No, not particularly. Spirit of Motherhood or Fatherhood reduce the expense in sustenance for individual traits down to a certain limit, and allow 'storing' children to add more sustenance later. There are more special actions unlocked by taking them not directly attached to the traits themselves that enhance spawns' ability to generate legend for you, or disseminate more easily into the ecosystem.
Peculiar interaction. Confluences only normally require shrines because, unlike holy places, their worth is artificial, arcane. The shrine cap is only necessary because you need some means of controlling and harnessing the confluence, and simply anointing it in your own name or claiming it from an opponent aren't enough. The Holy Place's 'shrine-like' effect harnesses the confluence effect of Moonbeam for you naturally.
Ahh, kk, good to know. Would we still be likely to unlock a shrine extension if we had a shrine capping our holy site and our moon sphere?
Also, random thought about fear buys: if you want to have skill-buys be more reasonable on even high Vehemence turns, maybe you could have a "## - ##: Skill table" slot in the table, that rolls for several skill ups? (so atm it might give 2 or 3, maybe 4 skill points on an good turn, to contrast with the more expense traits?)
Also, in case you missed this omake:
LONG AGO
The sea howled, and Saiga howled back. Waves ripped at him as he danced his kayak through crests of blazing white, moonlight curdled and whipped into a mockery of flame.
Gaerig, my love. Kiss me or kill me, it's all the same.
The waves slid together like a woman's legs, wrenching the kayak from Saiga's control and sending him hurtling up, up and up. Gaerig billowed underneath him, a great slithering sheet of coy fury as he balanced on the tip of her toe - and there.
The pod of whales breached, spray drifting into the sky, the slaps of fin and torso lost in Gaerig's laughter. Orcas. Saiga's prey. He had cut his way out here in the midst of the Long Night, defying the elders, defying his father. The dream of an orca, brilliant and bloody, proud in death - it still burned on the inner curve of his eye.
He would hunt.
Saiga squeezed his paddle with fingers he couldn't feel. They were black with blood in the moonlight.
Gaerig moaned, and he whispered back. Wordless babble. Soon the madness would set in, if he did not return to a fire.
The hunt would be quick.
Saiga danced.
***
He died, of course. They found him broken against the shore, kayak torn, harpoon and paddle missing. His family gathered him into a bier of bone and built him a cairn to remember by.
Three days later, the orca washed to the shore. They never found Saiga's paddle, but his harpoon filled the whale's eye, shorn into the bone behind.
And so a story was born. And as is the custom, it grew in the telling.
***
This seemed like one way for Saiga to have come to be naturally. A bit of embellishing later, and he stabbed in the harpoon, hands still clutched around it when they found his corpse - no, he RODE it in, only dying as his foot touched the earth - no, he SWAM the orca back, and died - died? No, Saiga the Hunter killed an orca with his bare hands, swam it back to shore, took eight wives, and had twenty-eight children before dying peacefully! A few generations of storytellers can do interesting things to a story.
At the time, we did not know just how broken they were. If I were replaying the Harzivan campaign, I would totally spam demis whenever possible, especially early on.
We did have Apitulku as the natural outcome of someone figuring that out.
"Making lots of demispirits early on means that I get a massive reactor of Legend!"
"Whoops, half of them ascended to spirit and now we have a dozen spirits of the same affinities competing for Faith value"
"Lets bless the shit out of fertility so there's enough for everyone"
"Whoops, the land is getting depleted, we need more land!"
EA's are especially designed for Ur-spawn, but regular spawn can get a little more out of them so long as you engineer the other granted traits to support their effects. You can make a race of fire-breathing sapients from demi-spawn, but EA - Fire isn't enough, you'd need to stick in a few synergizing elements to make it happen.
Ah, ok. I think we got our lead into aquatic race then.
Human base + Octopus/Fish/Crustacean T2/T3 + EA:Water + OA:Sea should be able to breath water. Though I'm not sure if they'd still be viable on land for long without Shapeshifter.
That would cost....36 Sustenance to make one at present on purpose 20 Sustenance to make one by accident, while needing an actual breeding population to avoid genetic bottlenecks.
Assuming Virility/Fertility/Motherhood work similarly to how they used to, they should either reduce the Sustenance cost per demihuman, or get us more traits, or let us produce multiple at once.
Okay, so guys, thoughts? We put this turn's shrine in Saiga's village, cap our Holy Place with a shrine next turn, and put the shrine improvements at the Holy Place Shrine.
Our home village can already reach our Holy Place fairly easily.
Based on the mechanics as explained,a Faith Spirit would get the following:
Years 1,3,6
-Calm Water - Discount to Spirit of the Sea, OA -Sea
-Astrology - Discount to Moon, Stars
By the 6th year, we could buy Spirit of the Sea+OA Sea+AA Moon + AA Stars for 4 Legend at once.
