ATA: Ask Them Anything

Archaeon

how much wood could a woodchuck chuck of a woodchuck could chuck wood?

Phaestus

Truax said:

At what stage in the Celani to God process do you settle into a decision about what Divine role you may take and how long do you typically spend building up that role (revised/added mythos, environs like a shiny new Temple or rooms therein, etc., items, your description, etc.) before you're actually revealed to the rest of Achaea? I've always wondered this - particularly as a few of the Gods released in my character's lifetime have had some incredibly awesome/elaborate and interesting symbology and philosophy! And I sit here in awe thinking, how the hell did they pull all that together so nicely?!

Godrole is something that's usually in the background throughout most of the Celani process, something you're considering (or decided on) already but not actively working towards. While you're in the process, you're mostly focused on working through your Celani requirements, learning how the garden works, writing standards, how to make rooms, items, mobs, how to run events, shadowing other divine, and a whole stack of other things over your time as a Celani/demigod (as well as learning more about the roles you're considering choosing, but not making any real direct changes or decisions yet).

Towards the end you'll make a final decision and start deep diving into the god's private lore and order, learning what you can, building up your return, as well as any changes that the godrole may need, or that may better suit the direction you're hoping to go or a more modern Achaea. Usually this process runs anywhere from a week to a month, depending on the player, the role, and what all the release involves. Sometimes it takes longer, up to several months. Release is one of the biggest moments for a god, and not one of us would move forward until we're perfectly happy with what we've got.

It's also a very collaborative process, where the whole garden helps brainstorm ideas for events, stories, and helps point out problem areas that the role has had in the past, helps you pick up on stories and bits of lore that you've missed or that are more obscure, and offers proofreading and advice along the way. All in all, it's actually a relatively small, but crucial, part of the celani/demigod experience.

Phaestus

Archaeon said:

how much wood could a woodchuck chuck of a woodchuck could chuck wood?

A woodchuck wouldn't chuck any wood at all because a woodchuck wouldn't know that a woodchuck could chuck wood.

Pandora

Torrent said:

My questions are what is the most stressful thing about being a god in Achaea? What has been one of your most stressful times? Also what in your opinion is the best way that the player base can help you out?

By far the most stressful thing to me is when players fixate on looking for OOC causes or solutions to their problems, instead of roleplay avenues. I have seen an endless amount of people claim that this god hates them, that god has favourites, that they're being metagamed because they lost, and so on. The reality is that most gods have no strong opinions on any players from an OOC perspective, and if they do, they will remove themselves from situations where it would become a problem. In character, Divine often do have favourites, but players tend to guess these completely wrong by blowing small compliments or constructive criticism out of proportion.

The same goes for interacting with other players. Conflict is often reduced to a purely OOC concept, with people assuming opposing players must be using OOC means to get ahead even when there is no evidence for it or, worse, when we know for a fact they are organising IC because we can see it.

The other side of this is that organising your in-character projects through Google documents or Discord means that you are leaving a lot of people out by default, and it makes it a lot less likely that gods/denizens/volunteers can interact with you in the process.

Adrik said:

For any god that wishes to participate..

What singular event in Achaean history would you want to change? How would you change it?

Somewhat keeping to my role, I would rather deal with bad things from the past than try to change them or dwell on them!

For some other questions,

If you hadn't chosen your current god, and all roles were open, who would you have picked?

By the time I was ready to pick, my other two candidates were Lorielan and Ourania.

Eoka said:

To address the opposite end of @Thaisen's question: What is the best part of your role as a Divine? Have any moments in particular stuck out to you as special, in a positive way?

I absolutely love when players are creative and eager with the way they interact with the world. I would rather have people that blow minor events out of proportion than the jaded sort that brushes everything off as 'it doesn't matter anyway'. Being ready and willing to roll with whatever comes your way, good or bad, goes a long way to making the world feel more interesting and less like just another game.

Sartan

I will revisit some of these questions tomorrow.

I also may have updated some of my answers because I can.

Saonji

Phaestus said:

Archaeon said:

how much wood could a woodchuck chuck of a woodchuck could chuck wood?

A woodchuck wouldn't chuck any wood at all because a woodchuck wouldn't know that a woodchuck could chuck wood.

Actually the correct answer is: "A woodchuck would chuck as much wood as a woodchuck could chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood."

Morthif

@Aegis

How much do you love me?

Eril

@Phaestus If you could change any part of the lore or ideology of your realm, what would it be and why?

Twilight

Reyson said:

What is the best approach to setting up rituals that can eventually be hardcoded into something universal that a faction can use? 

I know that we have to start small, and to innovate and get people to buy in, but at what point can we push for a hardcoded sequence? Or do you see ritual rooms that enable colour use and stuff as the mechanism for this kind of thing? 

There's not really a best approach to something like this because ritual should be a matter of imagination and freeform roleplay rather than a mechanical series of steps aimed at achieving a particular outcome.

