It has been several months since I last gave any indication as to where we stand for Project Cranberry Jam. This is unacceptable so here goes.
All of the character and background artwork has been completed, though not all of the assets have been converted just yet. Being a one man operation in a lot of respects slows some of that progress down. (Not to mention the attending hardware/OS failures that initially delayed progress, combined with a rather troublesome bug... ugh.)
In what time I've been able to find, work has been slowly progressing on getting the scenes into the engine so that work in other areas can finally begin. The scenes for the demo itself are about 60% completed at this point - the scenes required for Week 3 are about 30% finished by now. A number of them are fairly short, so that shouldn't be too difficult to deal with, provided I have the time.
UI design still hasn't been touched. Again, one man operation, UI work will come after I get the scenes taken care of. Also, no audio has been completed yet - though work has commenced on some of the music. If the stars align, this is something that can be taken care of within another month or so.
There's still a good amount of editing which needs to be done as well. For now, my focus is on getting the scripts into the engine, so that they can be more easily adjusted - I'll have to go through them all again anyways when it comes time to put in the audio.
So as it stands, we're at about 50% completion for the demo, I feel. Getting the scenes all put in is the biggest part of the game - it's the core of the experience, really. Once those are all finished, the demo can be considered about 75% complete - the rest is getting in the audio, fixing any other weird bugs that might pop up, and finishing the UI (and assembling some credits? That's probably important for a full release!).
All told, still a lot of work to be done, and while it's not where I hoped it would be by now, having all of the artwork finished is a huge step forward.
This has been your not-regularly-scheduled break in silence. Back to work.
Showing posts with label storytelling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label storytelling. Show all posts
Monday, April 17, 2017
Tuesday, December 13, 2016
Dec 13 2016 Devlog: Cracking the code
Tonight I'm going back to the usual tone I've set lately, and delve into some of the programming issues I've been wrestling with. It comes with a surprising revelation: I'm actually sort of okay at this thing it seems.
I still feel like a hack when assembling things, but tonight was one of those nights where I made a plan, followed it through, then came up with a better way to do it immediately after. So I'm going to be talking about that.
I still feel like a hack when assembling things, but tonight was one of those nights where I made a plan, followed it through, then came up with a better way to do it immediately after. So I'm going to be talking about that.
Wednesday, March 2, 2016
Let's Make a VN!
It's been nearly four years since I last dusted this thing off. Well, this seems as good a place as any to talk about things, and I could definitely use an outlet to talk about my latest project. It may be interesting to keep a development blog for this, as I can remind myself of any lessons I might learn.
So, I'll just walk through my thought process. For so many years, it's been my desire to make a game. But I was always limited by something or other. I wanted to break into the video game industry somehow, but things always seemed to get in my way. It didn't help at all that the industry tanked, and I simply don't have the experience necessary.
The desire to create, however, has never really abated, and after a very long period of debate, I decided that there was only one way for me to get what I wanted. I would have to just take matters into my own hands. If I wanted to make a game, then by god, I was going to make a game.
Making games is hard though. I bounced between different engines and concepts, talked with some friends about one idea or another. Thanks to some collaborative projects I've done with one friend in particular, I settled on trying to deal with something that is well within my grasp.
I've come up with some pretty cool pitches before, all of which are rather difficult to implement the first time around. I may revisit those ideas at some point in the future. But the important thing, or so I have been told around the Internet, when getting started with game design is simply to make a game. It doesn't necessarily matter what kind of game it is, so long as it is a game. It probably won't even be very good. But if you can play to your strengths, and design around your weaknesses, you can create something that people enjoy.
Which brings me back to a thought I had nearly fifteen years ago: I should make a Visual Novel.
Over the years, I have continued running games, creating settings, and making characters. I like to think that in the last year or so, I've really been bringing my A-game. I've been thinking about how to make the most effective experience I can with the tools available to me. And I've also helped craft a few tabletop systems in the meantime too. So now, I think I have a fairly solid idea of what all goes into making a simple sort of game.
And let's just be honest with ourselves: If games like Go Go Nippon! can succeed, then by god I can do something at least marginally better.
I realized that a programmer wouldn't be very likely to fall into my lap, and my work schedule being what it is, I'd need a project I could work on in my spare time anyways. A VN seemed like the perfect fit. I have an art degree, I know animation and such, and there are plenty of tools available to me that I can use to craft the experience. Moreover, writing a VN should be a far simpler programming task to accomplish. But before anything can really be announced, I had to create the core game mechanics, and ensure that they worked.
This led me to Ren'Py - a game engine that was first conceived about fifteen years ago. I remember when it had just come out, and to my surprise it is still very much in development. So I began to poke around, and ask myself: How hard would it be to actually create a game in Ren'Py?
Not very, I soon learned. Thankfully my basic programming experience let me settle in pretty easily. I can read code to an extent, and while I'm no coding wizard, I can definitely read documentation and fumble around until I find the right answer, which is just my sort of pace. By proving that I could create even a very basic, linear experience within a couple of days of picking up the engine, it seemed much more likely that this could easily be done with a two-person team - with me assuming most of the workload, as it were.