Then we wake up on year 10, and start doing discounts on Waves, Rain and Ocean at one go from Water actions. Etc.
Faith can discount multiple things parallel with the same action. Their big limitation is having to uptech their Shrine.
Okay, so guys, thoughts? We put this turn's shrine in Saiga's village, cap our Holy Place with a shrine next turn, and put the shrine improvements at the Holy Place Shrine.
Our home village can already reach our Holy Place fairly easily.
...Except we don't have any shrines. They both blew up. The shrine we're building now would be in our Apostate village and that's at the limit of our current Influence.
Okay, so guys, thoughts? We put this turn's shrine in Saiga's village, cap our Holy Place with a shrine next turn, and put the shrine improvements at the Holy Place Shrine.
Our home village can already reach our Holy Place fairly easily.
Ahh, kk, good to know. Would we still be likely to unlock a shrine extension if we had a shrine capping our holy site and our moon sphere?
Also, random thought about fear buys: if you want to have skill-buys be more reasonable on even high Vehemence turns, maybe you could have a "## - ##: Skill table" slot in the table, that rolls for several skill ups? (so atm it might give 2 or 3, maybe 4 skill points on an good turn, to contrast with the more expense traits?)
Also, in case you missed this omake:
You wouldn't unlock a new extension for capping the holy site, but you could put one there.
I was considering a flat range for each type of purchase per turn, with a 5-10 point variance based on current capacity limits.
Thank you for that.
Human base + Octopus/Fish/Crustacean T2/T3 + EA:Water + OA:Sea should be able to breath water. Though I'm not sure if they'd still be viable on land for long without Shapeshifter.
That would cost....36 Sustenance to make one at present on purpose 20 Sustenance to make one by accident, while needing an actual breeding population to avoid genetic bottlenecks.
Based on the mechanics as explained,a Faith Spirit would get the following:
Years 1,3,6
-Calm Water - Discount to Spirit of the Sea, OA -Sea
-Astrology - Discount to Moon, Stars
Kind of does, but we'd need to Innovate with Earth or Fire to get Painting. Painting comes from Ash and Ochre.
If you want Ink, you need Octopus.
Currently we have Bone, Amber and Shell, so it should be Art(Carving).
No notable fibers, so Weaving would be difficult.
The thing is, I doubt we would be bumping out our current Inherent Affinity and would thus still have Water in our pocket. Stars also show up during the day too(Morning Star and Evening Star) and that would also be part of Night.
It was accounting for having Inherent Water(we already have difficulty realizing that anything on land might be significant).
Inherent Night means emphasizing the difference between Day and Night.
Inherent Moon means emphasizing the Moon and Sun(which means no Sun, it'd contradict)
...Except we don't have any shrines. They both blew up. The shrine we're building now would be in our Apostate village and that's at the limit of our current Influence.
Uh, that's the point.
Otherwise I wouldn't be talking about building shrines since we would be at cap.
I mean there is no reason to put a shrine in the Apostate Village anymore, since we can already affect it from our Holy Place, and while Saiga's village is out of range, it's not THAT far out of range that it's outside ambrosia cost possibilities.
Either way, I'd suggest holding off on shrine expansions when they unlock again, because we're going to need to spend a few turns reoptimizing the shrine layout.
Well, people were talking underwater civilization, so I figure they might need a bit more.
So it'd be Human base + Octopus/Fish/Crustacean T1 to get gills+ OA:Sea to breath water with them.
Would OA:Sea + EA:Water do the trick? Or a higher tier animal affinity?
Uh, that's the point.
Otherwise I wouldn't be talking about building shrines since we would be at cap.
I mean there is no reason to put a shrine in the Apostate Village anymore, since we can already affect it from our Holy Place, and while Saiga's village is out of range, it's not THAT far out of range that it's outside ambrosia cost possibilities.
Either way, I'd suggest holding off on shrine expansions when they unlock again, because we're going to need to spend a few turns reoptimizing the shrine layout.
Alternatively if we want to avoid the Ambrosia costs(Especially since we need to save some to get Gaerig's Avatar back) We could demand one in Apostate Village to reach Saiga's village with no costs. Then abandon it. Trades Time for Ambrosia.
Alternatively if we want to avoid the Ambrosia costs(Especially since we need to save some to get Gaerig's Avatar back) We could demand one in Apostate Village to reach Saiga's village with no costs. Then abandon it. Trades Time for Ambrosia.
That's what I meant by leaving off the Shrine Expansions, no matter how shiny they are, until we settle into our desired shrine configuration, because we'd be trashing shrines.
I'd personally guess:
1-2 - Like cartoons. You're loosely defined and a lot of the look is filled in by imagination.
3-4 - Like CG. You have dimension to you, but it 's missing some details.
