[God Lore]More Actions...

[Asrogoth]

Well, I've been working pretty hard and have not had much time to spend on God Lore, but I've slowly but surely been adding more stuff to accomplish my goal of cleaning it up.

Here is the "Actions" section as it stands.  I've added several new actions to the mix.  I hope you enjoy them.

-Kenny

Actions[/b]

In God Lore characters may choose from a variety of Actions to effect their will.  Normal Actions are Create, Possess, Assault, Hide, Commune, Govern and Rest.  Special Actions available to Immortals are Abrogate, Challenge, Life Force Attack, Desert, Speak, Judge and Sleep.

Any number of normal actions may be attempted at the same time due to an Immortal's existence outside of time and godly powers; however, if more than one action is attempted per round, each action's Difficulty Target is raised by the total number of actions being attempted.  In other words, if an Immortal decides to Create an object, Possess a mortal body, Assault another Immortal and Commune with the Chronicler during one round, each action would have a Difficulty Target of four which must be met in order to succeed.


Normal Actions
Create:
As its name implies, this Action allows the Immortal to make something "new" directly from the Influences/Life Force or to modify an existing creation.  Some acts of Create require a Difficulty Target check (see below).  Once an Immortal has created or modified a portion of Creation, she becomes its Patron.  Due to the Immortal's creative efforts, that section of Creation has a special tie to the Immortal, and if it is ever threatened, the Immortal will know of the threat immediately.  It is up to the Immortal to either allow its creation to encounter whatever difficulty it faces or to attempt to "rescue" it.

Once a Creation has been modified by a different Immortal, the Creation's Patron Immortal loses his Patronage to that particular Creation, and it becomes a Patronage of the modifying Immortal.


Possess:
An Immortal may possess any part of Creation whether his own or created by another.  If the Immortal attempts to possess any sentient creature, the Immortal must roll as against a challenge of the appropriate Influence.  The difficulty of the task may be increased by another Immortal.  Upon success, the Immortal gains complete control over the "Possession".  Immortals may only possess one sentient creature at a time.

An Immortal may possess as many non-sentient creations as she has Life Points in addition to the one sentient creature.  A possessed inanimate object may be used for multiple purposes, such as a weapon, sanctuary for worshipers, or perhaps a vehicle for transportation to the godly realms.

In order for an Immortal to "un"-Possess any of his Possessions, he must Abrogate the Creature (see below).

If the Immortal is unsuccessful at possessing a creation, he may not try to possess the same creation for one full turn.  If unsuccessful a second time, the creation has a special innate protection against that Immortal's Influence and may not be possessed by the Immortal unless the creation is possessed by a higher status Immortal and the control passed to the lower Immortal.


Assault:
One Immortal may choose to Assault another Immortal's Influences.  The losing Immortal's Influence Points from that specific Influence are reduced by one for the number or rounds equal to the winning Immortal's Influence in that area.  For example, if you, Gok (Dawn = 5), attack Shartu (Dawn = 3), and you roll 6, 4, 4, 3, 3, 1 while Shartu rolls 6, 6, 2.  You would lose your attack and lose one Dawn Influence Point for three rounds.


Hide:
Occassionally, an Immortal may find himself in a situation where he would rather avoid notice from mortals or may want to fog the minds of mortals in a specific area.  At these moments, he may choose to "Hide" himself from detection from those seeking his presence.  Once hidden, an Immortal cannot be seen or found by a mortal, and another Immortal can only Challenge the Immortal's continued attempts at hiding himself in order to discern the Immortal's presence or influence in a place/situation where he has hidden himself.  (see Challenge below)

An Immortal may choose to perform other actions while Hidden but must increase the difficulty of each action by one each round he is hidden.

Difficulties may also arise from exceptionally-gifted mortals or from other Immortals who may wish to reveal a deity's presence/influence over a situation.  In these circumstances, another Deity may when the hiding Immortal declares his action raise the difficulty level.  See "Difficulty Targets" for more information.


