Mesnoth Turn #1

GameMasterPost:
Mesnoth Turn #1

Faith Points 10
Fear Points 10
Population 35
Free Action: 1 (Must be used this turn)

GameMaster's Post:
Description:

You gradually rise to awareness within the minds of a small group of 35 naked men and women. These poor wretches have been just barely getting by scavenging lion kills for meat and collecting edible yams and berries on the west african coast. They have a few stone stone tools and are jabbering at each other in a language that bears a close relationship to complete nonsense. What do you want to do?

Mesnoth's Post

hmmm . . . interesting take on the twilight concept. Hopefully I can do better this game than I did last time. It's kind of nice that we're all starting with normal humans on ancient earth this time. Making my race intelligent cabbages last time was a HUGE mistake.

So . . . Hmmmm; it looks like we JUST got smart, primitive stone tools, almost no language . . . These guys need help. Lets see what I can do. ::grins::

(1) The West African Coast is a rather large spot. Since you've given me the broad option I'd like to position my tribe more specifically . We are in Nigeria not far from the gulf of gunea. Location is very important and I want to make sure my people have a good start!

The place I'm waiting for them to reach is the delta of the niger river, I'm looking for a spot a bit inland where tall reeds grow and wild african rice (Oryza glaberrima) is present. Here are some links I feel will help us pinpoint where my people are and some of the areas history. Love the real earth stuff!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niger_River
http://www.yourchildlearns.com/online-atlas/africa/nigeria-map.htm
http://www.pnas.org/content/99/25/16360.full.pdf
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Niger_River

(Free Action)

Here is what I'd like to do, when they reach the sort of location I'm talking about i want to grow a 50 foot tall crystal Obelisk out from the water, it's roots deep below in muck into the bedrock. This is a single crystal, one monolithic construction and thus nearly impervious to damage. It will glow with a soft blue light and have the following effects within a radius around it:

First I want to be able to take actions at a discount within the effected area. Say a 25% discount? I know from last game that this discount won't effect any changes I want to make to the crystal itself or it's "Aura" but depending on the range of the aura it could be very useful early on. Second I'd like to be able to watch things within the aura's radius for free.

I'll wait to put in the rest of my actions. I know your going to want to alter this idea a LOT over the course of the week. Thankfully I'm getting my turn in early so we should be able to come to some agreement here and then I'll post my other actions.

GameMaster's Post
Feedback

(Free Action)

Ok you knew I was going to be altering this one cabbage boy, but nice try. I'll give you a ten mile area centered on the crystal for free, and you can have your 25% discount to most actions. However, altering the crystal or it's aura is going to cost you 25% EXTRA on top of whatever I normally would charge. Also the discount does NOT run to any changes that can breed true. You won't be able to create a new crop for 25% off and then spread it around the globe. Also if you use the discount to give your people a special power or to create some spirit or mantle like you did during the last game those effects will ONLY work within your auras radius!

You'll also take a 25% penalty on most everything when operating outside your zone. Genetic changes will be exempt from the penalty. It's an even exchange. I'm letting you invest yourself VERY heavilly in a select area of the world. I think over time you'll more than make up for the penalties.

Furthermore if you want the free sight your going to have to reserve one faith point each turn to maintain it. I think that's generous you can spend the whole turn looking around and spying on your people, animals, searching out minerals, whatever, but your always 1 point short every turn whether you look around or not. If you don't have the reserve point your aura goes down and both benefits and penalties are discontinued, you'll act as a normal god would till you can pay the cost again.

The radius can also grow 2 miles in area every hundred years until it reachs a maximum of 20 square miles at turn five after that it will NEVER grow again and you can't use your points to change that! Instead every five hundred years I'll allow this crystal to spawn a "seed".

The seed is a rectangular block 6 foot tall and weighing about a ton, similiar in weight to the blocks that went into the great pyrimids. If your people can haul the new block out of the forty miles to the next spot where a seemless transition would be then you can bury the crystal or sink it in the muck and it will grow into a new crystal within 100 years with the same starting ten mile radius. After five turns again you can choose ONE of your two crystals to spawn the next seed. You only get ONE seed every 500 years and it has to be used during that turn or it stops being fertile. Try to think up something interesting to use the wasted seeds for.

