Interest Checks - Dawn of Worlds (Sirdcera)

Sirdcera

High-Fantasy World-Building Game for Dawn of Worlds
Welcome to the world of Sirdcera - the world you will help create! As a deity, you will create land according to your ideals, creatures who worship you, and avatars to do your bidding. Alongside the other gods, you may form pacts - or even forge deadly rivalries!

Dragons flying overhead, levitating castles, and wizards traversing through portals would be the norm.

Dawn of Worlds Rule System (more like 'guidelines')
Please peruse the rules. There will be frequent referencing, but also the "rule of cool" will remain supreme!


Design Your Deity!
In Dawn of Worlds, you play as a god! Flavor your deity however you want. The more details, the better.

As for the flow of the game, each person will take turns rolling for power in the form of points and spending those points to create or destroy.

Post Frequency
Once a week would be great, but I understand life happens!

How to Apply
Post your ideas for your deity below!

Questions, Comments, and/or Concerns?
Please let me know if you have any of these by posting below or shooting me a private message.

This looks intriguing, but the posting rate is unviable for me, so I'll resist applying. But I'd love to see it in action! Are you planning to have the game private or public? If the former, would you accept a spectator? :D

I have changed it to "once a week." Would that be good for you? The main goal is to collaborate on worldbuilding so allowing time for posts to marinate makes sense :) That’s a great question (which I should’ve considered 😅) - I think I’d leave the game public.

This does work better for me, significantly so! I'd love to join then when you go ahead with it (and bring all of my completely friendly sky tentacle monstrosities to spice up the world). :D

That sounds awesome! I’m thinking a total of 5-6 people would be good - thoughts?

Very interested. I'll go over the rules this weekend.

I'll throw my hat in, I'm a sucker for things like this.

We can use hextml or some other online resource we can all contribute to fit the world building aspect

I don't have a preference for a group size for this game, so I'm happy with whichever we end up with. :D If we don't have enough players, we can always compensate by agreeing to let eras last longer.

I also don't mind using external resources, but I would actually love to draw a map by hand. We can do both though!

...Hmm, do you guys think a giant cloud which occasionally spawns a sky tentacle is a land or climate feature? 🤔

It can be both. There is a type of cloud stone on the world and they're is a large migratory mass of it that wanders the world as well as multiple smaller sky islands. The tentacle wild be a creature that lives on it

But if the cloud itself is the organizing that works too but if then a feature. Like island turtles.

Ooh, that's an interesting idea. I was debating between tentacles which can be built upon and tentacles which just appear (sometimes your weather is light rain, and sometimes it's light tentacles), but this can have both!

Side note, I was thinking, we don't necessarily need to have a continent in the ocean as a base, right? Of course we'll have to agree on it, but theoretically we can have an underwater sea floor, or a sky, or an endless desert, or something underground as a canvas. XD

I'm just wondering if the tentacles are edible. Caravans of cloud chasers waiting for the next opportunity to spear some sky-calamari.

If one does not fear divine (or mother nature's) retribution, everything is edible! :P

I am fine with alternate planetary state
No volcano = almost no variation in elevation. This can result in a water world, desert, planet spamming swamp or jungle. We can make that part of the creation. Start with a simple ball of dirt and add elements.

I’m loving the brainstorming (tentaclestorming? :) ) already!

There is no set number for the amount of players so whoever wants to join im would be great.

I’m totally down for a hand drawn map. It starts a massive blob of a circle (and maybe even more closed shapes). I’m assuming we gave the capabilities of posting the map each time it gets edited? Also, there is a log sheet of each deities’ actions for record keeping.

I’m a sucker for dragons and vampires so my deity will be a draconic vampire or a vampiric dragon (or a man-bear-pig :p)

For actual numbers, how many people do we have interested so far so I can edit the interest title?

Interested

Likewise, count me in! Edit: Actually, let me think about it a couple of days.

I would propose having a hand-drawn or digital-drawn map as a Google file everyone can edit - then we won't need to change the link to it each time for each new version. :D

I am interested.

