zelos]

If the supreme is giving these out there should be a seperate set of bonuses that just the supreme gets for being the supreme. It would only make sense that the supreme would have some kind of supreme power granted to only them by their god. Perhaps "The Mark of <diety>" that includes all the bonuses of of the mark and maybe an aura that grants people who rp with them of the same religion a bonus in rpxp or people of their religion an edge in combat of some kind. However a supreme being able to empower their own mark just doesn't work for me. If it is granted by another, then it should only be empowered by another. as I said before the supreme should have all the bonuses already as a standard for just being the leader. I really like this idea, and would like very much to see it go further.

[Daklore]

Giving the Supreme equal restrictions on the benefits of the mark is for balance. The Truemark is bestowable by the Supreme in favour of their God/Goddess.... so yes, they should be free to bestow it upon theirself. Giving the supreme -every- power the mark can grant might be overkill.

Give one good reason why you -shouldn't- be able to mark yourself. Other than "because you shouldn't be able to" or something equally as lame. Do you really think the Pope isn't allowed to bless himself?

[Zelos]

Okay, I'm sure the pope blesses himself... and his golf clubs, but it's not about whether he can or can't. The idea behind giving the supreme a special mark was to make it so that they could have the aura that would temporarily buff the people of the same religion grouped with them. It doesn't have to be every bonus, we can leave it how you have it set up, he only gets the same bonuses as a truemark, just with those two things I mentioned as something special. By making it so that you can't empower yourself would help to increase roleplay since you would have to give someone else a reason to empower your mark and give you those bonuses. That was your idea behind this, a way to increase roleplay in religions?

[Daklore]

Yes, but you still need RPXP to give yourself a mark. The idea behind the marks is to offer them as a REWARD. In the old days this was getting promoted, which you usually only got if you roleplayed or did some sort of task for the supreme to earn a promotion. Nowadays, Supremes can't really stop you from getting promoted (yes, they can demote you if they really don't like you).

You're viewing the mark as a necessary, have to have. I see it more of a blessing placed upon a person, which means a Supreme, yes, could truemark and empower their own mark. In fact, Supremes can -choose- what they want to empower their mark with, while everyone else has to roll the dice. That's the benefit of being a Supreme. And again, this all costs a lot of RPXP, and in the case of the truemark, that RPXP cost is entirely on the Supreme.

[Zelos]

You still haven't picked up on the fact that I don't really care about the rest of it as much as I want the supremes to have the aura that would increase combat prowess of their religion when grouped and increase rpxp gains when rp'ing with members of the same religion. This is the main idea I would like to see included.

[Daklore]

And then you realize that most supremes are often out of grouping range of other religion members. Or in Elendil's case he's Serene and most of us end up going bloodsworn. Increasing RPXP gains of religion members wouldn't even -NEED- this change, instead all fuzzbutt would need to do is let me make a doupleRP room in the Dias temple that is only accessible to Dias members. And the same to all other religions (I have asked Thalia about roomflags or something that could limit rooms to certain religions)

[Zelos]

I find that alternative most agreeable. It would pull people out of the quest offices to RP.

[Daklore]

Bump. Cause it's way better than Zelos's ideas.

[EDIT]: Because I don't know names.

[sye]

You could do the same thing with kingdoms, but do Minor buffs,  Like Minor buff str or stats.. or minor buff damroll, hitroll, minor buff ac,  minor buff, hp/ move/ mana.
minor buff resbash 5, ect.

This plan idea, workthingie, could almost be applyable to anything. 

But we already hae a plethora of buffs in 'aff' that list.  So I dont know how this would go, just more crap. 


IF <anything> There should be some kind of counter, to how active religion members are, besides just rpxp, and time.   Something that may have a deplition counter on it.   Like if a supreme, isn't ever on.   Their marker, ticker/ whatever would be heckishly low.   And you could use this as another method to promote people (over others to certain spots)

Maybe be able to spend Faithpray to increase said marker/ticker.   maybe be able to spend RpXp to increase said marker/ticker.

This is just an idea.  But we have some supremes that never log on , or promote, while cardinals do all the work, or some cardinals that do more work than others.   This could be available soon as you join a religion, (you could even do it for kingdoms too)  So that way if the ticker drops to an unfavorable mark, you know that person isn't really doing crap.  And you could gauge who is doing whatever. 

(obviously being online a lot should add tickers/markers too) cause if someones online they are active.    But If someone is online fir about an hour every other day, and they are casting religion spells, promoting people etc..  roleplaying they should be able to get bonuses,  almost the same amount.  (so we don't just cater to the people who live online)
People have lives too.   
But how do you decide when someone who is busy with life, still needs to hold a position?  You know, this is an easier way to atleast see whats really going on. 

Just throwing it out there. 
-Sye

[Daklore]

This isn't a thread about supreme inactivity >P Troll *tease Sye* Kingdoms already have bonuses, and you might say relspells are the bonuses for religions -- except some people only join for specific spells (mirage, perfection). This is just meant as a way for Supreme's to reward their loyal members who are actually in the religion for the religion itself, not just an awesome spell that makes life easier for them.

Seriously? Mirage should've been a Dias spell. Totally deception maaaaan. (Okay, should've been an Atiar'i spell, but you get my drift)