I partnered with my friend, who had a pretty neat concept lying around, and helped her flesh it out. We created a basic world, and populated it with a variety of nations with which we could pull NPCs from. Within a week, we had a pretty decent background to set the game in, and I was beginning to consider how the game would actually function.
We had a setting, we had a game concept, and soon enough we had characters. But there was still one thing we didn't have: a working game engine. So with the background elements in place, I started working through figuring out how I could create something a little more complex than just a typical linear VN. I wanted to make something more like how I've set up some of my more recent tabletop games. I wanted a game that was a little more open-ended, that was more of an interactive story with multiple choices. A combination of the Mana Khemia series in terms of story - where things happen, and a plot progresses, but really the main fun is just hanging out with your friends for a year at school.
From there, the pieces just started to fall into place. I had a basic concept for how the game would progress, and as far as I'm aware, this isn't an approach many people take when trying to make a VN.
But of course, I know how I can be, and that I have a tendency to go a bit overboard sometimes. So I came up with some guidelines to follow, and once I've completed the playable demo, we'll see where things go from there.
The basic game itself (the demo, as it were) will only take place over a period of one month. 30-ish days, really. This cuts down on the work that needs to be done. But it's also very important to ensure that all of the game mechanics can be expanded to a full year if need be - since that is the original scope of the game. If this moves beyond the demo stage, I would like for players to be able to take their save data from the demo and pick up where they left off in the full game. It may be a small detail, but it's important to me, and it forces me to think further ahead as a result.
So I am left with the following problems to consider, as this is my first real attempt at making a video game:
- Creating core mechanics that are simple and engaging, which can easily be expanded if the game is ever moved beyond the prototypical demo stage.
- Keeping things simple enough so that my head doesn't explode from too many choices.
- Crafting an enjoyable experience where the choices the player makes actually influence the game, even if in subtle ways - I'm tired of skills being static things that don't really have an impact on how stories play out.
- Ensuring that no matter what a player does, the game is still somehow 'winnable' - whether they like the outcomes or not is besides the point. They aren't required to make friends with everyone, just to survive to the end one way or another.
- Letting the player's choices be dynamic and meaningful. The choice of what skills to progress during the course of the game should affect how the player progresses. Playing an angry warrior type should feel different than a laid-back artist, for example.
- Lastly, and perhaps most importantly: Make sure that all of these things remain simple enough for anyone to pick up and play.
They're fairly tall orders, but I think I can say with confidence that I can now achieve all of these goals. It will take a bit of time, but this is a labor of love, and if the demo is well received, that will let me know that I've done something right. In the event I've only managed to make a horrible trainwreck of a game, well that's fine too - at least I'll have learned something along the way.
That having been said, here is what I have managed to accomplish in the day I've picked the project back up again:
- Implemented the skill system, imposed a class choice at the start (to determine your starting skills), and ensured that it functions as intended.
- Tested hiding certain choices if the player does not have the requisite skill - feature functions as intended.
- Tested conditional modifiers of choices - having skills at a certain level will cause the scene to play out differently. Feature appears to work as intended.
- Tested and confirmed working adding skill points as necessary.
All in all, I'd say this is a good start. Now while the core skill system is now in place, I need to consider the next major hurdle - implementing the class schedule, and ensuring that it plays out as intended.
Most of my work before today was poking at menus, figuring out how to adjust them as necessary, and moving them around to better fit all of the information I required. That was fairly easy work, I'm finding, but now I know which bits to fiddle with, and that makes this far more attainable.
Now comes the difficult part: working on the class menu, and making sure the schedule plays out as intended.
For anyone that cares, I decided to use the DSE (Dating Sim Engine) Day Planner and Event Manager to make my life infinitely easier. It comes with most of what I needed already built-in - skills and values for them, and most important an event manager that automatically checks to ensure sequences play out as intended. If you decide to go to the library in the afternoon and the lake in the evening, you can choose that at the start of the day and, barring something catastrophic occurring that would interrupt the next event, it will play out. (If you wind up passing out from an assassin's dagger in the library, well, you're clearly not going to be visiting the lake that evening.)
I'll wrap up this big long spiel with one last take on what I plan to accomplish in the coming weeks. I intend to ensure the core class mechanics work. Once those work, I can begin working out how to set up a rotating schedule for the five interactive NPCs with story arcs - as well as testing for events to play out in specific locations on specific dates.
I foresee the classes thing being a huge headache, but not nearly as troublesome as choosing which location to visit in the scheduler. Ren'Py doesn't support drop-down menus for some reason, so I will need to find some kind of workaround for that. One thing at a time though - first we focus on the class schedule, then we work out the rest.
It's going to be a fun project, and I suspect the biggest hurdles are now in front of me.
So, I'll just walk through my thought process. For so many years, it's been my desire to make a game. But I was always limited by something or other. I wanted to break into the video game industry somehow, but things always seemed to get in my way. It didn't help at all that the industry tanked, and I simply don't have the experience necessary.
