Cults
So, basic cult discussion in here.
Before you get too worked up about them. Cult are a stepping stone into other things. Cannot give out too much more info then that.
Seeing some interesting ideas started for them.
0
Comments
the claims are stated - it's the world I've created
"On the battlefield I am a god. I love war. The steel, the smell, the corpses. I wish there were more. On the first day I drove the Northmen back alone at the ford. Alone! On the second I carried the bridge! Me! Yesterday I climbed the Heroes! I love war! I… I wish it wasn’t over."
Unless of course the teachings of a Dead God are argued over for a while and eventually used to start wars due to interpretation and grasps for power. That'd be awesome. And hilarious.
I preserved Cassiopeia's order accounts and was toying with handing the gold out to everybody now that the order is gone - now I am going to simply hoard it and make a charter for a cult. The problem is that some uppity order member will frown on that because my charter idea likely won't be 'about the Night'. I think every god died for a reason, and that reason was that gods don't make sense in Imperian anymore - especially gods with highly neutral domains. Even if they had fantastic players, they were not domains with any compelling conflict or relevance in Imperian's setting. To make a cult dedicated to 'Seasons' or 'Peace', even if they don't intend to be about worshiping Janus or Shallah specifically, is absolutely missing the point of the reason why gods died.
Also, when I asked him about the topic of an Entity taking notice 'mechanically' of multiple cults, @Garryn told me not to worry about Entities and to just hang out with the Cult system - I don't know why, but I thought I'd put that information out to all of you:
Message #3220 Sent By: Garryn Received On: 10/20/2012/21:02
"Don't worry about entities for now - all will be revealed in due time."
What I do like is that this cult system seems to be a way for the people 'up stairs' to see what kind of domains players want their god to have. In a way, I find that sort of cool.
EDIT: Also, the last time a system had the 'On' switch flicked that had the word 'charter' in it, we got the Animists, Silvari, and many other worthless guilds. Choose wisely.
My problem with it comes in when the gold starts getting involved. I don't see the point. I know it's going to get dumb when Eloweth Jr, Janus Jr, Asaka Jr and Danaglas Jr all go up for charter and "new magick god" has to get dinged with a 4mil buy in. This applies across the board, I don't want to have to be competing with the rebirth of Malkav platform. On one hand, I'm really looking forward to the inner circle strife as competing ideologies vie for spirits. On the other hand, I'm worried about the impact of Skype and character sharers/multiplayers. Shukron is already lobbying hard across alts to buy Fahrer into power. I just don't want to see more mechanics gamed by farming alt-activity. It's going to be really interesting how it all plays out and I don't want it to become some sh*tstorm because people are too petty to accept the fact that the concept of their old, dead god is gone and they need to redefine their rp.
the claims are stated - it's the world I've created
Cults are a great way to gauge what the players are interested in worshipping now. Instead throwing some random new mechanic in there headed up by the Garden that may or not be to the players likings. And while many people have voiced that they don't want to see things like Shallah, Janus, Cass, etc...2.0, myself included, that doesn't stop you from being able to do that if you can get the support of enough players.
We as a player base have all screamed for the reigns in shaping the world around us. This their way of giving us the reigns in the religious aspect of Imperian, don't spit in the face of someone giving you what you want. This is your chance to impact the world in a big way, for what is likely to be quite a while. Have fun with it, and try to be patient as this event comes to an end. I'm sure you'll be able to get your RP requests looked into once this massive event has come to a final end.
I'm also not keen on the inexplicably escalating gold cost - why should some cults cost more than others, or cost at all, especially on the heels of an event that involved multiple huge gold expenditures? It's my hope that whatever this is a stepping stone to will be significantly more extensive and mechanically supported/involved - the cult system is less useful than a clan (no positions, and I'm sure it's missing a bunch of other mechanics), and more expensive besides.
I know in the Order of Janus , someone was sacrificed every in game year at winter time as part of ritual
I wouldn't want the Seasons cult to just be Order 2.0 though
I will hand it to you that Orders were very stale. However, this is only going to end up the same way, once the entities dry up. Did you honestly have to kill gods and orders, something that provided a great amount of roleplay, just because the themes of every god blew? You couldn't just off them in this event, then have every volunteer write a new one? I'm beyond confused with the line of thought used to justify the creation of the cult system - especially because you seem to be cool with 2.0 cults, with the caveat that they add 'new berry flavor!' or something equally as paltry. I would have just preferred a 'god reboot', where every god dies and we get new ones. That would have given us new, setting appropriate options.. without the baggage of a million gold fee and the requirement to do their work for them.
EDIT: You could at least be WAY more forthcoming with details, concerning such a sensitive system. I understand you love to keep things behind the curtain, but certain things demand transparency and this is one of them - a lot of players are sore about losing their gods and orders. You could at least do them the service of explaining where we are going with this, what this is a stepping stone TO, etc. This isn't difficult.
I don't know. I feel like this system could be cool.. in another game, with different assumptions that could be made from the very start of the game.
What the cult system means is that if you really want to run with an idea that's solid and decently supported amongst the players but doesn't prove popular amongst the volunteers, then you can still have a system for it with powers, and rituals, and a player-chosen leader, and that if it's done well enough, you might attract a volunteer at later time.
This is, imo, much better than "Here are your new gods, pick and choose!"
"On the battlefield I am a god. I love war. The steel, the smell, the corpses. I wish there were more. On the first day I drove the Northmen back alone at the ford. Alone! On the second I carried the bridge! Me! Yesterday I climbed the Heroes! I love war! I… I wish it wasn’t over."
But I also agree with Sanai - those entity-less cults would end up with a couple of people trying to develop the roleplay in the vain effort to attract whatever volunteer might possibly be interested in going along with Random Concept X.
Fair and granted, but on some level at least there's comfort in knowing what you're getting into before you do - as opposed to having an idea that seems perfect and pans out decently well, but doesn't actually go anywhere. Because, yes, divine interaction does matter to people, and even if the idea is thematically perfect it doesn't preclude bitterness when it gets passed up in favor of Cult of Totally Not A God 2.0. Even if you didn't want the person who passed you up anyway.
Being someone who complained for a long time that the concepts behind the Gods were incredibly flawed and poorly thought out, I welcome the chance, along with a large portion of the player base to try and do it better. What I find most neat about this tool is how much sense it makes. The player base pays to make in game items to customize their characters appearance, inventories and shops. The player base pays to customize houses and shops. I mean, this is just a logical progression. People are given the option to pay and design a religious fellowship.
‘Every sword’s a weight to carry. Men don’t see that when they pick ’em up. But they get heavier with time.”
the claims are stated - it's the world I've created