An entry for the January 2009 TRO Challenge

By Pallando

0. Contents

P2 0 Contents

1 Basics

2 Equipment

P3 3 Structure

4 Aim of the Game

P4 5 Setup

6 Creation

P5 7 Struggle for Survival

P6 8 When Gods Fall

P7 9 The Last Battle

P8 10 All good things come to an end

1. Basics

Players: 3 – 6

Ages: 16+

Duration: About 1 hour, but players can choose to make it shorter or longer.

Genre: Roleplaying (Strategic Storytelling)

Titanomachy is like a cross between Credo and Baron Münchhausen. Do you have what it takes to survive and grow as a God, or will you be written out of the story of creation?

2. Equipment

o 18 land cards

o 150 resource counters (can make do with far fewer)

o 36 divine attributes

o 6 initial deities

o 1 impressive object to act as The Throne which marks the chief deity.

o 6 sided dice – the more the merrier, but 6 should be enough

o paper and pencils

o rule booklet & handouts

3. Structure

In Titanomachy you are a God or Goddess in an unspecified part of the ancient world. Some of your believers have recently entered a land controlled by an established but tired pantheon of existing Gods. Their story of creation does not mention you, and so must obviously be wrong or incomplete. This should be changed!

Your will in the heavens is mirrored by the actions and success of your believers in the world below. If you are destined to defeat another deity, then your version of the tale of the battle will win out in the minds and hearts of the people of the land, and that deity will in truth be so defeated. As the Gods contest, the story of creation will be altered and added to. Some will rise and others fall, as the new and old pantheons struggle for dominance, leading to an inevitable final battle - the clash of the titans.

The land consists of 6 areas: Cities, Plains, Forest, Mountains, Coast and Boarders.

Each area contains 3 population sub-groups; the upper, middle and lower classes, giving 18 distinct communities. Each community starts off with pre-determined levels of faith, force and finances available to them, but these resources can be increased, and they can be used to spread your worship and influence. The upper class has the best finances. The lower class is most numerous and so can field the largest forces. Faith varies on a scale:

0. militant atheist

1. agnostic

2. does believe, but doesn’t do much more than enjoy feast days

3. committed laity

4. average monk or kibbutz member

5. warrior of god, would lay down their life

6. saint or hero

Resources cannot go above 6.

4. Aim of the Game

At the start of the Struggle for Survival stage, the players set a count down timer or alarm, to signal when The Last Battle is to be triggered. The shorter the time, the greater the challenge. The players decide this collectively, as a cooperative play group challenge. (90 minutes = easy, 60 minutes = medium, 30 minutes = hard)

Each player then each picks three personal objectives, which they write down and keep secret until they choose to reveal them. One should be competitive (finish with the most of a particular resource type), one should be attribute related (eg gain two from a list of 3 specific attributes) and one should be narrative related (eg “broker peace”, “Ensure the survival of Manep, who you love”, “Punish Rapol fittingly for the despoiling of the Nymph, Etrea”). The harder or more opposed an objective, the more kudos you get for achieving it. Double if you reveal it before hand or you accepted it as a challenge from another player. For more suggestions, see the separate handout.

5. Setup

a) Set aside 7 starting communities for the players. These will be dealt out later.

b) Lay out the 6 initial gods, each with their 6 initial attributes, and deal out the remaining communities between them, starting with the chief god, Zeos (marked by the throne).

c) Put the initial resource markers on each community card. Alternatively, to save on time and markers, lay the community cards out at an angle, and only straighten it and fill a card’s resource slots when it varies from the initial allocation. Different coloured markers can be used for different resource types, but this is not essential, just pretty.

d) If you have not already done so, read the rules and initial creation myth, then allocate objectives.

6. Creation

Each player in turn has chosen for them, by the other players, an initial divine attribute. A player may not talk or contribute to this discussion and should, ideally, leave the room.

You are now ready to create your deity. From now on, everything you do should be done in the manner of your chosen deity, and other players should be addressed by their deity’s name, with titles as appropriate. If your deity is a secretive witty sort, they might use kennings. So “warrior” becomes “feeder of ravens” becomes “feeder of Odin’s bird” becomes “feeder of the bird of the rider of Sleipnir” becomes “feeder of the bird of the rider of the 8 legged horse”, etc. Is your deity eloquent? Boastful? Plain spoken but constructive?