5 - Looks Real.
6+ - Larger than life.
He's still bigger, but not by much. I prefer to shift the load of larger avatar sizes onto 'giant avatar' rather than make it something that increases quite as much from levels alone.
Look, if you want lots of kids, you have to lose the legend for it. If you want lots of kids that throw themselves at things where most of them die, you lose the legend for it. I'm not penalizing many-children builds. That's what non-boosted spawn are for. Yeah, they won't be as great as Ur-spawn, but thems the breaks. Your own suggestions basically relegate the Ur-spawn you want to have into a loosely templated form of basic spawn anyway. And there is no way in fuck that I am allowing ascensions based on a percentage value of the number of kids you have, because that way lies writing dozens of spirits if you happen to decide you want lots of Ur-kids.
The mechanical disincentives to spamming actually legendary figures and beasts are there for a reason. If you want a large number of specially-templated mortals, make broods and demi-races. I'm not budging on this.
I'm not sure where the disconnect is and why you keep coming back to the idea that I am somehow proposing that there shouldn't be a legend cost to creating children. It may be related to however you arrived at the conclusion that I think that the ascension rate should increase with the number of children. In the latter case, I was replying to your complaint that large numbers of demis can't be allowed simply due to the workload of tracking each one individually by pointing out how you could get the relevant results in a statistically identical manner without tracking them individually. If the results are statistically identical, the total number of ascensions and therefore resulting spirits would also be identical.
Are the demi-races going to get the same full trait effects and spirit-tier malus immunities as a demi of the old game? They didn't in the last game. The goatlings were clearly a distinct race, but didn't appear to wield spirit traits in the same way that demis did, and still took the flat disadvantage when opposing a spirit. If demi-races have been revised to just being identical to demispirits minus the ascension route and legend payout then yes, they'll do the job just fine, though it does make the extreme forms of the new limits on the demi feature which wasn't terribly broken to begin with even more excessive given their massive reduction in comparative advantage.
At the time, we did not know just how broken they were. If I were replaying the Harzivan campaign, I would totally spam demis whenever possible, especially early on.
I challenge the presumption that enabling Ur-spawn-spam adds meaningfully to the richness or variety of the game.
You are asking our GM to run this a Age-of-Empires sim on top of everything that is already going on. I suspect that @Powerofmind may not be interested in such an endeavor, and your given reasons for requesting these features do not seem to justify the workload involved as far as I can tell.
Removing or reducing a feature inherently reduces the game's richness and variety. Streamlining can be a net good for gameplay, but that doesn't change the fact that there are fewer degrees of freedom available.
As for the balance of large numbers of demis, they do still come at a cost and even in the old game with an actual ambrosia reactor fueling their creation they didn't stop a spirit who didn't take that route. While I support putting some new costs on them, and like the legend investment and potential loss mechanic as a way of both accomplishing that and limiting their total number, it does seem to have been taken further than necessary by having been made all-or-nothing instead of just a graduated loss which would simultaneously solve another one of their legacy problems. It's possible to nerf demis by making them so costly and risky that they are very rare instead of just uncommon, but it's also possible to nerf them by just reducing their contribution to geometric growth curves while keeping all the other, not-broken parts as they were. They don't have to be turned into white elephant hanger queens to keep a high-r strategy from turning into a broken god mode. At this point they seem like they're in danger of being outclassed in every way by just having full spirit children instead.
We did have Apitulku as the natural outcome of someone figuring that out.
"Making lots of demispirits early on means that I get a massive reactor of Legend!"
"Whoops, half of them ascended to spirit and now we have a dozen spirits of the same affinities competing for Faith value"
"Lets bless the shit out of fertility so there's enough for everyone"
"Whoops, the land is getting depleted, we need more land!"
Which suggests tweaks along the lines of accumulating costs with their total simultaneous number, reducing their legend ROI, and potentially raising the threshold for mortal ascension (and possibly the point of ROI for legend investment) in proportion to the current amount of spirit crowding. The question is specifically how and by how much.
Missing the point entirely:
-Track - This is a hero unit, we intend to follow it as a minor character at the least, and managing more than 3-4 is going to be exponential workload increase.
-Not Track - This is something we pay about as much attention to as the Inspired.
Removing or reducing a feature inherently reduces the game's richness and variety. Streamlining can be a net good for gameplay, but that doesn't change the fact that there are fewer degrees of freedom available.
Want to play a game with infinite degrees of freedom? Take a blank canvas. You can do whatever you want! Want to play a game with lots features? Grab every game you've ever played so far, and put them in a line - and now play them in order. That gives you lots of features!
Okay. Maybe that would give you variety. But it doesn't give you richness. Kind of in the same way that owning a house full of dust doesn't make you richer than having the house san dust, even if you have strictly more in the former case.
