Prayers

Dominius

Has anyone ever considered the idea of prayers in Achaea? Along the lines of PRAY TO GOD FOR REASON and the prayer gets sent in the form of a message system for the gods or something... or would it be too much for the gods to handle with lots of people praying junk? Would be kinda cool to roleplay.. Some gid smites you for your pitiful request to... some gods answers to the prayers that reached his/her ears requesting blah.. could be a good way of showing what a group/city and the individuals therein really want for gameplay satisfaction etc..

Shirszae

I think they would just get swamped and annoyed, honestly. People would just use it for whatever to the point they'd probably have to turn it off or be bothered constantly.

What I would really kill for is a THINK command that is only visible to gods. So you could for example EMOTE MUMBLES A QUIET PRAYER TO THE GOD OF WAR and then THINK it and if they care enough/are around/are paying attention they can see it/choose how to answer it without them becoming actually swamped with a million messages.

And even beyond that particular scenario, THINK would be awesome.

Nicola

Most gods have some form by which they can be contacted in a more special sense, but the means and hows are often kept a little hidden, so only those who are really fervent about their request will go through the difficulties of making it.

Antidas

A number of orders have mechanics similar to these, where you do something special and include a message, and it gets sent to your god. For example, Keresis had a torque that we were able to use to send messages to her. I think it should remain a special thing for orders only. From an RP perspective, it makes no sense for a god to listen to every prayer that every random person sends their way. They would really only pay attention to those from their followers.

Caelan

Nicola said:

Most gods have some form by which they can be contacted in a more special sense, but the means and hows are often kept a little hidden, so only those who are really fervent about their request will go through the difficulties of making it.

Yeah this. I know @Aegis does fo sho.  @Shirszae

Shirszae

Caelan said:

Nicola said:

Most gods have some form by which they can be contacted in a more special sense, but the means and hows are often kept a little hidden, so only those who are really fervent about their request will go through the difficulties of making it.

Yeah this. I know @Aegis does fo sho.  @Shirszae

Oh, I know xD But I tend to treat those as for very specific things. I mentioned the THINK command I've seen in a few other muds because it lends itself to a wide variety of uses. Be it just to explore your own character's thoughts in any particular scene, to 'pray' in a different fashion, or even just to add another layer f subtext for when you are interacting with a god or a denizen.

Kyrra

Selene had cool praying commands in the inner sanctum of her old temple, it was designed to be part of yearly prayers where we were brought closer to her, got to briefly experience things as she did, and got a cool item in return.

It was based around the old PRAY TO <GOD> command but in a specific room.

Vastar’s old order items let you send special messages to him, though mine was the only one that worked of the newer order members. It was a great way to pass along information that could otherwise just be sent in a message.

I think those items should be follower-only.

Ysela

Sartan does too, one way of which is accessible to anyone who figures out a nifty little quest.

Talking to any denizen (as in TALK TO <denizen> <thing to say>) makes what is said visible to anyone in the Garden, or similar, I thought

Ahmet

Kyrra said:

I think those items should be follower-only.

There's at least a couple that are public-facing, currently. I learned that the hard way, through multiple scoldings.

Trilliana

Kyrra said:

Selene had cool praying commands in the inner sanctum of her old temple, it was designed to be part of yearly prayers where we were brought closer to her, got to briefly experience things as she did, and got a cool item in return.

To add to that, a certain room (if I recall, the one I'd consider the "lounge" near the inner sanctum area) would echo prayers to Selene and She could respond in her own way. I learned about it before Her death and got a lovely response in return.

I know Phaestus also has a special way to pray to Him which is awesome, but I won't share that

Ziahra

Lusternia has (had?) this. I remember drunk praying to the really serious Glom god (Shikari) about some emo bullshit and he came and talked to me. Felt terribly sorry for the female player in retrospect. No wonder these gods don't stick around when there's players like me to suck up all the fun.

Prayer messaging is 10% RP opportunity (if you're lucky) and 90% dealing with people's interpersonal crap and petty squabbling.

Krypton

Dominius said:

Has anyone ever considered the idea of prayers in Achaea? Along the lines of PRAY TO GOD FOR REASON and the prayer gets sent in the form of a message system for the gods or something...

Yes, it's called ISSUE.

Ailea

Honestly, I was very torn with opening this thread, I was very skeptical and cautious about what the heck I would find here...

Rispok

Nero had an order item at one point, and you could rub it or something, and it gave you a 10 second window to deliver some sort of message.

Kythra

Rispok said:

Nero had an order item at one point, and you could rub it or something, and it gave you a 10 second window to deliver some sort of message.

Sounds more like a Caspian thing.


I'll show myself out.

Morthif

Too soon

Tahquil

You could touch your pendant from Neraeos to send a message He heard.

Minifie

PRAY TO SARTAN FOR SICK SIDEBURNS

...This isn't a monkey paw thing, right?

Devran

If anyone knows about a MUD called Avalon, there was a second MUD they made that was set earlier in the timeline of the world called Avalon: The First Age. (Bit of Trivia, they had to switch engines because another MUD bought the license to the one they were using. I believe this was Achaea. The games command structure was very similar. SKILLS, AB <skillname> <specific skill>, it used Lessons to learn the skills, etc.)

I remember being a citizen of Thakria and a member of the Sorcerer's guild, basically as 'evil' as you could get. I worshiped Maldoror, the Evil One. 

If you sent him a TELL, he'd zap you. The only acceptable method of communication was literally PRAYing. I remember being quite sad when I learned that the person who played Maldoror went on an indefinite sabbatical.

I can't speak to whether the gods got drowned in stupid prayers, but I don't believe the ISSUE command existed, so perhaps they served the same function.

Athroseilon

Daeir said:

I have a slightly hilarious experience with something similar.

On a game I once developed on a codebase for called Space Station 13, there was a 'job' called the Chaplain which by virtue of its role, was able to receive favors from the online admins by virtue of a similar command. People would pray for guns or information, or sometimes set up elaborate rituals and whatnot to get the admins attention.

Most of the time however, it was just trite, effortless shit and barely worth paying attention to. One in every thousand prayers would be worth intervening for. I suspect much the same would happen here.

Oh, come on. A mime praying in a ritual circle of the clown's mask, the nuke disk, the captain's ID, and every staff pet is worth something.