Difference between revisions of "Project GREEKIE"

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GREEKIE is the name of a project that seeks to build the design doc and then develop a game based in the greek mythology. It is being developed by a group of individuals from all around the world.
GREEKIE is the name of a project that seeked to build the design doc and then develop a game based in the Greek mythology.  


The first version of the design doc was made by [[Ethaniel]], [[Meldokios]] and [[Slash]]; then the [[GREEKIE: First Round|first bounce]] took place, where the doc was sent via email amogst the bouncers team, and each one made additions and corrections to it.  
The goal was to have the game be developed by a group of individuals from all around the world. Currently, however, the project is dead.


After the first round finished the scene was pretty calm, until the document was put together in a website by Slash, together with a new development dynamic and a discussion forum; however people didn't participate directly on this phase, with the exception of [[R Dan Henry]] suggestions and some minor comments.
The first version of the design doc was made by Ethaniel, Meldokios and [[Slash]]; then the [[GREEKIE: First Round|first bounce]] took place, where the doc was sent via email amongst the "bouncers" team, and each one made additions and corrections to it.  


Finally, Slash put it into a wiki and created a new forum for it, however there hasn't been a lot of activity over it lately.
After the first round finished not much else was done, until the document was put together in a website by Slash, together with a new development dynamic and a discussion forum; however people didn't participate directly on this phase, with the exception of [[R Dan Henry]] suggestions and some minor comments.


The project is currently open to development, with a wiki on which changes can be made to the official doc and a forum to discuss ideas. The website is at: http://peltkore.net/~szdev/greekie
Finally, Slash put it into a wiki and created a new forum for it at http://z12.invisionfree.com/greekie/, as of 2024 both are lost to time.
[[Category:Events]]
 
== Latest known contents of the Design Doc (v0.1.8) ==
<pre>
CONTENTS
========
 
INTRODUCTION
Game Goal
Document Guidelines
      Bounce Rules
Vote Overview
 
THE MANUAL
Being Attributes
      Hero Bonuses
      Culture
      Mentors
Gods
      Divine Interventions
      Politics of religion
      Wishes
      Divine Interventions by god
            First Generation
            Second Generation
      Divine Intervention Effects
Skills
The World
Monsters
Death
Artifacts
Combat
 
APPENDIX
Contributors
The Ring of Bouncers: First Round
Document History
 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
INTRODUCTION
~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
Game Goal [S]
==== ====
The goal of the game is to have a lot of fun, and become an hero to
enter the olympus. There is no great evil, no chaos, just the wish of a
commoner or almost commoner to have a place along the gods.
 
Document Guidelines [AS]
======== ==========
The version numbers must match the bounce, so Round 1 bounce #2 is ver 0.1.2
 
If you author a section put your initial (see APPENDIX) first (eg [E]),
if you contribute to a section add you initial to the list (eg [EA]).
Repeating your initial is fine, this allows the bouncer to see who has
changed his section recently (eg [EADSET]).
 
Don't use carriage returns, allow word wrap to handle new lines for you.
 
Add your new content to the CONTENTS, increment the version number and
date and add a line to the document history before passing on. Try to
follow previous formatting rules for readability.
 
Use http://www.spellcheck.net and http://dictionary.reference.com or
same to check your spelling and grammar.
 
Once this document reaches a certain size it will be moved to a wiki so
it remains manageable.
 
Bounce Rules [S]
------ -----
 
>From the newsgroup;
 
For this very first round, we will use the "send document by email"
rule, so please read the following carefully:
 
* Please try to check your email daily
 
* Upon receiving the mail with the subject: "GREEKIE BOUNCE # (x), ROUND
1", where x is the sequential number of the bounce that must increase
with every email pass, you have 2 days to read the doc, modify its
contents and add new things.
 
* When two days have elapsed *since you got the document*, you must
bounce it to the next developer in the ring, refering to this post if
you have doubts about the bounce order. This is done to prevent time
zone conflicts.
 
* The transfer format you use is up to you; plain txt file or html
single page are adviced.
 