Admittedly, I kinda prefer the default assumptions when it comes to the continent. We have it in our power to make all kinds of weird geographical features, but we we change the default assumptions we actually close off options. For the sake of example, there isn't really anything I'd want to put at the bottom of the ocean, so if the whole map is underwater I'm probably going to switch off. With a continent in the water though, if someone does want to put something at the bottom of the ocean, there's ocean around the continent.

Generally, when I've played map-making games, I've dropped a fist full of beans over a sheet of paper and then drew a line around them. It gave me a continent and maybe some isles with an organic shape. Might be kind of hard to make that work online though.

Edit: We could steal the blank world map from the back of Fabula Ultima though.

Edit II: Guess if we hand drew it on a google image doc, we'd need some way to define an "inch". A grid? Hexes? I dunno.

Hey, an ocean can have a lot of different landscape features, don't you slander it. :V Also it's a fantasy ocean, it can have everything the land can.

I find default being a continent a little boring - almost every fantasy story has one/two continents and an ocean, which is even less variety than the reality, - but I don't necessarily mind (although I would still prefer something at least a bit different). I guess if we are going with the default, then I'd ask that we prolong the first age to at least 10 rounds minimum (as in before players can switch it), since I'll spend most of it trying to build mega-features. It won't really be fun for me if the world is just generic "forest-mountain-river-lake" kind of fantasy world.

Edit: magical American measurements confuse me so I'd like inches defined either way. XD The easiest way is to just add a measurement ruler to the map itself, in a legend. Something approximately inch-like, depending on the map's dimensions?

Edit 2: would a continent flying in the endless sky work for you? 🤔 Or even not floating, but raised above by something (tentacles) with the ocean below it? That still has both land, ocean and the weirdness! XD

Erm, just to clarify, no shade towards the "one/two continents and an ocean" worlds; I have these myself. :D I just feel like if we're playing a world-building game, we might as well go extravagant? Although I'm not against just having my own corner of the world and keeping the weirdness to it - but this seems antithetical to the cooperative part.

I don't mind such things existing, I just think they should be things that come about due to divine influence rather than the default canvas that we all start with.

Assuming average rolls, 5 players, and 5 turns, we collectively can define 58". Assuming a standard sheet of paper (8.5 x 11), that's 58" out of a possible 93.5". That's 62%, on average, assuming there's no ocean to speak of. We can slaughter that thing with terrain elements, even more if we're more interested in climate shifting than creating geographical features. Whenever we shift the default assumptions, we advantage whoever is aligned with those particular features.

You don't want mountains and forests? That's cool, you don't have to build any. If I want a lot of volcanic activity and jungles, my preferences shouldn't be disadvantaged because you think they're boring. I certainly shouldn't have to come up with an excuse for volcanoes because we decided to throw tectonic activity right out the window by defining the world as a fungal growth on the back of a flying turtle.

As for doubling the first age, that's gonna end up throwing the pricing structure all over the place. Saving up 22 points for a First Age Race isn't nearly as prohibitive as it would be if you assume an average of 35 points total in the First Age. If we double the length, we'll literally have the ability to cover not only 100% of the map, but we'll necessitate modifying things put in place by other people ... in the first age ... the one characterized by a relative lack of sapient life. Meaning the one with the least opportunity for roleplaying.

Reminder that we're talking about play by post speeds ... with a once a week required posting rate.

I wasn't saying that there shouldn't be forests and volcanoes. In my opinion, it's a fantasy world, it doesn't have to follow realism - so why won't there be volcanoes on the back of a turtle or forests underwater? I guess it does depend on how much one wants to follow laws of physics versus magic versus whatever made up structure of the universe; probably should've discussed it before.

Boring was poor phrasing, sorry. I don't think more realistic features are boring by themselves, I mostly just find the "one blank continent" a bit too common. Like nothing is preventing an interesting word sprouting from it and there's nothing wrong with it, but if you can tweak it, it can be more interesting - at least to me. Even just an unusual shape, like a perfect circle, or a spiral.