I didn't say they had to be. I'm saying that they should be reduces to single digits because a high-r strategy breaks the resolution limits on the computation engine we use (namely, the QM). And yes, we could mitigate that somewhat by switching to a separate set of mechanics for tracking Ur-Spawn - but I've already responded to that in the comment you just quoted.
They absolutely are not. Spirit children are competitors for Faith/Fear, may be particularly willful, and have their own interests as spirits to look towards. On the other hand, Ur-Spawn don't edge us out in any way, are typically "in our camp" (at least judging from AN's quest), and don't have to dedicate the majority of their time to managing their economy and populace like we would need to. In other words, Ur-Spawn make much better tools if what we are looking for are specifically tools and not peers. Also, Ur-Spawn give us legend, and if we follow the mechanics from AN's quest, they can be quite useful in learning skills via trade that we would otherwise have trouble grabbing.
"The lion's mane jellyfish, also known as the giant jellyfish or the hair jelly, is the largest known species of jellyfish. Its range is confined to cold, boreal waters of the Arctic, northern Atlantic, and northern Pacific Oceans. "
"The lion's mane jellyfish, also known as the giant jellyfish or the hair jelly, is the largest known species of jellyfish. Its range is confined to cold, boreal waters of the Arctic, northern Atlantic, and northern Pacific Oceans. "
Well, people were talking underwater civilization, so I figure they might need a bit more.
So it'd be Human base + Octopus/Fish/Crustacean T1 to get gills+ OA:Sea to breath water with them.
Would OA:Sea + EA:Water do the trick? Or a higher tier animal affinity?
I'm not sure where the disconnect is and why you keep coming back to the idea that I am somehow proposing that there shouldn't be a legend cost to creating children. It may be related to however you arrived at the conclusion that I think that the ascension rate should increase with the number of children. In the latter case, I was replying to your complaint that large numbers of demis can't be allowed simply due to the workload of tracking each one individually by pointing out how you could get the relevant results in a statistically identical manner without tracking them individually. If the results are statistically identical, the total number of ascensions and therefore resulting spirits would also be identical.
Are the demi-races going to get the same full trait effects and spirit-tier malus immunities as a demi of the old game? They didn't in the last game. The goatlings were clearly a distinct race, but didn't appear to wield spirit traits in the same way that demis did, and still took the flat disadvantage when opposing a spirit. If demi-races have been revised to just being identical to demispirits minus the ascension route and legend payout then yes, they'll do the job just fine, though it does make the extreme forms of the new limits on the demi feature which wasn't terribly broken to begin with even more excessive given their massive reduction in comparative advantage.
Removing or reducing a feature inherently reduces the game's richness and variety. Streamlining can be a net good for gameplay, but that doesn't change the fact that there are fewer degrees of freedom available.
As for the balance of large numbers of demis, they do still come at a cost and even in the old game with an actual ambrosia reactor fueling their creation they didn't stop a spirit who didn't take that route. While I support putting some new costs on them, and like the legend investment and potential loss mechanic as a way of both accomplishing that and limiting their total number, it does seem to have been taken further than necessary by having been made all-or-nothing instead of just a graduated loss which would simultaneously solve another one of their legacy problems. It's possible to nerf demis by making them so costly and risky that they are very rare instead of just uncommon, but it's also possible to nerf them by just reducing their contribution to geometric growth curves while keeping all the other, not-broken parts as they were. They don't have to be turned into white elephant hanger queens to keep a high-r strategy from turning into a broken god mode. At this point they seem like they're in danger of being outclassed in every way by just having full spirit children instead.
Demi-spamming is not necessary because it is an inherently broken mechanic. If you flood your forces with a template of beings that allows you to wholly dodge and ignore the normal spirit vs spirit rules of engagement without an appreciable penalty to you, you are cheating the system and completely tossing a significant amount of meaningful interactions, like the Forest Mother did. Allowing near-infinite actual demi spamming does not enhance the richness of the game, it detracts from it, because it incentivizes not interacting with other spirits at all, relegating it to your equally powerful to yourself template wall that protects you utterly from all forms of spirit interaction, from fighting to social interaction.
The regular spawn have not been boosted. It would not be fair, just as ballooning a population with technical spirits who are deferential to you almost utterly and give you legend as a passive incremental trickle is not fair to everyone else. If you want additional elements that can regularly compete with your peers, you pay through the nose, and you only get a few of them at a time, so you have to be careful with them, like you should have to be careful with your own avatar, or not stupid about spending 100 DE when you only have 50. They are both investments and powerful pieces on the game board of AA, you shouldn't be able to flood the board with them to the point that everybody else is so busy dealing with them and not you that you can just act with impunity.