* In order to control the "game" and prevent conflicts, you must add the
address "java.koder at gmail.com" in the CC field every time you pass
the doc to the next bouncer.
 
* And remember, have fun writing the doc!
 
Vote Overview
==== ========
 
A vote was carried out to determine the general flavour of the RL and
give some basic direction, permadeath being the only non-negotiable vote
result;
 
THE "GAME" DETAILS
 
DESIGN DOC BUILDING
 
[ ] Wiki    ... (27%)
[ ] Passing around a document via email    ... (27%)
[ ] Updating a common website    .. (18%)
[ ] Newsgroup    ... (27%)
 
CODE/INFO SHARING
[ ] CVS    ... (25%)
[ ] Wiki    ..... (42%)
[ ] Passing around a document via email    .. (17%)
[ ] Updating a common website    . (8%)
[ ] Newsgroup    . (8%)
 
PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION
 
LANGUAGE
[ ] C++    . (14%)
[ ] Java    .... (57%)
[ ] C    . (14%)
[ ] FreePascal    . (14%)
[ ] Other
 
USE SOURCE
[ ] Start from scratch (+ tools/libraries)    ..... (71%)
[ ] Angband    . (14%)
[ ] Nethack
[ ] H-World
[ ] ToMEEngine    . (14%)
[ ] Crawl
[ ] DungeonMonkey
[ ] Other
 
LICENSE
[ ] Copyrighted
[ ] Open Source    ..... (71%)
[ ] GNU    .. (29%)
[ ] Other
 
SUPPORTED OS's
[ ] Linux
[ ] Windows    . 12%
[ ] Both Linux and Windows    .... (50%)
[ ] Other    ... 38%
 
UI ISSUES
 
DISPLAY
[ ] ASCII    ..... 63%
[ ] Tile    . 13%
[ ] Both ASCII and Tile    . 13%
[ ] Graphical (ie like H-World or Baldurs Gate)    . 13%
 
CRITICAL DESIGN ISSUES
 
GAME TYPE
[ ] Pure RL    . 13%
[ ] Standard RL .....  63%
[ ] RL/RPG hybrid    .. 26%
[ ] RPG
[ ] Other
 
PLOT
[ ] Overarching theme    .. 22%
[ ] Fixed    . 11%
[ ] Fixed but multiple paths . 11%
[ ] Random selection of fixed each game    ... 33%
[ ] ToME style 20 random quests
[ ] Plots with patchwork elements selected randomly
[ ] Random Story Engine (the dream!)    . 11%
[ ] No major plot    . 11%
 
TURNS
[ ] Turn based    ..... 63%
[ ] Turn based with segments (ie 10 steps to a turn) .. 25%
[ ] Real Time
[ ] Baldurs Gate "stoppable" Real Time
[ ] Other    . 13%
 
RANDOMISATION
[ ] Random dungeons    ..... 29%
[ ] Fixed dungeons
[ ] Occassional fixed dungeon locations (ala Nethack)    ... 18%
[ ] Fixed overall Greek Map    ..... 29%
[ ] Some randomisation of fixed map .. 12%
[ ] Random overall map    . 6%
[ ] etc    . 6%
 
