Hand of God : A spin-off of Cult
Posted: Mon Apr 21, 2014 9:06 am
Warning: long post below.
WIP Wiki Entry: http://www.tgstation13.org/wiki/User:Neerti
When sentient beings collectively believe in something hard enough, it may just spawn into existence. As more people believe in something, it gets stronger. Conversely, if nobody believes in it, the being ceases to exist.
In Hand of God, you play as a newly formed Deity or a Cultist for your deity. However, you are not the only cult on-board your station. A second, rival cult, may attempt to steal your rightful flock, or worse, try to kill your deity, so their false god can run unopposed. The station personnel might also object to forceful conversions and your crusade to bring the righteous teachings of your god to the station and beyond.
This not-al-all-dominons 4-inspired gamemode revolves around two cults, with two deities leading them. Each deity has their own objectives, which might conflict with the other deity's objectives. When the game starts, each deity starts with three cultists, totaling six on both sides. Excluded people are security, the captain (implants), and the chaplain (separate religion). The intention of this gamemode is to strike a feel between blob's perspective and base-building, and cult's team play.
Your role: Deity
You are a newly formed deity. Because so few people believe in you, you can't really do much to interact with the world. However, that will change, as your followers get more followers. You will grow in power as you acquire more followers. If you have no followers, you will cease to exist. You are given access to a few powers at the start, and will get more as you gain more followers. Your lesser powers will also become more potent with more followers.
When the game starts, you will be able to choose a name for yourself. After that, you can choose a purely cosmetic theme, which will change the icons for your various structures, from nar'sie cult paraphernalia, to plant-life, cyber-cult, and anything else I can think of to sprite.
You can move anywhere you want, like a ghost, and see though walls.
You are able to speak as a deity, but only the dead, and your prophet, can hear you. A prophet is a cultist you have chosen to be able to listen to you. Only one cultist can be a prophet at a time. Teamwork and communication is required, as you can't tell your other subjects what to do, unless you use an expensive power. Rival deities cannot hear you or your prophet, and vice versa. You have a verb to communicate with other deities for whatever reason (or as goofball says 'It's not a god game if you can't brag how good you're doing to the other god')
As a deity, you require an anchor to the world. This is represented by a structure called a Nexus. If it is destroyed, your ties to the world will be severed, and you will die. Your powers are more potent within range of the Nexus, however. Your followers also gain benefits by being near the nexus. When the game starts, you will not have a nexus, and you have two minutes to choose a location on the station. It must be on the station z-level, it can't be near a rival deity's nexus, and it cannot be in space. Otherwise, you can place it anywhere. If you do not choose a location, one will be chosen for you semi-randomly, weighted to place the nexus somewhere less obvious.
Your power is not unlimited. Invoking powers on the world costs Power Points, which will replenish itself, like the blob's power meter. Having more followers will increase both the cap, and the rate it recharges. Some powers can only be used near a Nexus or Conduit. The Null Rod will block most offensive powers used against it's holder.
You are able to create structures to aid your cultists, but you require their help to do it. You can only designate where the structures will go. Your cultists will need to gather materials to build the structure. Each structure has it's own purpose, which will be detailed later.
Without your followers, you have no hope of winning, even if you didn't die from lacking any. Your followers need you, and you need them, to crush the infidels.
You win by completing your objectives, you lose by failing to do so or dying. It is possible for both cults to win if they don't have conflicting objectives.
Your role: Cultist
You are a loyal and devout cultist of your deity, and you will serve them to your death. Your belief makes your deity stronger. Without you, the deity will be no more. Your deity cannot talk to you directly, unless you are a prophet, or your deity uses a power. You can do many things to assist your cult, from protecting your nexus, to converting station personnel, to building structures and holy items, to robusting security for trying to stop you. You will be able to see all your follow cultists. Enemy cultists cannot be detected. Remember, if you die, you don't technically believe in anything, as your brain doesn't think a whole lot when you're dead. Also stay away from implants and the chaplain's holy water.
You can convert the crew with a special structure or your nexus. You cannot convert enemy cultists unless you remove their cult status first. Implanted crew and anyone holding a null rod cannot be converted without removing the offending object. Enemy prophets are immune to all deconversion.
Your role: Prophet
You are the second in command of your cult. You are the only one who your god can talk to freely. You should be communicating with the cult via covert means whenever possible. You are worth a lot if you're captured, so be sure to be careful. You are also immune to deconversion. Besides your power to hear your deity, you are the same as your fellow cultists.
Your role: Chaplain
You are seen as both a target, and an infidel, by both cults. Your null rod grants immunity to most divine effects, and your holy water can be used to deconvert cultists to neutrals once more. Without your null rod, it is possible for you to be turned to one side. The cult with the chaplain will have a sizable advantage, with easier conversions and protection from godly wraith.
Structures
Building structures requires the deity to designate what structure to build, and where. Structures cost resources, like metal or glass, to build. Structures can be destroyed. Each structure is detailed below.
Nexus - Your deity's anchor to the world. If it's destroyed, your deity dies and you will lose. Your deity has greater potency when using powers near it, and the nexus will repair damage on it's own. You will also receive benefits from being near it. You can also convert new cultists with it.
Conduit - Some of the deity's powers are limited to the Nexus. The conduit can be built anywhere to enable the deity to use nexus-only powers near the conduit, great for extending your reach or for offensive support.
Forge - Creates holy items for your cultists to use. Most items are rather conspicuous, but powerful. They require materials, like metal and glass, to build the items.
Defense Pylon - Creates a pylon which works similarly to a turret. It will engage noncultists and hostile cultists nearby, useful for nexus defense.
Power Pylon - Creates a pylon which increases the power regeneration rate of your deity.
Well - Slowly heals cultists near it.
Gate - Enables teleportation to any other friendly gates created.
Conversion Alter - Enables distant converting.
Sacrificial Alter - Allows you to sacrifice noncultists or enemy cultists, in exchange for a resource that can be used to create powerful items in your forge. Sacrificing an enemy prophet will grant a very powerful resource.
The deity has two build verbs, one to instantly create a nexus for free, but only has one use. The second is a general use build verb that opens a menu asking what you want to start building.
The deity only lays down the "blueprints" for each structure. The cultists have to actually build it with metal and/or glass.
more to be decided later
Powers!
Some powers for the deity are listed below.
Smite will allow a deity to defend their nexus if someone is close to it. It does moderate damage but is rather expensive.
Summon Guardians allows the deity to summon simple mobs which will last for one minute, and will engage anyone that is not a friendly cultist. Very expensive.
Jump to Cultist, Jump to Person, Jump to Nexus, etc are free, as they're there to make moving easier.
Talk to Mortal is an expensive power that lets the deity say something to anyone, useful if there's no time for the prophet to relay the message.
Appoint Prophet lets you add a new prophet, if the old one is dead, braindead, or catatonic. If they're alive, it cannot be done.
Power Word stuns a person near your nexus. The stun is short, but it is cheap. In both ways.
Healing Aura lets the deity heal all friendly cultists that the deity can see, slowly. It costs posts to keep this running.
Cure Disease does what it says, to one cultist.
Invoke Disaster is a high-level power that you can only do with a lot of followers. It causes a random event to occur. Useful for getting the shuttle called.
More might be added later.