Commune:

The Commune action may be used to "speak" with other Immortals which are outside of immediate contact (i.e. when not already engaged in conversation or in close-quarters).  While Immortals are beings not relegated by Time, they are somewhat relegated by Space in that conversations can only be had naturally with other beings within the same general area of Space.  If desired, an Immortal can attempt to communicate with any other being of Creation -- inside or outside of Time -- but those Immortals must be present in some Space where they can be said to abide in order to receive such communications.


Govern:

An Immortal may choose to guide actions within Creation without revealing his intentions overtly or Possessing a being/creation.  The Govern action allows him to guide attitudes and opinions of intelligent creatures (not-Immortals or Immortal-like) beings to his ends.


Rest:

The Rest action allows an Immortal the chance to recover one spent Influence Point during a round.  No other action may be attempted during the round if the Immortal chooses to Rest.  If the Immortal is Challenged when trying to rest, He gains one temporary Influence Point to use during the round in defense of his rest action.  If he successfully defends his "Rest", then he still gains the one Influence Point.  Otherwise, the Challenge wins and the appropriate number of Influence Points will be lost with none gained for the round.

Although the Immortal cannot commence any other actions during a round where he is resting, he may choose to answer to a Commune from another Immortal with no penalty.


Special Actions


Abrogate:
Perhaps most feared by mortal man is the Immortals' power of Abrogation.  If an Immortal so chooses, he may remove his power from his creation and possessions.  If the Immortal abrogates from a creation, that creation will, at the Immortal's discretion, be destroyed.  If the creation is sentient (i.e. Possession), the creature will not be destroyed but will suffer from mental agony with possible physical side effects.  These Actions of abrogation could affect an Immortal's Status as other Immortals may find his Actions negligent and irresponsible which may result in a Tribunal of the Gods and which could end up with the Immortal being penalized and losing Status (i.e. Life Force/Initiative Points).

Abrogate is not normally an Action unless the Immortal is using Abrogate to free himself from a Possession in which case Abrogate is considered to take an Action.

If an Immortal reaches zero Life Force, is Dissipated or is Suspended, all of his Creation and Possessions are considered to be Abrogated.




Challenge:
Players may Challenge other Players' Actions by playing an Influence Card in response to the other Players' Actions (if the card is still available for play).  A Challenge does not count towards a Player's one Action per Round -- it is a "free" Action.

Each Player has four Influence Cards which can each be used once before being out of play for one Turn.  A Player may use all Influence Cards within one Round, but he may only use the same card once per Round.

The Player may remove any Influence Card from out of play and use it immediately at the cost of one Influence Point, if that Card is his Primary Influence Card and is used immediately with a successful Challenge, then he shall regain the one Influence Point spent and put the card back out of play.  


When an Influence Card is played the players must roll xd6 where x = their Influence number for that Influence.  Sixes are considered a success.  If the Challenged player rolls any sixes, he automatically wins the Challenge.  Otherwise, the player with the greatest number of sixes or higher dice wins.  For example, if Shartu, the goddess of minnows (Island = 4), Challenged Gok, the god of torches (Island = 2), with her Island Card.  She rolls 4d6 and he rolls 2d6.  She rolls 5, 4, 2, 2.  He rolls 6, 1.  Gok wins because he rolled a six.  If instead, Gok had rolled 5, 4, then the result would have been a tie -- the Challenger loses a tie, so Gok would have won as well.  If, however, Gok had rolled a 4, 4, he would have lost because his highest die did not equal Shartu's highest die.

When challenging with an Influence Card, the challenging Player must tentatively spend one Influence (which will not be counted against this roll).  If the challenging Player loses the Challenge, then he temporarily loses one Influence Point (one round per opponent Influence Point). If successful, the Challenged Player does not lose Influence Point but is not successful in his Action.

Assaults against oneself may not be Challenged with an Influence Card;  although another Player may choose to intervene and Challenge an Assault by one Player against another.  Life Force Attacks may not be Challenged.