We follow a few golden rules in the Garden when it comes to rituals:

1. A force of will, an idea, and a power source are all mandatory criteria for an attempted ritual.

2. Most rituals should fail unless conducted by an expert in directing the power source, and even that isn't a guarantee of success. The availability and reliability of that source is very important to the eventual outcome; this is why most 'coded' rituals in Achaea are related to the Gods in some way (for example Twilight or Sartan rituals that can be repeated are powered by a very reliable source, compared to something like Chaos which is wildly unpredictable and impossible to control, though that shouldn't stop people trying and possibly failing in explosive ways!).

3. They have to serve an actual purpose beyond being cool. Usually this means they need to advance a plotline in one way or another, or fill a niche that's missing from the organisation's roleplaying foundation. 

4. Ritual doesn't have to always be something that exists on the epic scale. It is perfectly okay to do something small and make it part of a routine through existing roleplaying mechanisms. Signs of the seven, unique methods of greeting, and that sort of thing are good examples of ritual-by-routine and are no less meaningful for that. If anything they enhance the atmosphere of a faction far more than one giant event every 10 years.

With all that in mind the best advice I can give would be to stretch all your existing tools to the max and look for ways to make ritual content that is driven by roleplay and not the other way around - fulfilling that is a better goal than aiming for something coded into the game, I think.

Phaestus

Eril said:

@Phaestus If you could change any part of the lore or ideology of your realm, what would it be and why?

For lore changes, refer to my first post in this thread.

ETA: For ideologies, most of the issues I would have originally had (brought about during the "Industry" era) were rectified by the previous Phaestus, so I'm pretty happy with where it's at, currently.

Accipiter

Do you guys find the 'you can only do stuff that is directly related to orgs you patron' as limiting as people on the forums seem to find it or do you have enough to do that storylines that would cross into inactive roles aren't needed?

What percentage of story related things are player created that you run with and how much do you get to make up from scratch?

Are there any roles you want filled that you think would be fun to work with?

Twilight

Saonji said:

Ooh, we can ask anything?!

1) Which divine is most likely to win a wet t-shirt contest?

2) If you could replace all of the grass in the world with something else, what would it be and why?

3) Why do round pizzas come in square boxes?

4) Dinosaurs or dragons?

5) Would you rather fight 100 goose-sized Bataoacs, or 1 Bataoac-sized goose?

1. Rigorous lectures from Nicola have resulted in only one answer: Phaestus. 

2. Sand.

3. Some mysteries should remain mysteries.

4. Dinosaurs.

5. Definitely 100 goose-sized Bataoacs. The idea of fighting a goose-sized goose is already a frightening one.

Sartan

Saonji said:

Ooh, we can ask anything?!

1) Which divine is most likely to win a wet t-shirt contest?

2) If you could replace all of the grass in the world with something else, what would it be and why?

3) Why do round pizzas come in square boxes?

4) Dinosaurs or dragons?

5) Would you rather fight 100 goose-sized Bataoacs, or 1 Bataoac-sized goose?

1. Refer to Twilight's post
2. Water or lava
3. Again, refer to Twilight
4. They are basically the same, minus the fire.
5. 1v1 versus the uber goose
   

Eril

Twilight said:

Saonji said:

Ooh, we can ask anything?!

1) Which divine is most likely to win a wet t-shirt contest?

2) If you could replace all of the grass in the world with something else, what would it be and why?

3) Why do round pizzas come in square boxes?

4) Dinosaurs or dragons?

5) Would you rather fight 100 goose-sized Bataoacs, or 1 Bataoac-sized goose?

5. Definitely 100 goose-sized Bataoacs. The idea of fighting a goose-sized goose is already a frightening one.

This is how Canadians will take over the world!  Riding mountain sized geese!!!

Eril

Question for all the Gods.

If you absolutely had to pick ONE city, which would be the hardest to Patron and RP for you personally.

Pandora

Ashai said:

• What was the most challenging part of getting through your Celani/Demi requirements?

The sheer number of items/rooms I had to write. It has become a lot easier now with all the practice, but it was definitely a mountain to climb back then.

• (Potentially unpopular plug incoming...) In Aetolia it's mechanically easy to get into a God's congregation and start getting some character build up around Divine RP and faith. Do you (as in all God roles) enjoy how difficult it presently is to participate in Order RP, or would you like to see it become easier to participate in at least pre-order things? (It never used to feel this hard, back in the day in Achaea and adds a huge bump to RP.)

It is really hard to answer this because how difficult it is to get into an Order is very much going to depend on the role. Generally, I do not believe it is difficult to at least get into pre-Orders, which is often enough to get your toes wet with faith-based roleplay. Getting past that is another matter that is going to be very dependent on the in-character role. Some Gods do still allow relatively painless entry into their Orders, but others might by design be extremely harsh, or fickle, or judging applicants on completely invisible criteria that are communicated to no one. I do not see this as a flaw, because Orders in Achaea are often the elite inner circle rather than just a congregation, as in some other games. Obviously, as a player, this can be extremely frustrating, but Order membership is not mandatory by any means.

It bears pointing out that Orders are one of the few places where volunteers can essentially do what they want and how they want it, versus the player-run organisations they Patron. While this can make it frustrating for players, the alternative is likely to have volunteers burn out at a much higher frequency when they cannot cater their inner circle to be just how they like it. This is not to say volunteers hate doing the other things, but it is nice to have your own little playground where you are beholden to no one!