The desire to create, however, has never really abated, and after a very long period of debate, I decided that there was only one way for me to get what I wanted. I would have to just take matters into my own hands. If I wanted to make a game, then by god, I was going to make a game.
Making games is hard though. I bounced between different engines and concepts, talked with some friends about one idea or another. Thanks to some collaborative projects I've done with one friend in particular, I settled on trying to deal with something that is well within my grasp.
I've come up with some pretty cool pitches before, all of which are rather difficult to implement the first time around. I may revisit those ideas at some point in the future. But the important thing, or so I have been told around the Internet, when getting started with game design is simply to make a game. It doesn't necessarily matter what kind of game it is, so long as it is a game. It probably won't even be very good. But if you can play to your strengths, and design around your weaknesses, you can create something that people enjoy.
Which brings me back to a thought I had nearly fifteen years ago: I should make a Visual Novel.
Over the years, I have continued running games, creating settings, and making characters. I like to think that in the last year or so, I've really been bringing my A-game. I've been thinking about how to make the most effective experience I can with the tools available to me. And I've also helped craft a few tabletop systems in the meantime too. So now, I think I have a fairly solid idea of what all goes into making a simple sort of game.
And let's just be honest with ourselves: If games like Go Go Nippon! can succeed, then by god I can do something at least marginally better.
I realized that a programmer wouldn't be very likely to fall into my lap, and my work schedule being what it is, I'd need a project I could work on in my spare time anyways. A VN seemed like the perfect fit. I have an art degree, I know animation and such, and there are plenty of tools available to me that I can use to craft the experience. Moreover, writing a VN should be a far simpler programming task to accomplish. But before anything can really be announced, I had to create the core game mechanics, and ensure that they worked.
This led me to Ren'Py - a game engine that was first conceived about fifteen years ago. I remember when it had just come out, and to my surprise it is still very much in development. So I began to poke around, and ask myself: How hard would it be to actually create a game in Ren'Py?
Not very, I soon learned. Thankfully my basic programming experience let me settle in pretty easily. I can read code to an extent, and while I'm no coding wizard, I can definitely read documentation and fumble around until I find the right answer, which is just my sort of pace. By proving that I could create even a very basic, linear experience within a couple of days of picking up the engine, it seemed much more likely that this could easily be done with a two-person team - with me assuming most of the workload, as it were.
I partnered with my friend, who had a pretty neat concept lying around, and helped her flesh it out. We created a basic world, and populated it with a variety of nations with which we could pull NPCs from. Within a week, we had a pretty decent background to set the game in, and I was beginning to consider how the game would actually function.
We had a setting, we had a game concept, and soon enough we had characters. But there was still one thing we didn't have: a working game engine. So with the background elements in place, I started working through figuring out how I could create something a little more complex than just a typical linear VN. I wanted to make something more like how I've set up some of my more recent tabletop games. I wanted a game that was a little more open-ended, that was more of an interactive story with multiple choices. A combination of the Mana Khemia series in terms of story - where things happen, and a plot progresses, but really the main fun is just hanging out with your friends for a year at school.
From there, the pieces just started to fall into place. I had a basic concept for how the game would progress, and as far as I'm aware, this isn't an approach many people take when trying to make a VN.
But of course, I know how I can be, and that I have a tendency to go a bit overboard sometimes. So I came up with some guidelines to follow, and once I've completed the playable demo, we'll see where things go from there.
The basic game itself (the demo, as it were) will only take place over a period of one month. 30-ish days, really. This cuts down on the work that needs to be done. But it's also very important to ensure that all of the game mechanics can be expanded to a full year if need be - since that is the original scope of the game. If this moves beyond the demo stage, I would like for players to be able to take their save data from the demo and pick up where they left off in the full game. It may be a small detail, but it's important to me, and it forces me to think further ahead as a result.
So I am left with the following problems to consider, as this is my first real attempt at making a video game:
- Creating core mechanics that are simple and engaging, which can easily be expanded if the game is ever moved beyond the prototypical demo stage.
- Keeping things simple enough so that my head doesn't explode from too many choices.
- Crafting an enjoyable experience where the choices the player makes actually influence the game, even if in subtle ways - I'm tired of skills being static things that don't really have an impact on how stories play out.
- Ensuring that no matter what a player does, the game is still somehow 'winnable' - whether they like the outcomes or not is besides the point. They aren't required to make friends with everyone, just to survive to the end one way or another.
- Letting the player's choices be dynamic and meaningful. The choice of what skills to progress during the course of the game should affect how the player progresses. Playing an angry warrior type should feel different than a laid-back artist, for example.
- Lastly, and perhaps most importantly: Make sure that all of these things remain simple enough for anyone to pick up and play.
They're fairly tall orders, but I think I can say with confidence that I can now achieve all of these goals. It will take a bit of time, but this is a labor of love, and if the demo is well received, that will let me know that I've done something right. In the event I've only managed to make a horrible trainwreck of a game, well that's fine too - at least I'll have learned something along the way.
