Here's the thing: after that nasty Invasion business, the airship hanger inside Mercadia's inverted mountain was basically trashed. But does that mean the clever goblins of Mercadia City are just going to give up on their dreams of interplanar conquest I mean commerce? Heavens no!

The Kyren have figured out that they can still open portals to other planes, and they want to venture into these new worlds to rebuild their mercantile empire. The only problem is, they don't want to go through these scary portals themselves. They'd much rather you, Brave Explorer, did it for them. If you come back alive with a solid description of the plane, they'll pay you handsomely... but you'll need to invest some money yourself to get started.



I'll periodically post worldbuilding prompts that you can buy from the auctioneers for variable amounts. These are essentially investments where you buy the prompts to slowly build up your setting and then several weeks later try to cash in on your hard work. New players start with ten points, players of the other Kyren game use their existing point pool. You may buy one prompt per week. At any point you can declare your setting complete. When you do, two things can happen:

You can either auction off your world in the Story Auction Game, where players will bid on the pieces of your world to create stories (or artifacts, or enchantments, or characters) from them. Every winning bid goes into your coffers.

Or you can simply put your world before the rabble of the forums to judge as they see fit. In that case, a voting thread will be created with the following options:

+2 Very Good
+1 Good
+0 Just Ok
-1 Needs Work
-2 Pretty Bad

People will read your work and judge its quality then choose from Very Good to Pretty Bad. Your final score will come from the final tally.



Select one of the following options:

1 POINT:

Create an elevator pitch for your world. This pitch should explain what your world is about in 150 words or less.

2 POINTS:

Pick a combination of two allied colors. Identify and describe a Characteristic (smaller in p/t, a main civilization, common), Midrange (slightly bigger, somewhat less common), and Iconic (huge, rare, and impressive) race for this combination

3 POINTS:

Colorshift a Class from its normal color(s)

4 POINTS:

From the following list, select at least ONE race type and incorporate that race into your world:
Archon
Atog
Cephalid
Cyclops
Devil
Dryad
Efreet
Gnome
Gorgon
Hag
Harpy
Homarid
Kobold
Lammasu
Moonfolk
Nightstalker
Noggle
Ouphe
Satyr
Siren
Slith
Surrakar
Weird
Zubera

So this is a lot more speculative and a lot more touchy than the other game. You'll notice immediately that it's going to be a LOT harder to course correct if things aren't working right. Nevertheless, I wanted to have a game that encouraged worldbuilding, could be entered at any time, was accessible to newcomers (the point breakdown here is pretty standard to how things are going to be for the game, so you can build a small plane with careful use of five 2-point prompts with maybe a 1 point or 3 point thrown in), encouraged long term planning, and basically solved some of the issues with the worldbuilding game that Jedi and I ran years ago. I think this structure makes sense, but I honestly have no idea how/if this will work.

This is a good metric though like I said for how things are going to be broken down.

1 point things are either trivial, or they're... odd. Basically, cantrips.

2 point prompts aren't very interesting, but they're also fairly easy to fill out. Low risk, but low reward, a good investment for people just starting out.

3 point and 4 point prompts get a little odder, asking for more specific tasks or adjustments to how settings are usually built in Magic.

There will be prompts at higher levels as well that function pretty much like higher mana cost spells do in Magic: this is the realm where you can start to really do some wild stuff. (And yes this is where I'm hoping people will sink the HECK out of their points from the other game, and eventually profits from this game)

so we pay 1 point to get the one point thing or we get 1 point for it? if pay, I assume we can't do any work that isn't specifically prescribed by the prompts?

Essentially yes but I'm not going to police that too heavily in the sense that like:

If you colorshift a class and in the process have to write about a two color civilization and note down a characteristic race there, and maybe even remark on a midrange and iconic, I'm not going to like ban you from the contest forever.

Some flexibility here seems essential.

Here's some super babbly abstract philosophizing on these games but it's sblocked so as to not be too much of a distraction



And yes you PAY for the prompts--so whatever your current total is, this'll subtract from that between one and four points depending on which prompt you pick this week (if any)

This seems super complicated can I just write something?

