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+---- Thread: Factional Redesign of The Gift (/showthread.php?tid=130661)
Factional Redesign of The Gift - DreamWeaver - 01-02-2020
Here are the topic questions that are needed answering? Just copy and paste these below bullet point questions into your post and add your thoughts
• Factional Name: The Gift Religion
•The primary purpose for the faction to exist?
•What distinguishing feature does this faction have?
• What specific in-game benefit can this faction have?
•What makes this faction interesting and fun to play?
•What (usually mutual) factional enemies?
RE: Factional Redesign of The Gift - DreamWeaver - 01-03-2020
• Factional Name:
The Gift Religion
•The primary purpose for the faction to exist?
To bring the two greatest teachings to the world from The One True god, Construction of Architecture to the world, and Healing knowledge.
•What distinguishing feature does this faction have?
Back before Zan E. (Midgard USA), the Gift did both Building/Construction, and Medical/Healing to the world of Midgard. Zan allowed the Serkanar faction to be created and stripped away the Healing side of the Gift and gave it to the Serks. Also Zan created the City Building of Hospitals within the game, but as per Davin that is not going to be within the game. So being that the Serks do not exist within this version of the game, then I believe this Healing ability should be returned back to the Gift again.
• What specific in-game benefit can this faction have?
The Gift temple will add Healing care to the people of the city.
The Gift can build things faster because they add more mancycles to any construction project including a bonus to the city projects.
A Gift clan can host (4) Construction projects at a time, and get a bonus in construction mancycles.
With their ability of Herbalism and Apothocary they look to bring the healing arts to the people to improve their health.
•What makes this faction interesting and fun to play?
They are the healers of Midgard and can be roleplayed in that light. They can also roleplay in learning how to build other city building types to be added to make the lives of the people better. They are he builders of cities and the culture of Midgard.
•What (usually mutual) factional enemies?
Enemies:
Blood & Fire, Barbarians, Bandits, Pirates
Allies:
Getham Family, Ring Religion
Other notes:
Skills: are important to me and they help me better understand the character of a faction and clan
PRE - Preach
REC - Recruitment
ENG - Engineering
HRB - Herbalism
APT - Apothocary
SRG - Surgery
RES - Research
RE: Factional Redesign of The Gift - Davin - 01-03-2020
Hmmm... I don't mind a faction having more than one game benefit, provided it doesn't overbalance other factions. I think we should compare benefits between factions to make sure this doesn't give any one of them too much advantage.
RE: Factional Redesign of The Gift - Davin - 01-03-2020
I don't know about alchemy -- it traditionally hasn't had anything to do with healing. It was mostly about things like turning lead into gold (which wouldn't be a great idea in a gold-based economy, anyway).
Would it be better balance if some other faction could do that sort of pseudo-scientific experimentation? Assuming, of course, that anything productive actually manages to come from alchemy in the first place.
RE: Factional Redesign of The Gift - Davin - 01-03-2020
I think that construction bonuses and architectural engineering would be pretty significant advantages just by themselves, especially together.
RE: Factional Redesign of The Gift - Davin - 01-03-2020
Providing general healing in temples to improve city health certainly sounds valuable, too. I think that could take the place of "hospitals" easily enough.
RE: Factional Redesign of The Gift - DreamWeaver - 01-03-2020
Davin Wrote:I don't know about alchemy -- it traditionally hasn't had anything to do with healing. It was mostly about things like turning lead into gold (which wouldn't be a great idea in a gold-based economy, anyway).
Would it be better balance if some other faction could do that sort of pseudo-scientific experimentation? Assuming, of course, that anything productive actually manages to come from alchemy in the first place.
Alchemy (from Arabic: al-kīmiyā) was an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific
tradition practised throughout Europe, Africa, and Asia, originating in Greco-Roman Egypt in the first few centuries.
Alchemists attempted to purify, mature, and perfect certain materials. Common aims were chrysopoeia, the transmutation
of "base metals" (e.g., lead) into "noble metals" (particularly gold); the creation of an elixir of immortality; the creation of
panaceas able to cure any disease; and the development of an alkahest, a universal solvent.The perfection of the human body
and soul was thought to permit or result from the alchemical magnum opus and, in the Hellenistic and Western mystery
tradition, the achievement of gnosis. In Europe, the creation of a philosopher's stone was variously connected with all
of these projects.
In English, the term is often limited to descriptions of European alchemy, but similar practices existed in the Far East,
the Indian subcontinent, and the Muslim world. In Europe, following the 12th-century Renaissance produced by the
translation of Medieval Islamic works on science and the rediscovery of Aristotelian philosophy, alchemists played a
significant role in early modern science (particularly chemistry and medicine). Islamic and European alchemists developed
a structure of basic laboratory techniques, theory, terminology, and experimental method, some of which are still in use
today. However, they continued antiquity's belief in four elements and guarded their work in secrecy including cyphers
and cryptic symbolism. Their work was guided by Hermetic principles related to magic, mythology, and religion.
Modern discussions of alchemy are generally split into an examination of its exoteric practical applications and its
esoteric spiritual aspects, despite the arguments of scholars like Holmyard and von Franz that they should be understood
as complementary. The former is pursued by historians of the physical sciences who examine the subject in terms of
early chemistry, medicine, and charlatanism, and the philosophical and religious contexts in which these events occurred.
The latter interests historians of esotericism, psychologists, and some philosophers and spiritualists. The subject has
also made an ongoing impact on literature and the arts. Despite this split, which von Franz believes has existed since the
Western traditions' origin in a mix of Greek philosophy that was mixed with Egyptian and Mesopotamian technology,
numerous sources have stressed an integration of esoteric and exoteric approaches to alchemy as far back as
Pseudo-Democritus's first-century AD On Physical and Mystical Matters (Greek: Physika kai Mystika).
Although alchemy is popularly associated with magic, historian Lawrence M. Principe argues that recent historical research
has revealed that medieval and early modern alchemy embraced a much more varied set of ideas, goals, techniques, and practices:
RE: Factional Redesign of The Gift - DreamWeaver - 01-03-2020
Davin Wrote:Hmmm... I don't mind a faction having more than one game benefit, provided it doesn't overbalance other factions. I think we should compare benefits between factions to make sure this doesn't give any one of them too much advantage.Note the main benefit would be the Engineering bonus hat would mostly be used.
The Medical befit would be more of a bonus for a city and roleplaying element for the player to pursue if they wanted to with Special Actions. There was never much of a real ingame benefit for the Healing/Medical side.
The Alchemy side of things is really the same as the Medical side, it is just another Roleplaying element that can tie both the Engineering and Medical together.
RE: Factional Redesign of The Gift - DreamWeaver - 01-03-2020
I am trying to "round" out the faction making them fun to play and interesting to pursue things if players choose to do so. The Medical and Alchemy would not amount to much in the every day to day game play, but they would add to the flavor of the Religious faction allowing players to dig into matters and roleplay things...plus they all sort of fit together.
RE: Factional Redesign of The Gift - Davin - 01-03-2020
Yes, although I probably wouldn't consider looking for an elixir of immortality or cure-all panacea to be much of a benefit to general health maintenance, unless it actually worked. I agree that the study of alchemy led to the methodical principles used in science, in general, but I'm thinking that was it's primary contribution to health and medicine, rather than any kind of a direct improvement understanding or treatment of health problems (which is kinda what we need in our context).
OTOH, learning about sanitation and herbal remedies IS directly concerned with improvements in overall health and religions would certainly sound like a great place to accumulate that sort of wisdom.