Forum Rules - Easy Overview/Prospectus

Rules that affect gameplay, your powers as a character, etc.
Forum rules
Remember that there is value in keeping certain aspects of the DP secret from players or potential media consumers.

This particular category allows (requires, in fact) OOC posting.

Forum Rules - Easy Overview/Prospectus

Postby Diamond Master » Fri Sep 28, 2012 9:22 pm

This replicates the text of the Lite Rules. When you're done with this, try The Exemplar Pantheon to see an example of play.

Suggested Reading Order





Intro - Levels of power, brief backstory
Spoiler: show
Everything takes place on the Diamond of Existence, in Facets (universes), especially the Immortal Facets where the best of the best gods live. The ruler of this world is the Diamond Master (DM), a neutral judge who makes everything possible.

When you get invited to the Pantheon, you start out as a Hero Deity (aka Inclusion Tier) living in the Immortal Facets. This rank allows you a taste of what godhood is all about, and a chance to meet heroes from other campaigns. Hero Deities do not answer prayers or cause the forces of nature to operate.

The next rank up is Campaign God (Pavilion Tier), which is the rank of a more conventional divine being. After that is Worldcrafter (Bezel Tier), which is for GMs and the like. The strongest, most iconic gods are called Steepest Tier (Crown Tier). You buy Tiers from the Norns.

You start out with permission to create your own Realm thread, in which you should describe your living desmene.


To do something on the Diamond Pantheon, you simply elaborate it on a relevant thread on the forums. Usually you pick a thread where a lot of action is already happening if you want to join in on something, or start your own chain of events in a new thread (perhaps under your Realm). If what you describe is in your grasp, it happens and others can react to it. It’s storytelling.

Most action happens in the Diamond Gardens.


Your character sheet
Spoiler: show
To help determine what is in your grasp, you have a few mechanical statistics. The first is your Tier, as we've already described. The next is your Domains, portfolios of what you as a divine being are particularly interested in. These have to be purchased from the DM (here). You are better at things that are in your domains, but you are still exceptional at most everything else.

A Weakness is the opposite of a Domain. If you take a Weakness, the Norns will pay you. Domains have levels. When you buy a Domain, it is the total number of levels held of that Domain by all the gods in your Tier combined which determines the cost you pay. Unused domains are cheaper to buy than used domains. Domains are property and you can trade them as you would any other property, within your own Tier. The limit on how many first-level domains you can have is 1/Tier.


The currency of the gods is called Favor.
Spoiler: show
Each god has an unlimited supply of Favor of their own brand. They can trade this to other gods. You can do many things to earn Favor. It is up to whoever holds it what they will trade for Favor. Most Favor is traded in decimal fractions, like .05 Odin Favor.

If you come to hold 1.0 Favor on one particular god, you can automatically demand that they do something you have in mind, even if they don’t want to: make them lend many things or turn over one thing. This is dangerous so try to buy up your own Favor before anyone comes to hold too much of it!

The Diamond Master and the Norns have special brands of Favor. If you have DM Favor, you can buy powerful Artifacts of your own design, mini-universes, contract enforcement, wishes, and extra campaign worlds. These are called reality revisions. You can also buy Domains and Domain levels. If you have Norn Favor, you can buy Tiers if you meet the requirements, or you can use it to sponsor a character in a campaign world for godhood.

These two Favors can be interchanged at any time, but you will take a small loss on the conversion. Norn Favor is considered more valuable than DM Favor, and is usually rarer.

Please keep track of your own favor (download the worksheet). The Unblemished will also try to keep track but do not like having to make corrections or provide accountant services.


Gods have a funny view of time. This is important.
Spoiler: show
To them, everything is basically happening at once. So on the Diamond Pantheon forums, just because somebody posted yesterday doesn’t mean they did that thing before what you post today. The game is divided up into “Hrair Weeks” of 8 days. Nothing you do can ever take effect until 2-8 days later; other people can describe how they avoid the situation you have tried to place them into. This is useful because not everyone can be online every day. People who post less are not penalized (though they might miss out on some rewards).


The mechanics of the game
Spoiler: show
If two gods in the Pantheon are in dissent about something that cannot be resolved with storytelling alone, there is a system to resolve it called the Mechanical Slots. Both characters describe what they are doing, and the DM fills in slots in this order of importance:

Tier > Domains > Weaknesses > Artifacts > Circumstances > Spells > Allies > Insights

Whoever can fill in the highest value slots is declared the winner. Only one thing can go in each slot for each side of the competition. If it is a mortal combat competition, the winner can try to kill the loser. The winner needs to roll a natural 20 on a 20 sided die, and the loser would have to roll 10 or higher to save himself. All dice are submitted to the Lady, who will announce the results. Later, the Norns will declare the god dead. Until the Norns do so, the god can keep trying to save himself if he thinks it is possible.

To fill in slots and decide who would win, the DM will probably look at the Precedent, which is a collection of posts in which something was tried for the first time.


Campaign Worlds and Creative Solutions - the real purpose of the game
Spoiler: show
Everyone in the Pantheon is affiliated with a campaign world. Gods can visit other campaign worlds, and the Chief Ruler of that campaign world has to decide what effect this will have.
Characters from that world might interact with you. They might oppose you if you are seen as an invader.
The referee must see if characters are powerful enough to oppose you. If you are a Hero Deity, any mortal can try to oppose you. If you are a Campaign God, the referee will need to figure out if any of the opposing characters are at least Hero Deities, which could then oppose you.
You may be opposed by other Campaign Gods who are not elected into the Diamond Pantheon. Then any competition will be resolved either by using the game system of the campaign world, or by using the game system of the Diamond Pantheon.
Generally, you can impact the parts of the visited campaign world if they are part of your domain; otherwise, you will easily be cast out by the native gods.

Another arbitrator is The Council. It is composed of player character gods from all Tiers and alignments. They have rules that are not enforced by the game, but rather by the characters in the game! If you do something the Council considers despicable, a lot of powerful gods will descend on you and teach you a lesson.

Gods settle a lot of things using games. The DM runs games for the gods to play, and sometimes the players might decide to settle disputes with a game. This is considered much more civilized for these higher beings. The prize for these games is often DM Favor. Quests also have Favor (or sometimes Artifacts or knowledge) as a reward. It is of course possible to play other games to settle bets and contests between gods.


It’s really pretty simple, although there are many more specifics, details, and numbers in the full rules. If it should be within your grasp to do something, you don’t need to look up any rules or roll any dice. In fact, if you say something simple you can assume you are successful immediately and start dictating your next action without waiting for the DM to approve it! Doesn’t that feel powerful? Please take advantage of this, as it makes the game move much more quickly.
User avatar
Diamond Master
Site Admin
 
Posts: 653
Joined: Fri Sep 14, 2012 3:55 am
Statistics: Tier: Metagod (Unblemished Tier)
Domains: Creation
Weakness: None

Return to Mechanical Rules

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest

cron