"The lion's mane jellyfish, also known as the giant jellyfish or the hair jelly, is the largest known species of jellyfish. Its range is confined to cold, boreal waters of the Arctic, northern Atlantic, and northern Pacific Oceans. "
jesus fuck, a 4 inch diameter bell typically drops 40,000 eggs into the water ... per fucking day. And a given polyp can aesexually produce up to 45 jellyfish in a season.
And somehow I expect monster descendants to have a better survival rate than normals
edit: we might not want to mosterfy these things for fear of wiping out our entire ecosystem
jesus fuck, a 4 inch diameter bell typically drops 40,000 eggs into the water ... per fucking day. And a given polyp can aesexually produce up to 45 jellyfish in a season.
And somehow I expect monster descendants to have a better survival rate than normals
edit: we might not want to mosterfy these things for fear of wiping out our entire ecosystem
[X] Plan Minimizing the Aftermath
[X] Bless Petitioner for Sacrifices - Expend some of your DE to empower those who come to your shrine or pray to you in exahange for more offerings. Current Skills that can be blessed: Astrology, Navigation, Perform (Trickery), Fishing, Leadership, Innovation.
--[X] Expend 20 DE on petitioners for Navigation
[X] Bless Petitioner for Growth - Expend some of your DE to empower those who come to your shrine or pray to you, granting them a bounty of life-giving things. Current Skills that can be blessed: Navigation, Fishing.
--[X] Expend 17 DE on petitioners for Navigation
[X] Inspire Petitioner - Expend DE to give inspiring visions and dreams to a petitioner who comes to your shrine or prays to you. At 2 Influence, Inspirations are somewhat random in their effects but are stronger than Blessings. Costs: 5 DE x2
[X] Moonlight* - The moon shines bright this night, revealing things that hide in the dark. Can cause Weird, also empowers a number of relevant actions (Astrology, Perform (Trickery), Water-element Influence Actions, etc.). Costs: 15 DE
--[X] In your territory.
[X] Control Waters*** - You bend the waves to your command, directing them to rise or quiet at your leisure, to punish your enemies, or reward your friends. Costs: 4 DE x3
--[X] Calm Seas. x3
[X] Build a Shrine - Bully, threaten, persuade, or cajole mortals into building a shrine to your magnificence. Maximum shrines 0/2.
Bless Sacrifices
Navigation rolled 18, 10, 17, 14, 8. 3, 10, 7, 7, 5. 7, 11, 12, 8, 9. 10, 11, 8, 10, 14
Gain 22 DE
Bless Growth
Navigation rolled 5, 10, 11, 2, 10. 7, 12, 4, 6, 12. 11, 4, 18, 4, 6. 9, 13
Gain 14 DE
1 Interesting Result Weirding rolled 11
No weird
Inspiration
Influence rolled 13, 16
Moonlight
Influence rolled 9
Minor Success
Fear rolled 4
Gained 3 Legend Weirding rolled 11
No weird
A Weirding
Rolled 15
Strangeness may occur under this moon
Calm Seas
Influence rolled 12, 14, 10
Huh. Weirding rolled 10, 17, 9
Aaand that's two Weirding of a Weirding rolled 13
No mastur-weirding
Build Shrine
Influence rolled 14
Accidentally Despise (No Mischief)
Shrine rolled 15
... You didn't despise it. Really?
Seski makes trouble
Trickery rolled 9
Not this time
1 - Moon of Beasts
2 - Moon of Transmutation
3 - Moon of Life
4 - Moon of the Earth
5 - Moon of Wild Tide
6 - Moon of Secrets Revealed
7 - Moon of Wrath
8 - Moon of Darkness
9 - Moon of Shifts
10 - Moon in the Sun
Rolled 6 - Moon of Secrets Revealed (10)
Rolled 3 - Moon of Life (14)
+1 Astrology
Major III Growth Event
Rolled 3
Population Modifier +3
Gained 4 Legend
FEAR BUY - Vehemence (13)
1-30: Shrine 3
31-40: Influence 3
41-45: Fear 5
46-50: Avatar 5
51-55: Fishing
56-60: Perform (Trickery)
61-70: Navigation
71-80: Astrology
81-85: AA - Yellow Moon
86-90: AA - Silver Moon
91-95: AA - Blue Moon
96-100: Capricious One
Rolled 96: Capricious One
9 Vehemence Remaining
Legend rolled 10, No buy (reduced chance of extra buys for balance adjustment, requires much higher unspent legend or roll)
Gained Capricious One
Trait Cap Exceeded
Become Formless
Your first year in quite a while without a body is easier to adjust to than you'd expected, like slipping off a glove to work with your bared fingers. You brighten the moon, still the seas, and give your blessings to the people who ask. Saiga seems forlorn that your body has gone the way of the shrine he made for you, but he curiously decided to begin work on another shrine despite the accident with the last one, even going so far as the bless it for you, since you are too weak to do it yourself.