PERMADEATH
[ ] Permadeath    ...... 86%
[ ] A Permadeath mode or "half/half"    . 14%
[ ] No Permadeath
 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE MANUAL
~~~~~~~~~~
 
Being Attributes [SEST]
================
As we are looking for a simple and fun experience, let's try to have as
less atributtes as possible, and not to mirror DnD classical stats. I
think with these attributes will be enough to make our actions and they
would allow enough character differentiation.
 
Might: Resumes the proficience in combat, both Strength, Defense and
Agility.
Speed: Movement Speed
Attunment: Connection with the gods, one attribute for each deity
Personality: Interaction modifier.
Knowledge : Lore about, monsters, history, places, people
 
The character creation method consist on choosing 2 heroic ancestors,
which define your initial stats; the following is the list of ancestors:
 
Hero                  Bonuses
----                  -------
Hercules              Might * 3
Thesseus              Speed * 2, Attunment
Achilles              Might * 2, Attunment
Velerophontes        Might * 2, Speed // Who was that one? I looked up
in google and found nothing.
Jason                Might, Speed, Knownledge
Odysseus              Attunment, Personality, Knownledge
Perseus              Might, Knownledge * 2
Alexander the Great  Might, Personality * 2
Homer                Personality, Knowledge * 2
Leonidas              Might * 2, Personality
Hector                Might * 2, Knowledge
 
After playing some good enough characters (see Death), the player may
choose different ancestors, which as a maximum may have 5 points
distributen.
 
Culture [STM]
-------
 
The player may choose between the following cultures, which bring
modifications to the initial stats, these are:
 
Minoan
Trojan
Amazon      : female only, excellent fighters and rangers
Phoenician  : social
Assyrian
Hittite
Nubians
Etruscan
Thracian
Spartians  : excellent Fighters
Macedonians
Athenians  : literate
Teutons    : poor ranged weapons, bonus on crafting
 
The culture influences the initial Attunment with the different gods,
thus giving each culture different advantages.
 
Education [E]
---------
 
I have a delema for this one... This is used to further determine the
skills and education of our PC. But if you agree, should we use
"mentors" (like Plato or Chiron) or "schools" (like Spartan millitary school etc.)?
Anyway, this is what i'm thinking of...
 
Mentors [E]
-------
 
  Kheiron (Chiron): Centaur mentor of many heroes like Achilles, Jason, Peleus...
  Plato : Philosophy and science
  Orpheus : music and poetry
  Aristotel : (Alexander's mentor)
  Pericleus : millirary and politics
  Hippocrates : Healing
  Asclepeus : Potions and herbs
 
Schools [E]
-------
 
  Drama or Music : something like a bard school
  Spartan : Battle school
  Academy of Plato : philosophy, mathematics ( adds to knowledge att.)
  Private tutors : just adds to money cause the pc is rich to have private tutors
  No Eduacation : -knowledge, +might (cause pc worked instead)
  Priest school(?) : adds to attunment
 
 
Gods [SSF]
====
 
Divine Interventions [SS]
------ -------------
The player may ask for different interventions to the gods, which may be
granted depending on his attunment. The MP is represented by the favor
index to the god to which the favor is being asked, and is reduced
everytime the power is summoned. The more the attunment the higher
likeliness of a sucessful effect and the higher the regeneration rate of
favor.
 
There is absolutely no "magic", as in the act of the player creating a
divine effect by himself; he must always ask the gods for it. This also
means that the traditional roguelike items such as magic wands, rods,
spellbooks, scrolls, etc. must not exist. Off course, there are special
artifacts created by monsters, heroes or gods.
 
In order to call for a divine intervention, the player is prompted for a
god and a wish; then depending on the attunment of the player, both
general and within the god, a divine intervention.
 
For this to be possible, the gods will be Actors inside the game, that
will be constantly listening for the wishes of the people in the world
and deciding what effect to produce over which targets.
 
Politics of religion [F]
--------------------
 
The relative power and alliances of gods constantly oscillate, as they
live their eternal soap-opera. One day Zeus is alligned with Hera
against Poseidon, the other day she might find out about his affair with
Venus and switch sides. Those conflicts reflect on the real world - as
we have seen in the history of Troy (the whole epic war started as a