That having been said, here is what I have managed to accomplish in the day I've picked the project back up again:
- Implemented the skill system, imposed a class choice at the start (to determine your starting skills), and ensured that it functions as intended.
- Tested hiding certain choices if the player does not have the requisite skill - feature functions as intended.
- Tested conditional modifiers of choices - having skills at a certain level will cause the scene to play out differently. Feature appears to work as intended.
- Tested and confirmed working adding skill points as necessary.
All in all, I'd say this is a good start. Now while the core skill system is now in place, I need to consider the next major hurdle - implementing the class schedule, and ensuring that it plays out as intended.
Most of my work before today was poking at menus, figuring out how to adjust them as necessary, and moving them around to better fit all of the information I required. That was fairly easy work, I'm finding, but now I know which bits to fiddle with, and that makes this far more attainable.
Now comes the difficult part: working on the class menu, and making sure the schedule plays out as intended.
For anyone that cares, I decided to use the DSE (Dating Sim Engine) Day Planner and Event Manager to make my life infinitely easier. It comes with most of what I needed already built-in - skills and values for them, and most important an event manager that automatically checks to ensure sequences play out as intended. If you decide to go to the library in the afternoon and the lake in the evening, you can choose that at the start of the day and, barring something catastrophic occurring that would interrupt the next event, it will play out. (If you wind up passing out from an assassin's dagger in the library, well, you're clearly not going to be visiting the lake that evening.)
I'll wrap up this big long spiel with one last take on what I plan to accomplish in the coming weeks. I intend to ensure the core class mechanics work. Once those work, I can begin working out how to set up a rotating schedule for the five interactive NPCs with story arcs - as well as testing for events to play out in specific locations on specific dates.
I foresee the classes thing being a huge headache, but not nearly as troublesome as choosing which location to visit in the scheduler. Ren'Py doesn't support drop-down menus for some reason, so I will need to find some kind of workaround for that. One thing at a time though - first we focus on the class schedule, then we work out the rest.
It's going to be a fun project, and I suspect the biggest hurdles are now in front of me.
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Sometimes, I really hate blogger
So I am reading this article (which is a blog I love dearly, mind you), and decide I want to reply to it. But sadly, it doesn't want me to post, as it seems to have a character limit on replies. Which saddens me, because as I look at it, I seem to have written a lot. Seems I was, oh, a few paragraphs over the limit.
Instead, I'm going to put my analysis of our group here. I guess this will count as my blog update for today? (Yesterday, technically, behind a day again!) I'm fairly sure you should know which category you fit into, if you're in my group.
Geez, how to describe my group. We have had an interesting lot over the years, but I think I'll just stick with the ones who play most often.
First of all is the person I would call the Fluff. I call her this because she is not very into the rules of any given system, despite having had the longest track record of playing with me. Her thing is that she tends to play rather reserved characters who are kinda-average dudes that don't really make a lot of hard decisions, and are by and large good at heart. She, like most of us, craves the experience of just *being* that character and interacting with the world, be it shooting something in the face, or just casually chatting it up with the other characters in the group. Her backstories are usually fairly lightweight and easy to deal with, often times to the point of frustration because she will give so few details that it can be difficult to tell what will engage her as a player.
Next is the Main Character. I call him this because in any given situation, that is how he will act. He sees the game as one would see a typical RPG game, with a singular main character who helps to drive the plot. This is a blessing and a curse, because if you drop a plot line in front of him, he'll snap it up like a fish eating a worm. However, this very same enthusiasm often causes friction with the rest of the group, because he will be trying to force the plot forward while the rest of us are still not ready to move onto the next "plot point", or while we are preparing to do something else. On occasion as a GM, I've been able to harness his impatience and made it work in the narrative - charging ahead in his giant warmachine inside a cave system, he sets off a trap that causes the tunnel to collapse, which actually causes more damage to the cave system overall, because his machine is so large and heavy. But sometimes, this very same impatience has ruined a many good scene, particularly when the 'spotlight' shines on other players, and his role is to not say anything and let the 'leader' do the talking, instead of actively antagonize the people we are dealing with. Success with this character are almost guaranteed - even with dice rollers, his luck is off the charts, and 95% of the time, if he makes a roll, he will succeed it with almost the best results possible. Great for moving the plot forward, but occasionally does not mesh well with the others.
Then there's the Comedian. Another guy I've known for awhile, he hasn't played for as long as some of us, but most of the time his characters are downright hilarious. I consider him to be invaluable to the games, because in a lot of our serious-business plots, he adds that touch of lightheartedness that is needed to help balance things out. I dislike playing games without him, because his sheer comedy value during the game is so necessary a lot of times to keep us engaged.
Then there is someone similar to the Comedian, who I guess I'll call the Teacher. That is kind of his role in life now, but in the games he often plays a similar amusing role as the Comedian, but spends more of his time looking for ways around a given situation that doesn't involve just shooting at its weak spot until it dies. As a GM, he has surprised me several times by looking at things he has created or acquired in the game, and applied them in ways I had not anticipated - but interestingly enough, by applying them in a way that correctly solves a given problem, and also helps to make the narrative that much more interesting.