A deity needs a name and a symbol. A symbol is usually an animal that shares their nature or an item they wear or possess, and usually one that features in their story. Above all, a deity needs a story. Who created them, how and why? What justifies their prime attribute?

Split 14 faith, 14 force and 14 finance roughly evenly and have each player hold their share in their hand. Go around and introduce your deities. The order is not important, so you can start with whoever is ready (if you disagree, roll two dice). You may interrupt the story of another deity, in the manner of Baron Münchhausen, if you want to clarify or improve anything, or just particularly feel like it. Once a deity has made their modifications to the initial creation myth to introduce themselves as someone’s sister, spilt semen or severed organ, later players may not entirely write them out. This stage must end with all the players introduced into the mythos as minor deities of the old pantheon.

Once the introductions have been made (or as they go along), the players use the resources in their hands to reward the other players for their story, giving faith, force or finances as seems appropriate. (You must give all of them – you can’t keep any for yourself).

The player awarded the most is the chief of the new pantheon. Deal out the 7 starting communities in order from the most rewarded to the least. Chief decides ties.

Write down your deity’s initial name (it may change) on a piece of paper in front of you, angled so the other players can see it, and place the attribute on it.

7. Struggle for Survival

Play proceeds clockwise. The player whose turn it is gets one normal action for each community loyal to them, before passing control onto the next player. Free actions may be taken at any time, once per round, including during another player’s turn in response to that player declaring an action and before dice are rolled.

Free Action: Banking

Transfer any amount of finance between two communities you control.

Free Action: Mercenaries

A community may hire mercenaries to fight for it, at a price of 2 finance per mercenary. They only stay for one round (but don’t need to be returned if they died in battle during the round).

Action: Travel

A community may send preachers and builders of temples to another community you control, in the same or an adjoining area, in order to attempt to improve their faith. This costs the initiating community 1 finance. Both sides then roll one die per faith point. If the initiator gets a higher total than the target, the target community gains 1 faith point.

Action: Trade

A community may trade with a community of the same class in an adjoining area, loyal to a different deity, unless they refuse. If the trade happens, each community gets 1 finance. An NPC will refuse only if you are a declared enemy (ie you have attacked them using force).

Action: Teach

A community may attempt to teach about your worship to a community of the same class in an adjoining area, loyal to a different deity. Both sides roll one die per faith point.

If tie : no effect

If lose : you lose 1 faith point

If win : target looses 1 faith point

If win by 5 or more: you may also gain an attribute

If win by 10 or more: you also gain control of the target !

To gain an attribute from the target’s controlling deity, you must tell the story of the teaching – a new deed or event, an interaction between the gods, that explains the transfer. This does not need to be long (30 seconds to a minute is fine), but should be entertaining (or good story material) and fit the existing myth. You need at least one “Hear hear”, “Amen”, “Preach it, bro” or similar from another player to confirm successful transfer.

Action: Train

A community may spend 1 finance in order to gain 1 force.

Action: Tariff

Roll your forces against the finances of a community in the same area. If you win, decrease the target’s finances by 1. Otherwise reduce your forces by 1.

Action: Trouble

Roll your faith against the force of a community in the same area. If you win, decrease the target’s force by 1. Otherwise reduce your faith by 1.

Action: Tempt

Roll your finances against the faith of a community in the same area. If you win, decrease the target’s faith by 1. Otherwise reduce your finances by 1.

Action: Civil War

It might be a revolt by the lower classes. It might be a military coup. It might be a purge and overthrow of democracy. Either way, temples are going to get burnt. Declare the civil war from one community targeting a second. The other communities then declares whether to aid, oppose or stay neutral. An NPC community will never aid you, but will oppose only if you attack another NPC, unless that NPC is a declared traditional enemy of theirs. (Zeos and Kylos won’t aid each other. Manep and Gaia don’t see eye to eye. And Selune and Rapol have waged entire wars against each other.)