Mesnoth's Post

(Free Action) Ok, I can deal with that. I don't like the fact that altering the aura costs 25% more, or the fact that some of my most useful changes are still full price but . . . I do kind of like the idea of giving my people special powers or having spirits or monsters who simply can NOT leave the area of my aura. It'll give this game a totally different flavor.

However last game you were charging people 2 points to look around and with my discount I'd only be paying close to that anyhow, and NOT every single turn . . . If I'm doing that I'd like to make sure this is a passive CONSTANT watching of the area. I want to know if something important or interesting is happening in MY area. Also I want the aura to have a reassuring effect on my people while they are in it, let my worshippers feel safe and watched while they are in MY area. I don't want them wandering away on me after I invest so much in this location. lol

As for the genetic changes perhaps we could suggest allowing them within the radius at 10% off PROVIDED that when the resulting creature or person leaves the area it immediately gets violently sick and dies if it does not return within one day? Critters I want to live outside the radius would cost full points still. In exchange I'd accept not being able to do the changes outside of my area at all, as you say I'll be VERY focused on my area!

GameMaster's Post:
Feedback

(Free action) Granted, your altering your nature but it's a fairly even exchange. If your willing to play within the new limits I'm willing to let you do it. I hope you understand what your getting yourself into! Now what other actions do you want to do this turn?

Mesnoth's post

(Free Action) I probably don't but it should be a fun game anyhow. Last game I played without any funky changes and I didn't end up spreading far, this game I'll take my chances bargaining for a few local bonuses and playing things a bit closer to home from the very start. We'll see how it works out in the long run. I'm hoping to do better this game than I did last time!

Get the people to a nice spot in the delta, hopefully somewhere near the center of the macina, and bring forth my mighty crystal Obelisk! Lets do it with some flair, as it rises up out of the muck make it a stunning show, but make sure to have MY name chanted over and over again as the crystal rises. Mesnoth is entering this new world in style!

(1) At the same time that the crystal rises I'm going to spend all my point to do a genetic change. I want to find a delta reed suitable for weaving baskets from that already has some sort of grainlike seed, but which is not already suitable for agriculture. I'll also pick a reed that grows in the very damp or even semi-flooded conditions of the delta and niger river area, similiar to the rice. I also want one with a fairly short maturation period that grows at almost the exact opposite time period from Pearl Millet which should be growing somewhere nearby. That way I can have several harvests of my new plant before eventually having to plant millet for the rest of the year.

Pearl Millet info: http://www.wmo.ch/pages/prog/wcp/agm/gamp/documents/chap13D-draft.pdf

I'll give the reed many large nutritious seeds like wheat or barley and make it fully domesticatable. I also want to alter the decay process so that pockets within the reed trap helium as it dries making it much lighter than would be normal for it's strength. I want to leave half the plants exactly like this, good for basket making and very light. Yet I want another group with the same basic cereal properties and domesticabilitiy, but reshaped more in the form of asian bamboo, larger, stronger, hollow woody reeds good for building with.

If I can I'll pay the full price so they can grow outside my "aura" but if not I'll do it at the discounted price.

Gamemaster's Post
Feedback

(1) This is a simple alteration to the existing properties of the plant, but you've never done it before, and the changes are extremely useful so I'd call this a 15 point change. The change to bamboo like stalks for some of them is a second change just as useful for another 15 points. Even with your discount the total would be 22 points so you can get one of these done for 15 points, leaving you 5 points left over to use as you like.

Mesnoth's Post

(1) I'll do it at the penalty and only pay the 11 points. That should leave me with 9 points still to use. Sure the stuff will only grow within a ten mile radius but that will support a village or two once they domesticate it. I'll call the new crop Mali since I think the area I'm going to wind up in is close to the heartland of that historic empire.

(2) I want to do a MASS vision introducing myself and showing them exactly how to plant, tend, and harvest my new plant. I'll also give the general idea of weaving the stalks of the Mali plant into useful bowls and matts, along with general idea of a village of huts made from such mats.

Game Master's Post:
Feedback

(1) Done

(2) ok the mass vision would normall cost 12 points so with your discount you get it at exactly 9 points leaving you nothing at all left. You can teach them agriculture and get them started researching weaving. You can have bowls and plates on turn 3 and actual huts by turn 4. I'll mark down the project at the begining of your next turn.

Oh and next turn don't try to do so much complex BS! This turn took forever to get ready to process because we had to bargain on every point. Every so often it's fun, makes your game interesting, but lets not be too complex EVERY turn. For now it's time to process things.