Next, we have the Drifter. He's a great GM, if you can tie him down long enough to do something. He has a tendency to create something, then grow tired of it in short order as it is not quite what he originally envisioned, or it does not live up to his incredibly high expectations. An intelligent player, a great character creator, and an incredible penchant for backstories make for a guy I'd love to have in every game. But unfortunately, if a game (or his own character!) don't fit his vision perfectly, he is more likely to just give up and want to forget about the whole thing entirely, which is a real shame.
Lastly, there's the Storyteller. This guy is nothing short of amazing, because of the things his characters will tell you. This man is a social interaction king, and he is quick to pick up rules as well. But interaction is his real game, and the best part about any character he creates. Every character he makes has an immensely interesting backstory that works with the game world, and even better are the stories that his character comes up with, often on the fly, that both entertain and help to expand upon the gameworld itself. A regular fountain of knowledge, he can play dumb, he can play smart, and he can play a dumb smart kind of guy. Having him in the group usually means that when he's around, there will be someone who can engage with the other people in the world, and who will say things nobody would ever expect, and who will do things that shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone.
That's my group in a nutshell. The Drifter is hard to nail down, but I've found the Comedian and the Fluff manage to make a great combination together, and with the Teacher as well, we have a fairly stable group. Throw in the Storyteller, and you have a group of fellas that will entertain you from here and back - even if you never actually manage to leave the tavern floor.
Instead, I'm going to put my analysis of our group here. I guess this will count as my blog update for today? (Yesterday, technically, behind a day again!) I'm fairly sure you should know which category you fit into, if you're in my group.
Geez, how to describe my group. We have had an interesting lot over the years, but I think I'll just stick with the ones who play most often.
First of all is the person I would call the Fluff. I call her this because she is not very into the rules of any given system, despite having had the longest track record of playing with me. Her thing is that she tends to play rather reserved characters who are kinda-average dudes that don't really make a lot of hard decisions, and are by and large good at heart. She, like most of us, craves the experience of just *being* that character and interacting with the world, be it shooting something in the face, or just casually chatting it up with the other characters in the group. Her backstories are usually fairly lightweight and easy to deal with, often times to the point of frustration because she will give so few details that it can be difficult to tell what will engage her as a player.
Next is the Main Character. I call him this because in any given situation, that is how he will act. He sees the game as one would see a typical RPG game, with a singular main character who helps to drive the plot. This is a blessing and a curse, because if you drop a plot line in front of him, he'll snap it up like a fish eating a worm. However, this very same enthusiasm often causes friction with the rest of the group, because he will be trying to force the plot forward while the rest of us are still not ready to move onto the next "plot point", or while we are preparing to do something else. On occasion as a GM, I've been able to harness his impatience and made it work in the narrative - charging ahead in his giant warmachine inside a cave system, he sets off a trap that causes the tunnel to collapse, which actually causes more damage to the cave system overall, because his machine is so large and heavy. But sometimes, this very same impatience has ruined a many good scene, particularly when the 'spotlight' shines on other players, and his role is to not say anything and let the 'leader' do the talking, instead of actively antagonize the people we are dealing with. Success with this character are almost guaranteed - even with dice rollers, his luck is off the charts, and 95% of the time, if he makes a roll, he will succeed it with almost the best results possible. Great for moving the plot forward, but occasionally does not mesh well with the others.
Then there's the Comedian. Another guy I've known for awhile, he hasn't played for as long as some of us, but most of the time his characters are downright hilarious. I consider him to be invaluable to the games, because in a lot of our serious-business plots, he adds that touch of lightheartedness that is needed to help balance things out. I dislike playing games without him, because his sheer comedy value during the game is so necessary a lot of times to keep us engaged.
Then there is someone similar to the Comedian, who I guess I'll call the Teacher. That is kind of his role in life now, but in the games he often plays a similar amusing role as the Comedian, but spends more of his time looking for ways around a given situation that doesn't involve just shooting at its weak spot until it dies. As a GM, he has surprised me several times by looking at things he has created or acquired in the game, and applied them in ways I had not anticipated - but interestingly enough, by applying them in a way that correctly solves a given problem, and also helps to make the narrative that much more interesting.
Next, we have the Drifter. He's a great GM, if you can tie him down long enough to do something. He has a tendency to create something, then grow tired of it in short order as it is not quite what he originally envisioned, or it does not live up to his incredibly high expectations. An intelligent player, a great character creator, and an incredible penchant for backstories make for a guy I'd love to have in every game. But unfortunately, if a game (or his own character!) don't fit his vision perfectly, he is more likely to just give up and want to forget about the whole thing entirely, which is a real shame.