Once the battle lines are drawn up, work out which side has the higher total resources. If the declarer has, they win. Otherwise they lose and the target wins. But there are losses. The loser’s community is transferred to the winner, and the winner gains 1 faith point. But all the loser’s resources are discarded, and the winner must discard the same number of resources as the loser had. If there is an ally on the losing side, they lose all resources but not their community. If there is an ally on the winning side, they share in the losses equally (until declarer or ally runs out, at which point all further losses come from the other one); but the ally also gains 1 faith point.

If you gain a community, you may also gain an attribute from the loser’s controller. (See Action: Teach for how this is done.)

8. When Gods Fall

If a deity loses their last community or attribute, they are Defeated, and the one responsible is the Victor, who must then narrate what happens to the Defeated. Are they demonised? (Their story recast so it appears they were never really a god, just a minor figure such as a hero, nature spirit or demon). Are they imprisoned and being punished for an eternity somewhere (and if so, how and for what?). Or were they slain? And if so, by what great trick or feat of arms, and what happened to their remains? The Victor gains the prime attribute and identity of The Defeated (eg Sun or Sea), a title of their choice (eg “the Archer”), and the option of changing their name, taking the name of The Defeated or fusing the two. Any remaining attributes they can also take or they can be magnanimous and spare The Defeated leaving them with a minor attribute and permission to flee to other lands.

9. The Last Battle

The chief god (the god from the old pantheon with the most resources will become the new chief if the old chief has just been defeated), will arouse the gods to fight off this incursion of new gods. He will demand that all ally with him and submit to his authority. At this point players take a faith token from their largest community, hold it behind their back then reveal their hand on the count of three. If their hand contains the token, they give it to the chief god in tribute, and will be on his or her side during the upcoming battle. If their hand is empty, they are declaring their open defiance. If at least one player declares their defiance, then the battle is on.

The old pantheon and allies will offer the new pantheon a choice of terms:

A) Honourable Duelling

B) Hearts & Minds

C) Total War

The new pantheon must choose one, and the choice is writ upon the world stone and shalt be binding lest the world crack asunder and all return to the void.

Honourable Duelling (recommended ending)

The old pantheon and new pantheon take it in turns to pick a champion who challenges a member from the other pantheon to a duel. The challenged picks a resource type, and both roll one die per resource they have of that type. The one with the lowest total looses one attribute for every 5 they lost by. This clash can be narrated either in divine terms (eg Tyr slays Garm, but then has his hand bitten off by Fenris) or mundane terms (assassinations, pogroms, etc)

Deities who lose all their attributes die as normal. Every deity in a pantheon must have participated in a challenge (as challenger or challengee) before they can participate again. This keeps going until one pantheon has no active deities left. The victorious pantheon can then write history how they like, including unlikely rescues from the stomachs and such like, to retrieve the fallen.

Hearts & Minds (slow ending)

As per the Struggle for Survival, but the only permissible actions are Trade, Travel and Teaching. Old deities now also get goes, and will Teach where the odds are on their side. Defeated deities will remain on the sidelines until either victory or stalemate is reached, or the deity with the attribute “Peace” or “Story” brokers a merging of the two pantheons.

Total War (fast ending)

Each area votes which side to be on, communities voting by rolling their military and adding their total for or against. The areas then line up on two sides, and the total military of each side fights it out in one bloody battle. The priests of the losing side are all slaughtered.

10. All good things come to an end

Ideally for this part mead should be passed around in a horn. (*NOT* provided with game).

Each player in turn does A Toast, A Boast and An Oath.

A Toast – praise for the fallen, or for the actions of another player

A Boast – reveal objectives and, in character, praise your deity

An Oath – make a promise. This can be anything you intend to keep, including that you will help to pack the game away or that one day you will play it again and do greater things still !

Addenda

I hope you have enjoyed reading this and, even more, that you will enjoy playing it.

Please add feedback about it to:

http://www.toothycat.net/wiki/wiki.pl?Pallando/Titanomachy

I have made liberal use of other people’s research and artwork, so please do not charge people money for this, or claim it as your own work. Thank you.

Judging Criteria:

The people are heavily divided into 3 tiers

A superhero game set in the past

A mechanism where the other players have some input on the design of your character

Has a Fate/Karma/Bennie reward pool that can only be spent on others

Become something greater