And then the strange things start happening. In the night, as you go about brightening the yellow glow of the moon, all throughout your domain you can sense a churning, roiling passion. It is enough to feed you, and when you try to pull your attentions to something resembling sight, you discover that a mad orgy has begun in the village, and Saiga's as well. Saiga seems unable to control himself, either, taking woman after woman for his pleasure.
Good thing you don't have a body right now. That looks draining.
On the other side of the long day, the first full moon to rise is strangely purple, and though this time the people are asleep, you are the one entranced, staring and churning the waters in strange, perfect shapes. Your blessings prove a lucky choice, this year, as the many, many pregnancies you'd accidentally brought about have made the women hungrier and the need for good preserves in the long night greater. There is one issue, however. The pair you'd blessed with dreams followed along after an especially foolish young man, traveling around the ice shelf to the east and provoking a fight with the people on the other side before they returned, bloody, but alive.
[Voting opens 2 hours after the update. Voters who are unsure if they will be capable of voting within approximately one day may enact proxy votes early.]
Equations Noted for this turn's income: (Rite Income = 4*[(15+[Fear/2]+Pop Modifier)/15] = 3 DE) /// (Income per Vehemence = 4*[(10+[Fear*2]+Pop Modifier)/10] = 5.6 DE per Vehemence, rounded up)
Equations Noted for next turn's income: (Rite Income = 4*[(15+[Fear/2]+Pop Modifier)/15] = 5 DE) /// (Income per Vehemence = 4*[(10+[Fear*2]+Pop Modifier)/10] = 6.4 DE per Vehemence, rounded up)
CURRENT POPULATION MODIFIER: -2 of -18 minimum, was -4 last turn (+3 event, +1 natural growth [weak], -2 Vehemence exhaustion)
Divine Actions (Actions marked with asterisks can only be performed a number of times per turn equal to the number of asterisks present)
[] Bless Petitioner for Sacrifices - Expend some of your DE to empower those who come to your shrine or pray to you in exahange for more offerings. Current Skills that can be blessed: Astrology, Navigation, Perform (Trickery), Fishing, Leadership, Innovation.
-[] Expend <X> DE on petitioners
[] Bless Petitioner for Growth - Expend some of your DE to empower those who come to your shrine or pray to you, granting them a bounty of life-giving things. Current Skills that can be blessed: Navigation, Fishing.
-[] Expend <X> DE on petitioners
[] Inspire Petitioner - Expend DE to give inspiring visions and dreams to a petitioner who comes to your shrine or prays to you. At 2 Influence, Inspirations are somewhat random in their effects but are stronger than Blessings. Costs: 5 DE
-[] FORMLESS: Drive Petitioner to (Avatar Action). Costs: +15 DE surcharge
[] Control Waters*** - You bend the waves to your command, directing them to rise or quiet at your leisure, to punish your enemies, or reward your friends. Costs: 4 DE
-[] Whip Waves.
-[] Calm Seas.
[] Call Wave* - You twist and churn the waters, making them rise and rise to batter even the high land with the relentless, consuming sea. Costs: 14 DE
[] Direct Fish** - You direct fish to or away from your domain, having knowledge of the temperatures and currents that they prefer. Costs: 6 DE
-[] Call Fish.
-[] Drive Fish Away.
[] Moonlight* - The moon shines bright this night, revealing things that hide in the dark. Can cause Weird, also empowers a number of relevant actions (Astrology, Perform (Trickery), Water-element Influence Actions, etc.). Costs: 15 DE
-[] In your territory.
-[] Over an enemy's territory.
Avatar Actions (FORMLESS, DISABLED EXCEPTING SCRY) [] Form Avatar (4 Ambrosia) (Avatar dispersed, most actions disabled)
[] Suffer Avatar (<X>, up to 3 Ambrosia) (Restores avatar with a variable sustenance value - can include negative values if the fraction of Ambrosia committed is too low compared to current Avatar, which causes violent rampages until hunger is sated to at least 10)
[] Drink deeply of the Ambrosia of creation, reveling in the heady sensation and forgetting what you do not care for. Forget [skill].
-[] Expend <X> Ambrosia reveling
[] Produce a mortal child
-[] Contribute <X> Legend to sire an Ur-child (Maximum 10*Shrine Attribute or 50% of unspent legend, whichever is lower)
-[] Contribute <4X> Sustenance per trait or <9X> Sustenance to choose a trait
[] Lay with <[Animal]>
-[] Contribute a rank of Avatar to sire an Ur-beast
-[] Contribute <4X> Sustenance per trait or <9X> Sustenance to choose a trait
[] Experiment with Unknown Materials
-[] Strange Stone
-[] Strange Metal
[] Personally Incite - Travel onto the cold earth and indulge in sowing chaos and terror. Costs: 3 DE.