Lastly, there's the Storyteller. This guy is nothing short of amazing, because of the things his characters will tell you. This man is a social interaction king, and he is quick to pick up rules as well. But interaction is his real game, and the best part about any character he creates. Every character he makes has an immensely interesting backstory that works with the game world, and even better are the stories that his character comes up with, often on the fly, that both entertain and help to expand upon the gameworld itself. A regular fountain of knowledge, he can play dumb, he can play smart, and he can play a dumb smart kind of guy. Having him in the group usually means that when he's around, there will be someone who can engage with the other people in the world, and who will say things nobody would ever expect, and who will do things that shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone.
That's my group in a nutshell. The Drifter is hard to nail down, but I've found the Comedian and the Fluff manage to make a great combination together, and with the Teacher as well, we have a fairly stable group. Throw in the Storyteller, and you have a group of fellas that will entertain you from here and back - even if you never actually manage to leave the tavern floor.
Monday, December 19, 2011
Why do the gods play games with mortals?
An odd thought occurs to me, and I should put it into writing, as it may be of use to myself later. Or to someone else, even.
Why do gods play games with men (or other mortals, I suppose)? There are many answers, perhaps as many as there are ways to interpret the question. In this case, I am referring to a pantheon, fictional or otherwise - a group of deities who seem to be important to the world at large, but yet appear to simply lounge around all day doing what? Playing complex chess games with mortal lives? Here's a stab at it.
Some people say they do it because they are bored. And while this may be a contributory factor in the equation, it is not necessarily the only reason. Often times, it is as a 'contest', where one god may bet against another. But what is the primary reason for these games? The answer is surprisingly simple, really. It is because, with all of their omnipotence and infinite wisdom, there is one thing that the gods cannot do: Agree on anything.
The basis of any good pantheon of gods is that you have a myriad of deities, often on two or more distinctly different sides. In D&D terms, this would be the difference between your good and evil gods, your lawful and chaotic ones, and your neutral guys who just want to chill out. But what is the purpose of a god? Everything must have a purpose, and I am wondering if perhaps we've been giving gods the wrong sort of shine. Yes, they are all-powerful. They do what they want, when they feel like doing it, and to hell with anyone that might disagree. Sorry, did you just say something to me? Bam, you're a cockroach, enjoy the rest of your life, simp.
What's that lady? You don't want to have hot wild sex with me? Screw you, I'm going to turn into a swan and screw your brains out anyways. Oh Zeus, you always were a bit of a cad. But in fiction, a lot of gods tend to follow this pattern - just really big, powerful jerks who do what they do, and whose pantheons physically interact with the mortal realm, often with disastrous consequences.
There are many different takes on pantheons, and why the mortal world exists. Often times, it is the gods that created the mortal realm. Other times, someone before the gods, who then later came and took things over. Or sometimes the gods consist of mortal beings who ascended to a higher plane of existence. In this particular case, let's just assume that a group of individuals have been together for most of existence. A lot of times, pantheons are depicted as being something similar to a big dysfunctional family. I like that, so let's roll with that.
For argument's sake, let's just say there are 26 people all living under the same roof. And of course, not everyone is going to get along. Almost never works out quite that way. Arguments ensue, but there has to be some way to get some answers laid down. Well, you're a god, you can do anything you want. Add fifteen rooms to the house, destroy them, whatever it's all good.
Except that, well, how can you decide anything when everyone can do the exact same things everyone else can? How do you decide if the walls should be pink or beige or aqua? What are you going to do, fight over it? You're both invincible. It would be an exercise in futility to try to duke it out - you'll be sitting there for thousands of years until someone finally decides the argument isn't worth it anymore, and then the victory is bittersweet, because everyone else is getting agitated because you're just stinking up the rest of the household all the time. You need a way for everyone to kind of get along. Some sort of common ground that everyone can relate to.
Enter the mortal realm. Okay, so you've got 26 different people, all in the same home, all with the exact same powers. But you need to try to make things livable, because quite frankly, it is really pretty annoying when people are sitting around bickering for thousands of years over how they failed to properly utilize the color scheme in the foyer. So, the heck with it, it's obvious you will never decide things on your own, without some form of outside assistance. So you decide to set up a game of sorts, one where you can't use your powers, because that would make the game pointless.
In short, it is a game where you choose a champion, and let *them* decide for you. That way, no one can really be angry, because it's sort of like the lottery - you either pick the winning number, or you don't. You'll win some, you'll lose some.
So everyone pitches in, and helps creating this thing - obviously, they have to make it so that the game is advantageous to them, while at the same time disadvantageous towards the others. So everyone plays a part in the creation process: some races are really super tough, but also super short, but really smart, but also have to make themselves dumb all the time with something they drink. Oh hey, let's make all of these things super frail, and require them to eat and drink and even sleep! That'll give everyone an advantage. Oh but my guy doesn't need to sleep, he's immune to that. But of course, now he has no such thing as free will, and as a result is dumber than a box of rocks.