Life Force Attack:
An Immortal may choose to attack another Immortal directly by choosing to concentrate his entire Current Life Force (available Influence Points) as an attack.  The Immortal attacking will roll xd6 where x = Current Life Force.  The defending Immortal can choose to roll as many die (maximum = Current Life Force) as desired but must leave one Influence Point in each Influence.  The Player with the greater number of sixes wins the contest.  The winner of the contest loses one-half of his current Influence Points (rounding down).  The loser is forcibly sent to a negative plane where he is unable to affect play for two turns.  While suspended from play, he is forced to abrogate all his personal creations and possessed creations until his return to play.  At that point, he may attempt to reestablish his control/possession one creation per round.  If neither Player rolls a six, both Players lose one-half current Influence Points (rounding down) and both are unable to take any Action (except for personal defense) for three rounds and any possessed creation is abrogated by both.


Desert:

This special action allows the Immortal to completely withdraw all influence from Creation, similar to Abrogation, but on a much grander scale.  When an Immortal chooses to Desert Creation, she is completely withdrawing her Influence from Time and centering it in The Forever.  This action costs no Influence, but it may destroy any Possessed creature at the time of desertion on a roll of one on a die six,  and it will cause the Immortal's Patronages to suffer (effects will vary).  See the following table for sample effects:

If something bad happens (a one on one die six) then roll another one die six:
On a roll of
One -- one grouping of the Immortal's patronages comes under assault from a rival Immortal/grouping (For example, Gyka's seal patronage endures an unusually heavy attack from Sorfel's killer whale patronage).
Two -- One of the Immortal's patronages starts dying off -- for inanimate objects they might simply start fading from existence.  For plants, animals, etc, they might simply contract a horrible disease and begin to die offf.
Three -- One of the Immortal's patronages starts to mutate, gaining unusual powers and threatening the balance of Creation.  Without quick intervention, the mutated patronage could threaten all of Creation.
Four -- One of the Immortal's patronages becomes adopted by another Immortal in the deserting Immortal's absence which will require resolution when the Immortal returns to Creation.
Five -- Roll again for any two.  Ignore any further "fives".
Six -- The Immortal is called before the Council of Divinities for wanton neglect of his patronages.  Roll twice more to determine what effects have already occurred to one or more of his patronages.  The Council will reprimand and probably punish the Immortal for his actions/inactions.

A god may choose to desert in an attempt to flee an attack (i.e. Assaults or Life Force Attacks).  If used for that purpose, then if a "one" is rolled, instead of a successful "desertion" with bad things happening, the Immortal fails his "desertion", loses one Current Life Force and must meet the attack.

When returning to Creation, an Immortal who has deserted must spend all the appropriate Influence Points to re-establish any Possessions or connections/influences.


Speak:

An Immortal may Speak to Creation.  When this action is chosen, the intended targets will follow the instructions of the Immortal, usually to exactitude -- sometimes resulting in unintended consequences.  Mortal creatures will follow instructions to the death, while other Immortals can only be influenced to spend up to twice the amount of Static Influence Points of difference between the Speaker and the affected Immortal with a minimum of one Influence Point allowed.  For mortals, the Immortal has a normal difficulty target.  For each level of Immortal, the Speaker has one added to the Difficulty Target.

This special action costs one Influence Point per instruction.

Therefore, if an Immortal desired to Speak (and thus influence) a Sovereign, he would have a Difficulty Target of three.  If he desired to Speak to a Singular, his Difficulty Target would be six.


Judge:

An Immortal may sit in judgment over part of Creation at any time.  His ability to Judge is unchallengable when judging his own Patronage; however, if his judgment is deemed inappropriate, he may be brought to trial before the Council of Divinities.

If an Immortal chooses to judge another portion of Creation, then his actions will be watched by the patrons of those particular creatures.  If the patron becomes offended, the judging Immortal may be brought before the council by the patron or even attacked.

An Immortal may choose to Judge a creature in order to remove it from play, in order to affect anther Immortal's influence in Creation or perhaps to gain sway over other creatures who might not want to face the wrath of the Immortals.

Once judged, the Creature faces the fate prescribed by the judging Immortal.  This action is considered to be normal unless Challenged by another Immortal.