First off, I believe the word you want if "hangar".

Second, I'm in! I have wanted to get better at worldbuilding for some time, and this might give me an excuse to put some practice into that.

I'd like the 2 point prompt, please.

Can I buy the one point please?

I second this motion.

I think I understand this to work as such

1) Make points in the Story Auction Game.
2) Spend points to buy one of the prompts here. Prompts have unlimited stock. You can buy 1/week and any number/plane.
3) Fill out the prompt (Write something). You don't have to wait for the main game writing phase since once you've bought a prompt its yours.
4) You can build a plane over multiple weeks of prompt assembly. At any point you can bring it to market at which point your output here will be used as Kyren Auction prompts. Or you can set the whole mess up for forum vote judging and earn +/- 2 points I'm not totally sure why you'd do the latter.

This seems overly complex. Also I'm not seeing why your opponents in the Story Game would want to buy your world for their story prompts and give you points when they can just make up their own or riff off of the flavor of the card they win. Also, while this seems like a decent point drain for the high-rollers in the story game, having to keep track of what I'm spending in two different threads is going to be confusing as heck. and that's even if I ever get a surplus of points to make branching out into this game seem worth it.

As a separate game, I'd actually prefer this one over the other, as world-building and concept story-boarding are more my strengths than things like dialog or detail that short stories really thrive on. Right now though, I have some good ideas for the cards this round so I have to conserve my points in that thread instead of spending them here.

I'm buying the 2-point prompt. Time to describe the races of !

Characteristic: Homarids
In the days of the Witches there was a great king who took the sign of Cancer for his symbol and the Crab for his Guardian Spirit. He tied his very soul to countless of the creatures and released them, so that he would never die as long as the crabs and their progeny existed. In the Reckoning, the king was cast down, and his body torn asunder so that no more remained of him than drops of blood falling upon the ocean. As his great power fled, it went into the crabs that carried shards of the king's soul, and those took on human intelligence, size, and likeness. Thus did the king return, not as he had hoped but diffuse across an entire new race, blameless of their sire's evil, lacking in his memory, but possessed of his inclination to the arcane.

Homarids are man-sized crabfolk. They live throughout most of the deep waters, but also come ashore and claim certain coastal counties as their domain. Homarids very rarely speak and their attempts at human language are heavily accented by the chirping, gurgling nature of their vocalization. All the same they are highly intelligent and have a penchant for magic, particularly forms of spiritual magic far different than those still retained by humans. They tend to congregate in large colonies and build vast, communal dwellings when they see the need to construct shelters or other structures. Even if one would make the mistaken assumption that they are relatively unintelligent from their troubles with speech, it would be difficult to retain such an impression on seeing their feats of engineering and architecture.


Midrange: Sirens
There was once a very powerful Witch who made her voice so beautiful that no mortal could fail to be utterly enraptured. She found the taste of her deathless state bittersweet and longed for the company and friendship of others. Eventually, she grew tired of mere slaves that hung upon her every word, so she created her 'daughters', the Sirens, in her own image, molding their forms from seawater and her own blood. She gave the sirens beauty so mortals would not shy away, kinder natures than her own had been so they would not be hated, and the power of song like her own voice so that they could not be ignored. As her reign drew on and she found her daughters not entirely content, she gave them also the ability to give birth, though the child of a siren would always be a daughter and another siren, and in this way she made a new race in the world. When the Reckoning came, many feared challenging the Witch of the Irresistible Voice, but she offered herself for the judgment of the just on the condition her daughters be spared annihilation. The bargain was accepted and honored, but the Sirens were banished from the Hallowed Lands, to the outer isles and the sea their father, and have dwelt in the cold and lonley surf ever since.