Over time, you wind up with a world of mortal beings, going about their daily lives, thanks to the parts that the gods played. Over time, the 'game' grows more complex. Stakes may grow higher, politics may jump into things, and tempers may flare. But the one rule is pretty unshakable: The gods cannot directly intervene. Because to do so would ruin the fragile balance that they all have struck with one another. Everyone is invested in this thing, some maybe more than others. But despite being all-powerful, despite being capable of doing anything in the world, they still will require mortals to make their decisions for them - because otherwise, there would be no way they could all agree with one another.
It's just a fact of life. Even the jerk who would want to knock down his sister's sandcastle realizes that there is no winning or losing outside of the game - only endless bickering and arguing. Yes, you may not like them, but the fact is, you're stuck with them for all of eternity. All of it. You can't just run away, because there is nowhere to run to! So, the best you can do is try to get your hits where you can get them, and play the game, and see how much influence you can wield by the mortals that you choose to focus your attentions on.
Ironic, in a way, that the ones who created this world, and to whom are often asked for guidance from, are in fact the very same ones looking for that exact thing from the mortals they preside over.
Free will is a very real thing in this world. In fact, it may even be the most important thing! Because without that allowance of 'free will', the gods would just be playing themselves, and that would hardly be sporting. It would be cheating, and would go against the atmosphere of the thing. Not to say someone won't try to cheat at some point, and some gods will. But those who are caught (and often are) wind up having their next game penalized, either by virtue of losing 'votes', or by not being allowed to participate in the next vote.
Small games often decide very simple things, and are often equated to a bet of sorts. This is along the lines of, "I want to sit in that chair today." "Okay, I'll let you if that little guy manages to beat the living crap out of that tall dude." "Cool, you're on." And suddenly, the gods are taking an interest in a seemingly-normal bar brawl. Other times, some of the gods may team up, asking to make a change to the world itself - or to their home, even. Those may be games whose decisions are solved by entire wars between kingdoms, who may have bits of guidance from those on above, hoping to manage to eke their way to a victory below, so that their team wins the vote they are looking for.
I like to think this is a very fascinating concept. It makes the gods all-powerful and important, but yet it answers the very simple question as to their motivations. It isn't that they care - in fact, they care a great deal. But at the same time, because they care so much, they cannot act, because to do so would to be going against the very reason that they created the mortal world in the first place.
It's like making a rule, and then saying you can never break this rule. And then having someone ask you to break that very simple rule. It is just something that can't be done, because to break the rule that one time, it would invalidate everything.
Unless, of course, everyone else agrees to let the rule be broken. Just this once. Which may, in turn, spawn other contests if there is a stark division between the teams, who cannot come to a conclusion if the rule should be broken. Or if someone should challenge it.
And now, you know why the golds play games with mortals. It is because that is the mortals reason for existence. But fret not, because you shouldn't worry too much about it all. Your life is your own. The only thing that you need to know is that your life is quite meaningful in some way or another. Don't worry about the gods, and how you fit into their 'plans'. Because really, whether you were going to 'fit in' or not really doesn't matter.
What matters most is, you have a life, and you should live it out as best you can. And if, by some miracle, you can help the gods arrive at a decision somehow, then that is something praiseworthy.
Why do gods play games with men (or other mortals, I suppose)? There are many answers, perhaps as many as there are ways to interpret the question. In this case, I am referring to a pantheon, fictional or otherwise - a group of deities who seem to be important to the world at large, but yet appear to simply lounge around all day doing what? Playing complex chess games with mortal lives? Here's a stab at it.
Some people say they do it because they are bored. And while this may be a contributory factor in the equation, it is not necessarily the only reason. Often times, it is as a 'contest', where one god may bet against another. But what is the primary reason for these games? The answer is surprisingly simple, really. It is because, with all of their omnipotence and infinite wisdom, there is one thing that the gods cannot do: Agree on anything.
The basis of any good pantheon of gods is that you have a myriad of deities, often on two or more distinctly different sides. In D&D terms, this would be the difference between your good and evil gods, your lawful and chaotic ones, and your neutral guys who just want to chill out. But what is the purpose of a god? Everything must have a purpose, and I am wondering if perhaps we've been giving gods the wrong sort of shine. Yes, they are all-powerful. They do what they want, when they feel like doing it, and to hell with anyone that might disagree. Sorry, did you just say something to me? Bam, you're a cockroach, enjoy the rest of your life, simp.
What's that lady? You don't want to have hot wild sex with me? Screw you, I'm going to turn into a swan and screw your brains out anyways. Oh Zeus, you always were a bit of a cad. But in fiction, a lot of gods tend to follow this pattern - just really big, powerful jerks who do what they do, and whose pantheons physically interact with the mortal realm, often with disastrous consequences.
There are many different takes on pantheons, and why the mortal world exists. Often times, it is the gods that created the mortal realm. Other times, someone before the gods, who then later came and took things over. Or sometimes the gods consist of mortal beings who ascended to a higher plane of existence. In this particular case, let's just assume that a group of individuals have been together for most of existence. A lot of times, pantheons are depicted as being something similar to a big dysfunctional family. I like that, so let's roll with that.