An Immortal may choose to judge another Immortal.  If this occurs, then the judged Immortal may choose to have his case plead before the Council of the Divinities, or he may choose to battle the judging Immortal as though a Life Force Attack has been made.  Whoever fails the "Judgment" roll must endure the punishment prescribed by the judging Immortal with the exception that the judged Immortal may not be "killed" nor may he attack or be attacked for four consecutive rounds following judgment.  After judging another Immortal, the judging Immortal loses one-half of his Current Life Force as if winning a Life Force Attack.


Sleep:

An Immortal may choose to Sleep at any time; however, this action is a special action and is the only action allowable to a player within the round if chosen.  Once the Immortal goes to "sleep", he recovers two Influence Points per round until he wakes.  He may not affect play while sleeping through any action, including Commune.  If a sleeping Immortal chooses to answer a "Commune" then he gains no benefit that round for sleeping, but he may return to sleep with no penalties the following round.

When an Immortal is asleep, she does not lose "contact" with any possessions or influence over creatures; however, she may not guide them or guard them while sleeping.  As, when choosing to Desert, an Immortal runs the risk of problems arising from her inattention to her patronages and may encounter problems.  When sleeping, the Player must roll a one die six.  If a one is rolled, problems have arisen and need to be determined.  See the chart under "Desert" for problems that may arise.

A sleeping Immortal may easily be attacked by another Immortal.  The attacking Immortal gains one die six when attacking to determine success.


Physical Attacks

Although Immortals do attack one another in their physical forms, these forms do not take any permanent harm.  Damage from one Immortal to another is the result of Assaults or Life Force Attacks.  Any resulting damage from physical attacks harms the "shell" of a body or the Avatar of an Immortal and can easily (no Life Force spent) be healed or recreated.

An Immortal that attacks any mortal Creatures through physical force can choose the amount of damage conveyed up to and including death.  These attacks are normally rated as "Easy" and require only a successful roll (i.e. not a Platypus roll) in order to succeed.  Other Immortals may, however, choose to intervene through a Challenge or by increasing the Difficulty Target of the attacking Immortal.

Once a Creation has been physically destroyed by an attacking Immortal, it may be restored (resuscitated) at any time by any Immortal with a Create Action and one Breath Influence Point spent.

If an Immortal Possesses a mortal body, the Immortal may choose to spend one Primary Influence Point per Turn to keep the Creature from being harmed by all physical damage.  Otherwise, the body is susceptible to normal physical harm.

If a mortal being somehow manages to drink Ambrosia, he will be impervious to physical damage (including fire, cold, electricity, poison, etc).  Even an Immortal cannot physically harm an "immortalized" Creature.  Therefore, whenever a mortal lays his hands on Ambrosia and partakes of its eternality-imbuing powers, the Council of Divinities will seek to learn how the mortal obtained his treasure.  Any Immortal found aiding the mortal will most likely find himself losing much Status as well as being charged with the capture and disposal of the offending Creature.

Assaults on Mortals

If an Immortal desires to dispose of a Creation, he may choose to Abrogate the Life Force from the Creation.  For one of his own Creations, he would have a zero Difficulty Rating (Easy) and would simply need to roll a success (i.e not a Platypus roll).  For Creations other than the Immortal's own, the Difficulty Target would be set at one.  As with all Difficulty Target rolls, other Immortals may choose to increase the Difficulty Target level or to Challenge the Immortal's Action.  Note:  An Immortal who Abrogates his own Creation may not be Challenged.

While this practice is frowned upon -- Abrogation, it is not an uncommon practice and will infrequently engender the wrath of other Immortals -- unless it is a direct attempt at seriously unbalancing the role of an  Immortal's Patronage within the Universe.

Less often used by Immortals, Assault is just as an effective means of attacking mortals.  Immortals tend not to use this attack on Creation as it is an unusually clear sign of the Immortals' presence within the Universe which is something they prefer to keep hidden.  Immortals who use Assault against mortals will nearly always be called before the Council of Divinities and at least reprimanded.  Occasionally Immortals have lost Status due to their violent actions against mortals.