[] Disrupt Saiga's fishermen to the south. Costs: 5 DE (must reserve at least one destructive act) WARNING: Outside of effective influence range; divine powers will have reduced effectiveness. Turns remaining: 1
[] Wander the Depths - Travel away from your shoal to explore the deeper places. Costs: 10 DE
[] Explore the Land - Pick your way about the surface that you haven't explored. There is more to the land than a single people by the sea, and you must know it. Costs: 10 DE. WARNING: Lacking Survival, exploration will be more difficult. Navigation provides very limited benefits overland.
[] Guide Ships - Guide and navigate the boats in person, sending them where they need to be. Costs: 6 DE
[] Lure - Seduce and enchant the incautious, leading them to their doom. Costs: 6 DE
[] Give Bounty - Seek fish and sea creatures to capture and give to mortals. Costs: 8 DE
[] Study Stars - Study the skies and stars, seeking patterns that will tell you what was, what is, and what may yet be.
-[] Read the Future - Look forward to what has not yet been, but may yet be. Will aid you in a number of ways during the turn, and warn you of potential dangers. Costs: 8 DE
-[] Read the Past - Look beyond yourself to a time before. The world is old and storied, and secrets are buried in history. Helps develop rituals. Costs: 12 DE
-[] Reflecting Pool - Dedicate greater efforts to studying the still sea and the strange energy you encountered. Costs: 14 DE (reserves two uses of Calm Seas)
-[] Scry Distant Places - View the places you have not seen, the places you cannot go. Costs: 15 DE
Commune Actions (FORMLESS, HEAVILY ALTERED)
[] Issue Decree - You condense into a roiling mass just barely capable of overwhelming, booming speech in order to address those beneath you and issue a decree about the right way to live and how to worship you correctly. Costs: 15 DE. Maximum Decrees: 0/4
-[] LOCKED: Decree that families who send one of their beautiful members to attend your shrines for a time will be spared your wrath. Costs: 15 DE
[] Make Demand - You have need of something and you will tell people what you want. Costs: 15 DE. Issues per turn: 4
[] Despise Trait - You do not like how the mortals view you and your powers. Remind them what you truly represent and how you truly are! Costs: (Must reserve no destructive acts associated with the forgotten trait)
-[] Despise <X>
[] Build a Shrine - Bully, threaten, persuade, or cajole mortals into building a shrine to your magnificence. Costs: 10 DE. Maximum shrines 1/2.
-[] Specify a shrine to Leave to Ruin
[] Improve a Shrine - Invest a great deal of materials and ornaments to make a shrine grander. Costs: 10 DE.
-[] Dedicate <X> materials for progress.
-[] Expand a Pool of Endless Fish (T1): Grants free growth based on Shrine Tier per turn.
-[] Expand Sacrificial Bowls (T1): Grants a small amount of DE/turn based on total Shrine Tier.
-[] Expand the Painted Stars (T1): A map of stars will be painted upon the skins inside a single shrine, granting ???.
[] Demand Appeasement - You will have regular sacrifices! You demand it, even, or all under you will suffer! Costs: 20 DE (one time), 1 Decree slot (Must reserve an action, divine or avatar, as punishment for lack of appeasement)
[] Meet with Saiga. Costs: 4 DE per option
-[] Learn more about him
-[] Learn more about Niogg (has a maximum limit on successes)
-[] Request something
-[] Trade something
-[] Test dominance (LOCKED and FREE with all other meeting options)
-[] Learn from him
-[] Share <X> DE (sets of 10)
-[] Share <X> Ambrosia (sets of 2) -[] Consummate your marriage, but refuse a child for now
-[] Consummate your marriage, contributing <X> Ambrosia for Attributes and <4X> Sustenance for traits or <9X> Sustenance to choose traits, in order to bear a Spirit Child
AS A FEAR SPIRIT, YOU CANNOT ENTER QUIESCENCE. THE FOLLOWING LIST INCLUDES ALL POTENTIAL TRAITS THAT CAN BE EARNED IN THE FEAST ON TERROR TABLE, BASED ON A NUMBER OF FACTORS EACH TURN.