Anyway, sorry for the yapping, didn't want to make it a problem. Nevermind all this, I'm probably not a very good fit for this game anyway if I'm both dragging the pace down and causing issues even at the planning stages. :D Sorry for the trouble.

PS: I don't think it's supposed to be a standard sheet of paper? I thought "large" was implying at least an A3.

No worries, I'm not offended or anything. I'm just trying a thing this year where I make less conciliatory statements when I'm presenting my perspective. The idea is that I don't undermine my own argument, but I do worry that I come off a little heated.

I'm still sorry about my posts being harsher then intended, I didn't mean it like that. My view of realism in fantasy is the default of "everything is possible, we'll rewrite laws of the universe to make it make sense later", so I just didn't think changing the base canvas will limit anyone in any way - I certainly didn't mean it to undermine your preferences, I thought they can work together. I just really failed at voicing that. XD

Anyway, I'll take a rain check on my interest in joining the game, if possible. A few days to think!

From my point of view starting with a blank canvas is just to give greater divergence from the norm. If you're going to have a world creation game then why pigeonhole yourself with Pangea? But I am ok with a random start template. Drop beans, dice, use a random generator. It's all good.

Simplifying a standard sheet of paper to 8x11 = 88 square inches. If we translate that to a basic earth sized world is about 2 million square miles = 1 sq inch. We can flex that to a Continental scale by reducing the scale to 1 million square mi per sq inch (1 in = 1,000mi). This can be cut to 100:1 for a smaller starting world.

While 5 rounds of 5 players with an average of 7 points gets you much of r 88, there is more than just terrain. Climate and other factors come into it. So if the default is something that goes against a significant # of players intents then I think it is fair to negotiate what the is.

We can use a blind bid auction to let players prioritize their preferences. 2 categories : shape and climate. Those interested will bid and the winery defined the default of that type with only 2 options to mix.
Ex shape all water, water & land mad outline, all land.
Ex climate : artic poles & tropic equator, all desert, all moderate.

To balance their influence the bid is the # of points each round they will lose for the privilege of defining the default, 1 to 7. Any who lose the bid get to place their choice on 1 grid per point in their bid.

I know this is outside the rules as printed but think it could be an interesting twist.

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Or we can each submit a default shadow and climate and roll a random choice for the winer.

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It's really up to the GM

I’m loving the back and forth since this is helping me consider things I would have never thought of!

As for a starting map (standard sheet of paper, large sheet of paper, digital map, etc.), I’m down for whatever.

One of my main goals I’m doing this is to help create a fantastical world for various systems (GURPS, Pathfinder, D&D) to play in.

The bidding sounds really cool, but I’m not that smart :) Would you mind giving an example of what a round would look like with the bidding?

Ultimately, each individual can manipulate what they’d like, but if the group isn’t for that, then we can make changes to the rules.

Basically for the bid option
Before round 1 the GM puts up a secret poll with "Shape" and "Climate" where any player who wants to bid votes on the option they want. This let's the other players know there is a secret bid.
The player then posts a note to the GM with their bid. After all bids are collected the GM get the specifics from the winner(s). Winners are not announced, just the results.
If there is a tie then the GM splits the map and designates regions each player controls with zones in between to blend the styles.
The bid is the number of points each round that the player loses to gain control of the default.
Minimum bid 1
Maximum bid 5
Winners determine the general type / default, not the exact details.
Ex global shape : Pangea , water world, archipelagos, all land, volcanic ...
Ex global climate : standard polar/tropic, hot desert, ice age, temperate, desolate, etc

The bidding idea sounds really cool! I'm down! :)

Sorry, just wanted to get the results for interest as of now. Please correct me if I am wrong :)

1. Psybermagi
2. Flyingsucculent (maybe)
3. Celestine

I'll keep updating the list as interest (hopefully) grows.

Are you still planning to start this? :3 Just checking in.

If there is room, I'd be interested. I'm not familiar with the rules, but I learn pretty quickly.