Difficulty Targets

Not all tasks are "opposed" by other Players or the Chronicler.  Even though a task may not be opposed, it still may have a high degree of difficulty.  Most tasks the Immortals purpose are mundane and require little expenditure of their energy or time.  These tasks are relatively easy for Immortals -- where they may be insanely difficult or impossible for mortal kin (except perhaps for the most gifted Mages, Priests or Warriors).  As tasks become more complex and difficult, the gods must spend more energy to affect their desires.  In order to complete these more difficult endeavors, the Players must roll a number of die equal to their appropriate Influence for the task.  The result must have the required number of successes (sixes) as the Difficulty Target for the aforementioned task.  If the Immortal fails to match the Difficulty Target, then he loses that number of Influence Points from the tested Influence.

Difficulty Targets

0:    Easy.  No sixes required
1:   Challenging.  One six required.
2:   Herculean.  Two sixes required.
3:   Titanic.  Three sixes required.
4:   Mythic.  Four sixes required.
[/list:u]

Immortals may choose to increase the difficulty of certain tasks other Immortals face through exerting their Influence upon the desired task.  Anyone desiring to increase a Difficulty Target must spend two Influence Points per Difficulty Target level for each level of increase desired.  Therefore, if an Gok sees Shartu is attempting to perform a task that has a Challenging Difficulty Target, Gok can spend four Influence Points to increase the Difficulty Target to Herculean.  To increase the Difficulty Target to Titanic, Gok must spend an extra six Influence Points.  Likewise, to make the Difficulty Target of Mythic proportion, he must spend an additional eight Influence Points to total 18 Influence Points spent.  Because of the high cost, Immortals usually only use this tactic when defending one of their Creations.

Difficulty Targets may be increased infinitely, but it will be a rare feat to be able to raise them very high, let alone to succeed.

Linking

Due to the difficult nature of some tasks, groups of Immortals will often band together to perform Titanic and Mythic endeavors.  By spending as many Initiative Points as the difficulty of the task at hand amongst the linking Immortals, they may in fact link their power and roll one group of dice equal to their total Influence required for the specific task (minus the Initiative Points required for the linking).  Immortals may make this link with no cost to perform Easy tasks or Life Force Attacks, but in so doing, they all suffer in full any losses to Influence that may occur as a result.  A "leader" of the linking must be chosen who will retain all control of any possessed or newly created/modified creations.

Action Ratings

The Action Rating is any proficiency modifier given to specific types of Normal Actions.  An Immortal may choose to increase an Action Rating up to plus four by spending ten Ambrosia per level of increase desired.  The Action Rating allows the Immortal the use of one extra die per plus when using the specified Action.


The Platypus

Most people believe the most bizarre creature existing in the known world is the duck-billed platypus.  This creature is so strange that many have called it the "Great Mistake" of the gods.  Sometimes a Player may roll all ones -- a complete failure.  If this happens, the character has accidentally and completely messed up.  Instead of the desired effect, some other negative effect (narrated by the Player) occurs with the result being that the Player loses one-half of his current Influence Points for the Influence being tested (or Life Force if being attacked/attacking with Life Force Attack -- which would be in addition to losing the fight, being suspended from play for two turns and forcing abrogation from all the Immortal's personal creations and any possessed creation).

[Mike Holmes]

Wow, some good stuff there. Before I go on, are these dice mechanics all using the same conventions?

Mike

[Asrogoth]

Conflict Resolution/Dice Mechanics

All actions are contested actions requiring either a Difficulty Target check or a Player vs Player roll.

Difficulty Targets are used for all actions except for Challenge, Life Force Attack, Assault and Judge actions.

Player vs. Player Rolls

Player vs. Player rolls are used for Challenge, Life Force, Attack, Assault and Judge actions.  To determine the winner of a Player vs. Player roll, the Players roll xd6 (as determined by their Influence or by the specific action).  The Player with the most sixes wins.  In case of a tie, the challenged Player wins.  If a Player rolls only ones on all of his dice, then he loses and suffers full penalties.  If both Players roll all ones, then they both suffer the penalties incurred by losing the match.




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I think that answers your question Mike; however, I need to tighten up some other inconsistencies.  I'll deal with those shortly.  Thanks for reading.

"Asrogoth"

[Mike Holmes]

Hmm. That does simplify things. Right now things are looking pretty tight. Can you get me a completed document with revisions in short order?

Mike