Twilight

Eril said:

Question for all the Gods.

If you absolutely had to pick ONE city, which would be the hardest to Patron and RP for you personally.

From a purely thematic perspective, it would probably be Cyrene. I do think that Cyrene has an integral place in Achaea's world and narrative but as a more confrontational/conflict-oriented roleplayer, I think that itch would be much harder to scratch.

Thaisen

Eril said:

Question for all the Gods.

If you absolutely had to pick ONE city, which would be the hardest to Patron and RP for you personally.

I'll go ahead and take this one.... Eleusis.

Sorry Eleusis

Saonji

Morthif said:

@Aegis

How much do you love me?

More questions!

1) Is cereal a soup? Why, or why not?

2) Similarly, is a hotdog a sandwich? Why?

3) Best topping for pizza, and why is it pineapple?

4) If you could have one creature from Achaea as a pet irl, what would it be? No, you can't choose Ictinus.

5) Would you rather own a dragon IRL, or be one?

6) Best pokemon starter, and why is it Totodile?

Atalkez

@Sartan Why did you decide to induct me on the spot? Given the blowback from players at that time, do you still think it was the right decision?

@Twilight Obviously I am a conflict driven player as well - what has been your favorite conflict that you've participated in since taking the Twilight role?

@Pandora When are we going to do another Adventure? That was a lot of fun!

@Phaestus What was in the flask?

Sartan

Atalkez said:

@Sartan Why did you decide to induct me on the spot? Given the blowback from players at that time, do you still think it was the right decision?

There are sometimes when the story is more important than the possible blowback and/or perceptions. In your case, you managed to catch my attention and the roleplay lead the way from there. After the first interaction, I really did not think you had it in you to take the leap, so when you did it was a pleasant surprise that I personally wish others would follow with their RP.

Twilight

Atalkez said:

@Sartan Why did you decide to induct me on the spot? Given the blowback from players at that time, do you still think it was the right decision?

@Twilight Obviously I am a conflict driven player as well - what has been your favorite conflict that you've participated in since taking the Twilight role?

@Pandora When are we going to do another Adventure? That was a lot of fun!

@Phaestus What was in the flask?

It's difficult to answer this in full without giving away things that are still going on in Achaea and/or things that those involved in roleplaying with Twilight have done or are doing, but I always look back fondly at the Targossas affair. It happened early in my role and really set the bar for what I hoped to achieve as Twilight. It was a very formative experience that has shaped a lot of storytelling since and continues to do so.

Phaestus

Atalkez said:

@Phaestus What was in the flask?

I have as many flasks as Prospero has sovereigns. You'll have to be more specific.

The answer is probably alcohol, though.

Jurixe

On the subject of rituals, I have always stayed away from these because I just don't know what to do with them when I can't guarantee an outcome. If we wanted to create a ritual and leave the outcome to Someone to decide whether it succeeds or fails, is there any way we can give you guys up there some advance warning? Maybe by talking to a denizen? Or in situations where no one is around, is it okay for us to roleplay results ourselves, or should we always lean towards failure?

How do you deal with interactions and relationships that the person who played the godrole before you established? I've seen some gods do a blank slate, and others try to continue. Similarly, how often do you write notes on interactions - is it every single interaction with a mortal, or do you only write down the important things?

How do you guys handle the stress of dealing with player feedback, both IG and OOC? 

It's really nice to have an avenue to talk to you guys as admin to player and vice versa! I hope discussions like these can happen more often.

Mathonwy

Alright folks, I hope you brought your blue books 'cause it's essay time!

Without giving anything away about your mortal characters, was there a moment when you were first playing Achaea that got you hooked, and can you describe (again, as vaguely as need be) what that experience was like for you?

Similarly, without giving anything away and please be as vague as needed, was there a moment where you realized you wanted to step into a Godrole? How difficult was that decision? 

What has been the most unexpectedly rewarding part of your tenure in the Garden? What was one aspect you imagined you might do more often than you actually do?

What is your favorite moment of Garden collaboration you've experienced since taking on the role? 

Iaxus

Sartan said:

1v1 versus the uber goose

This is why I'll never play in another city again. Hail Sartan.

Mindshell

Is the smiting over shouts exasperation or are you guys having fun with it too?

Yen

Can you share some of your feedback from the Reckoning?  Things you found enjoyable?  Surprising?  Things you might have done differently?

Krizal

What made you pick the godrole you play?

Do you ever wish you could undo parts of your godrole's past? Anything in particular?

What's the most frustrating thing about players?

What would you do differently as a player after having played a god?

Do you miss PK?

Lyndee

For no one in particular: is mortal war extremely boring to watch from on high? What about combat in general? day-to-day roleplay?

Do you prefer roleplaying as your god character or animating denizens more? Why?

If you're a patron, what sorts of traits make mortal org leaders good to work with versus terrible? Do you think of mortal leaders (oocly) as volunteers, too, or no difference to the rest of the playerbase?