For argument's sake, let's just say there are 26 people all living under the same roof. And of course, not everyone is going to get along. Almost never works out quite that way. Arguments ensue, but there has to be some way to get some answers laid down. Well, you're a god, you can do anything you want. Add fifteen rooms to the house, destroy them, whatever it's all good.
Except that, well, how can you decide anything when everyone can do the exact same things everyone else can? How do you decide if the walls should be pink or beige or aqua? What are you going to do, fight over it? You're both invincible. It would be an exercise in futility to try to duke it out - you'll be sitting there for thousands of years until someone finally decides the argument isn't worth it anymore, and then the victory is bittersweet, because everyone else is getting agitated because you're just stinking up the rest of the household all the time. You need a way for everyone to kind of get along. Some sort of common ground that everyone can relate to.
Enter the mortal realm. Okay, so you've got 26 different people, all in the same home, all with the exact same powers. But you need to try to make things livable, because quite frankly, it is really pretty annoying when people are sitting around bickering for thousands of years over how they failed to properly utilize the color scheme in the foyer. So, the heck with it, it's obvious you will never decide things on your own, without some form of outside assistance. So you decide to set up a game of sorts, one where you can't use your powers, because that would make the game pointless.
In short, it is a game where you choose a champion, and let *them* decide for you. That way, no one can really be angry, because it's sort of like the lottery - you either pick the winning number, or you don't. You'll win some, you'll lose some.
So everyone pitches in, and helps creating this thing - obviously, they have to make it so that the game is advantageous to them, while at the same time disadvantageous towards the others. So everyone plays a part in the creation process: some races are really super tough, but also super short, but really smart, but also have to make themselves dumb all the time with something they drink. Oh hey, let's make all of these things super frail, and require them to eat and drink and even sleep! That'll give everyone an advantage. Oh but my guy doesn't need to sleep, he's immune to that. But of course, now he has no such thing as free will, and as a result is dumber than a box of rocks.
Over time, you wind up with a world of mortal beings, going about their daily lives, thanks to the parts that the gods played. Over time, the 'game' grows more complex. Stakes may grow higher, politics may jump into things, and tempers may flare. But the one rule is pretty unshakable: The gods cannot directly intervene. Because to do so would ruin the fragile balance that they all have struck with one another. Everyone is invested in this thing, some maybe more than others. But despite being all-powerful, despite being capable of doing anything in the world, they still will require mortals to make their decisions for them - because otherwise, there would be no way they could all agree with one another.
It's just a fact of life. Even the jerk who would want to knock down his sister's sandcastle realizes that there is no winning or losing outside of the game - only endless bickering and arguing. Yes, you may not like them, but the fact is, you're stuck with them for all of eternity. All of it. You can't just run away, because there is nowhere to run to! So, the best you can do is try to get your hits where you can get them, and play the game, and see how much influence you can wield by the mortals that you choose to focus your attentions on.
Ironic, in a way, that the ones who created this world, and to whom are often asked for guidance from, are in fact the very same ones looking for that exact thing from the mortals they preside over.
Free will is a very real thing in this world. In fact, it may even be the most important thing! Because without that allowance of 'free will', the gods would just be playing themselves, and that would hardly be sporting. It would be cheating, and would go against the atmosphere of the thing. Not to say someone won't try to cheat at some point, and some gods will. But those who are caught (and often are) wind up having their next game penalized, either by virtue of losing 'votes', or by not being allowed to participate in the next vote.
Small games often decide very simple things, and are often equated to a bet of sorts. This is along the lines of, "I want to sit in that chair today." "Okay, I'll let you if that little guy manages to beat the living crap out of that tall dude." "Cool, you're on." And suddenly, the gods are taking an interest in a seemingly-normal bar brawl. Other times, some of the gods may team up, asking to make a change to the world itself - or to their home, even. Those may be games whose decisions are solved by entire wars between kingdoms, who may have bits of guidance from those on above, hoping to manage to eke their way to a victory below, so that their team wins the vote they are looking for.
I like to think this is a very fascinating concept. It makes the gods all-powerful and important, but yet it answers the very simple question as to their motivations. It isn't that they care - in fact, they care a great deal. But at the same time, because they care so much, they cannot act, because to do so would to be going against the very reason that they created the mortal world in the first place.
It's like making a rule, and then saying you can never break this rule. And then having someone ask you to break that very simple rule. It is just something that can't be done, because to break the rule that one time, it would invalidate everything.
Unless, of course, everyone else agrees to let the rule be broken. Just this once. Which may, in turn, spawn other contests if there is a stark division between the teams, who cannot come to a conclusion if the rule should be broken. Or if someone should challenge it.
And now, you know why the golds play games with mortals. It is because that is the mortals reason for existence. But fret not, because you shouldn't worry too much about it all. Your life is your own. The only thing that you need to know is that your life is quite meaningful in some way or another. Don't worry about the gods, and how you fit into their 'plans'. Because really, whether you were going to 'fit in' or not really doesn't matter.
What matters most is, you have a life, and you should live it out as best you can. And if, by some miracle, you can help the gods arrive at a decision somehow, then that is something praiseworthy.
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