Sirens appear, superficially, like female humans. Made initially from brine and Witch's blood they are nearly as at home in the water as upon the land and can breathe water and air with equal ease. Their skin is often very pale, and their skin, hair, and eyes can have unnatural casts drawn from the ocean's influence: Tones green, grey, and blue are not entirely uncommon. They can reproduce (though what exactly is required for this is unclear) but there appears to be no true upper limit to their lifespan, as some the the Witch's creations are still alive in the modern era. Sirens were initially made with friendly, gregarious natures, though as each one is an individual as much as any human is, one can only speak in vague generalizations about their typical character. In general, sirens crave companionship beyond their own sisterhood, and their exile has been very hard on them therefore. Many, perhaps especially those born since the Reckoning, are now bitter and angry at their sentence and use their wits and alluring song to do mischief to humans, the severity of which ranges from playing harmless pranks on coastal communities to luring the crews of ships to their deaths.


Iconic: Sphinxes
The Sphinxes were the power behind the days of the Witches. Beings of knowledge and malice both vast and incomprehensible, they bestowed on chosen mortals -- Those with cruelty and lust for knowledge in such measure as pleased the Sphinxes -- the Three Secrets: the secret by which a mortal could be made ageless, the secret by which new life could be created, and what is only known as the Third Secret, for not even its nature was shared beyond those the Three Secrets were gifted to. These were the Witches. In those dark days, the Sphinxes enjoyed the fruit of their rule and feared only the Great Phoenix and its offspring. When the Angels came, and the Reckoning cast down the Witches, many sphinxes were slain. Those few that survived did so by fleeing the Hallowed Lands for the Outer Isles and other dark and far reaches of the world. Beware the sphinxes, for their minds are the poison that may yet turn a mortal into a Witch.

Sphinxes are rare and powerful beings that once held sway over most of the world. A Sphinx appears to have the face of a human, the body of a lion, and the wings of an eagle. While theoretically a mortal race, all Sphinxes know the Three Secrets and thus do not age beyond their prime. They were never, however, incredibly numerous, and when the Angels appeared in the world and began to lead mortals, particularly humans, in the great war against the Witches known as the Reckoning, most were hunted down and killed. All remaining Sphinxes are devious and cunning by what would have been the measure of their own kind. Most are exceedingly ancient, their minds containing more magical knowledge than an entire library of tomes. Most are also insane. They speak in riddles, mentally toying with those unfortunate to cross their paths as a cat might toy with a mouse, bestowing horrifying truths and damnable lies as the reward for passing some obscure test those unfortunates did not realize they were taking. There is no more powerful ally than a Sphinx, given their knowledge and arcane potency, but there is also no more dangerous an ally, for a Sphinx is always wiser and cleverer than those it deals with, and it is hard to be sure the creature has your best interests in mind.

Moving Homarids from lobsters to crabs?

If I understand correctly, when you release a plane, the elements of that plane you developed here become their own Story Game prompts, possibly with their own bidding round off-schedule from the rest of the Story Auction Game. So if you release a world to Auction, Story Auction Game players might bid on and take it because they'll profit there as much as on a regular card-based prompt.

@ Azure, on Homarids: For this plane, yup.

I mean no one's forcing you to write for this contest... no one's forcing you to participate in the other one either. If it's too complicated, don't do it. [shrug]

It's a challenge. I don't think it's actually all that complicated. I mean we all play Magic the Gathering after all. It's basically exactly how Szat broke things down:


One thing worth noting--it's not +/-2 points for the general rating option it's +/-whatever your TOTAL points are. So, if five people vote +2, three vote +1, no one votes +0, and four people vote -1, in total you would gain +12 points for your world.

Also it always said "Hangar" I have no idea what Aaarrrgh is talking about >_> <_< >_>

Now, I had planned to do WU sphinxes for my iconics, and now I have to consider if I can compete with Tevish's UB ones... And I'm not sure if I can do that. This requires consideration.

Well the one really nice thing about this is that you're not in DIRECT competition with anyone else

I have every confidence in you!

The great thing about this side is that we aren't going head to head. If we release to Auction on different rounds (or if released planes produce their own auctions) or release to voting we're not struggling for the same points.

On the M:EMblr I revised the rules text as follows:

I'm going to buy the three-point thingy, but I'm working out the idea. I like this thread.

I suspected you would be into this

@Tevish:

I really dig what you're doing with your world so far. It's got a good dark feel to it and the hints that you're dropping about a larger story are interesting.