Divine Attributes: Current base level plus one cost per point (i.e. Avatar 2 -> 3 costs 3 Legend, Influence 0->1 costs 1 Legend)
Attribute Accumulated Discounts: Faith 2 (currently locked), Fear 2/5
Aspects
Minor Aspect of the Fish (+1 Trade, +1 Navigation, Faster water travel): 2 (2) Legend
Minor Aspect of the Crustacean (+2 Melee, Increased wound threshold): 2 (2) Legend
Minor Aspect of the Walrus (+1 Fishing, +1 Survival, Increased maximum sustenance): 2 (3) Legend
Minor Aspect of the Octopus (+1 Fishing, +1 Survival, Limited ability to mask or disguise Avatar): 2 (3) Legend
Lesser Aspect of Humanity (+2 Leadership, +1 Innovation, +2 Trade, 2 accumulating Legend discount to next Faith Attribute purchase): 5 Legend
Spirits
Lesser Spirit of Mischief (+3 Perform (Trickery), +1 Survival, Limited ability to mask or disguise Avatar, grants a small chance of escaping disadvantaged encounters): 6 (5) Legend
Lesser Spirit of the Sea (+3 Fishing, +2 Navigation, +1 Trade): 6 (5) Legend
Minor Spirit of Exploration (+1 Survival, +1 Navigation, +1 Trade): 3 (5) Legend
Elemental Affinities
Astral Affinity - Yellow Moon (You have a special affinity with the night moon): 6 (7) Legend
Astral Affinity - Blood Moon (You have a special affinity with the moon spurned the light of the sun): 6 (7) Legend
Astral Affinity - Blue Moon (You have a special affinity with the strange moon): 6 (7) Legend
Astral Affinity - Harvest Moon (You have a special affinity with the moon of plenty): 6 (7) Legend
Astral Affinity - Silver Moon (You have a special affinity with the moon that shows itself in the waning light of day): 6 (7) Legend
Astral Affinity - Stars (All that twinkles in the night is the vastness of creation): 3 (6) Legend
Cold Affinity - Frost (You have seen man's lips blue in chill waters, felt the nip of ice upon skin): 3 (6) Legend
Ocean Affinity - Ocean (The rivers of the earth feed the seas, but the seas of the world feed the oceans): 9 (8) Legend
Ocean Affinity - Rain (What the sun takes, the skies return): 3 (6) Legend
Ocean Affinity - Tides (Your affinity for the rolling waves has expanded to include even the tide itself): 6 (7) Legend
Classical Affinity - Wind (Fire, Earth, Water, and Wind, the four classical elements, are inexorably tied to one another): 3 (6) Legend Classical Affinity - Earth (Fire, Earth, Water, and Wind, the four classical elements, are inexorably tied to one another): 3 (6) Legend Inherent Lockout Classical Affinity - Fire (Fire, Earth, Water, and Wind, the four classical elements, are inexorably tied to one another): 3 (6) Legend Inherent Lockout
Avatar Enhancements Elemental Avatar - Water (3 accumulating Legend discount to next Avatar Attribute purchase, Increased wound threshold, Can drown in grapples): 4 (3) Legend
Divine Enhancements
Inscrutable One (A natural evolution of capriciousness, you are not merely fickle, your motives are utterly incomprehensible. +2 Perform (Trickery), FEAR ONLY (Faith only locked): Traits may be despised without normal limitations, are always despised successfully, and the last (Shrine Attribute) despised traits can be manually restored for no cost in Legend): 11 Legend
Stargazer (You are a natural reader of the stars and their omens. Astrology no longer counts towards skill capacity (only if Mysticism is also learned), enables enhanced Avatar Astrology actions): 8 (10) Legend
Personal Skills:
Improve Skill: 1 Legend per Level (i.e Melee 2->3 costs 1 Legend, Melee 2->4 costs 2 Legend, etc.) Max Rank: 10
Purchase New Skill: 2 Legend for a new Skill
The new mechanic, Formless, comes into play when a spirit or god has exceeded his trait capacity, the carvings of them too varied and their tales too contradictory for their form to be stable enough for an Avatar.
Formless gods are helpless masses of power, unable to form avatars to interact directly, thus losing the ability to use many skills and temporarily deactivating certain traits regarding form (though this does not reduce the number of traits they possess). Formless gods' inherent traits do not exert additional influence on them as they normally would. They lose the ability to stray from the protections of their supplicants and shrines, thus cannot travel or explore. They can no longer physically defend their shrines, and interaction with other gods is relegated to aggressive dominance tests, and cannot be naturally peaceful (Formless gods can still trade and interact, but all encounters are first tested through aggressive dominance, and relations are at a natural penalty with other gods, making interaction less fruitful).
Formless gods add half of all skill levels to effective Awe in encounters with other gods. This bonus is not calculated towards a successful domination, but still protects from domination or cowing before others. They do not have to consume sustenance to maintain an avatar, and their incomprehensible lack of form greatly increases the maximum Divine Energy and Ambrosia they can store, as well as slightly increasing the effect of all divine acts (fires, fertility, tornadoes, etc.).
Formless gods can mimic direct interaction with the world, but the process is especially expensive, DE negative and does not have the same degree of accuracy or effectiveness as a god with an Avatar would have.
Catch my notation errors, please and thanks as usual.
WEIRDINGS occurred on especially odd rolls (you were just inside the first DC, so you got no free Weird table stuff), and would activate only if the Weirding check was high, low, or a rare occurance (not a DC check).