small quarrel between three goddesses).
 
As a real hero, our player takes an active part in the events. All gods
have a single attribute: power. The player can affect this attribute by
completing certain quests. He/she may for example kill an ancient beast
who took over Zeus's temple (Zeus gets power +1), give an antient
artefact (Almathera's horn?) to Poseidon (Poseidon gets power +2), help
build a dame on a river (Poseidon gets -2 power), and so on.
 
The important thing is: every players's action has more than one
consequence. When he slays the antient chtonic beast that conquered
Zeus's temple, he makes Zeus stronger (+1) and his attunment with Zeus
increases (+2), but it also makes Hades angry (it was his beast after
all! attunment -2!) and not at all less powerful. The trick is to be
attuned with the stronger gods, not with the losers. Or perhaps to help
gods you are attuned with in becoming really powerful?
 
>From time to time some random occurances change gods' power and
player's attunement. Like:
- Zeus marries Hera - player's attunment to each of the gods becomes
the average of his former attunments.
- Zeus divorces Hera - the players attunment to Zeus or Hera (depending
on whom he helped last) becomes +3 and to the other -4.
- A great flood raises Poseidon's power by 2
- other...
 
These dynamic changes of power and attunments should make player more
involved in the epic world he lives in. And also adds a bit of politics
to his quest of entering Olympus - making the game quite realistic.
 
Wishes [SM]
------
Protection: Pray the good for protection when in danger, may bring a
counter attack
Relievement: Bring peace to the wounded body or spirit
Bring Wrath: Directly Attack the enemies.
Spoil Town: Fills up suppliements of a town
 
Divine Interventions per god [SJ]
------ ------------- --- ---
 
Zeus (Life,Leadership): God of the sky and weather.
Protection
  1 Electrify
  2 Electric Wind
  3 Spark Shock
Relievement
  1 Wounds Cure
  2 Wounds Cure
  3 Restoration
Wraith
  1 Shock
  2 Lighting
  3 Lighting Storm
 
Hera (Family,Loyalty): Associated with peacocks and pomegranates.
Protection
  1 Fake Knack
  2 Charm
  3 Hearth Softener
Relievement
  1 Journey Duty
  2 Strength of Revenge
  3 Strength of Revenge
Wraith
  1 Attraction
  2 Disgrace
  3 Air of untrust
 
Poseidon (Sea,Ocean): Associated with earthquakes and horses.
Protection
  1 Sea wave
  2 Lighting Horse
  3 Ocean wave
Relievement
  1 Second Air
  2 Combat Maestry
  3 Bow of Honor
Wraith
  1 Wild Malboro
  2 Storm
  3 Fission
 
Hestia (Hearth,Virginity): Assosiated with union and justice
Protection
  1 Holy Air
Relievement
  1 Make Wish
Wraith
  1 Fair Fight
 
Hades (Death,Treasure)
Protection
  1 Unholy air
  2 Crow's Call
  3 Dragon Call
Relievement
  1 Silver Coin
  2 Gold Pot
  3 Silver Goblet
Wraith
  1 Fear
  2 Storm
  3 Caronte's Bell
 
Divine Intervention Effects [SJ]
------ ------------ -------
Air of untrust:
Brings untrust into a group of beings, making them fight between themselves.
 
Attraction:
Makes a Being feel attracted to other one, just to find his sharp weapon
as a welcome.
 
Bow of Honor:
Creates an ethereal trident that may be used by the invoker for a short
time, increasing his combat skill.
 
Caronte's Bell:
Calls for the massive death of people, the sucess is very limited.
 
Charm:
Makes a being forget he is in a fight and feel like defending the enemy.
 
Combat Maestry:
Raises the agility of a battler, allowing him to perfect his combat skill.
 
Crow's Call:
Calls a band of crows to attack the enemies of the invoker
 
Disgrace:
Turns two beings into discussion, which may become a fight to death.
 
Dragon Call:
Calls a fire dragon from the hades to scare all the enemies of the invoker.
 
Electrify:
Envolves a being with electric energy so that it harms the ones that
touch him.
 
Electric Wind:
Creates a wind current that expands from a being and throws the beings
around him away
 
Fake Knack:
Fools someone into thinking that he befriends an enemy
 
Fair Figth:
rom a group of enemies the stronger will challenge you, the rest will
agree will result
 
Fear:
Causes fear in a group of enemies making them run away
 
Fission:
Creates a ground movement that destroys all kind of objects in certain
range, rocks from the mountains and stones from the cities become deadly
as they fall.
 
Gold Pot:
Creates a pot full of gold
 
Hearth Softener:
Makes a being completely think that he stands for nothing and he must
aid his enemies.
 
Holy air:
Makes being not harm another one.
 
Journey Duty:
Recover all lost strength of a being as there is still a duty to be done.
 
Lighting Horse:
Summons a silver horse into a location, which helps the invoker to run away.
 
Lighting:
Summons a lighting ray to an aproximate location, causing huge damage
uppon the object in which it lands.
 
Lighting Storm:
Summons several lighting rays to a location, destroying everything that
is nearby.
 
Make Wish:
You may ask anything from gods...
 
Ocean wave:
Creates a huge wave of water that displaces eveything around it to a
long distance.
 
Restoration:
Completely restores the status of a being
 
Sea wave:
Creates a small wave of water that pushes objects away from a location
 
Second Air:
Gives a being a second air at the fight, thus recovering his combat
capabilities.
 
Shock:
Electrifies a being causing him damage and reducing his speed
 
Silver Coin:
Creates a silver coin
 
Silver Goblet:
Creates a cup of a liquid that when drink may increase your luck in the
hades.
 
Spark Shock:
Summons a thunder ball around a location that throws everything away at
long distance.
 
Storm:
Brings loads of water uppon a field, and gigantic waves in the sea,
drowning and reducing the combat capabilities of the enemies.
 
Strength of Revenge:
Makes all the hidden strength of a being emerge to seek revenge.
 
Unholy air:
Makes beings refrain from aproaching another one.
 
Wild Malboro:
Calls a wild horse that may scare and attack the enemies
 
Wounds Cure:
Cures the health of a being.
 
Second Generation [S]
------ ----------
 
Aphrodite (Love,Beauty)
Athena (Wisdom,Science)
Ares (War,Anger)
Hephaestus (Fire,Smith)
Apollo (Prophecy,Art)
Artemis (Hunt,Survival)
Hermes (Hagging,Negotiation)
 
Skills [SM]
======
Combat:
Weaving:
Music:
Item Crafting:
Politics: High points here can bring or end war
 
The World [S]
=== =====
The world is composed by a fixed overworld (Greece) connected with the
main cities which are randomly generated and located, representing the
uncertainly of the location of towns in this ancient age. There are also
some dungeons sprinkled into the mountains of Greece.
 
The world will also have special features like the Mt. Olympus, which
has limited access until the character attunment with Zeus is high
enough; the minotaur maze and some other spice locations based in the
Greek Myths which have yet to be defined and specified one by one.
 
The world is ambiented in the Bronze/Iron age in Greece, with the main
weapons being the Spear and the Shield. There are also bows of limited
range and effectiveness, and the cities and towns must be built having
in mind a very primitive distribution of small houses and some important
buildings.
 
The dungeons will be caves with stairs up and down. The player must
visit them and get to their bottoms to increase his Might and Attunment.
 
Death [SA]
=====
This RL, as agreed by democratic vote, is to be fully permadeath
compliant - this is a condition on which certain members ([AK]) agreed
to join the project at all and as such is non-negotiable.
 
Upon Death, the character is taken to the Hades, where his fate depends
on what he did in his life. There's no turning back to "real" world, but
he can interact with the dead in this dark zone.
 
When a character dies his main traits are recorded to allow the player
to define a future character as the descendant of him, however for this
to happen the player must have found a partner for his character in the
run of the game, and this will not very easy to prevent possible exploits.
 
This genealogy thing will increase the satisfaction perceived by the
player, in that he will feel like he is playing with a "family" if he is
good at the game.
 
The descendant inherits aproximately the attribute distribution of his
ancestos, in a scale depending on how good was the character and how
deep he was in the genealogy tree. He may also possibly get one or two
special items; this will reward the good players that advance their
characters enough to meet a partner.
 
When the player wins the game, he becomes an hero and thus can't be
killed; however if he is badly hurt in his post-game adventures he will
be taken to the Olympus, with most of his skills diminished and no
equipment.
 
Monsters (enemies) [E]
======== =========
 
This is mostly to give names and short descriptions for monsters and in
later bounces, their stats and attributes.
 
Automotons : animated statues created by the smith-god Hephaestus
  *Bronge Bulls : Bronge, breathing fire
  *Kafkasian Eagle : Bronge
  *Talos : Giant Robot of bronge. (Used to protect Crete against pirates)
Phoenix : big bird with regenerating health
Minotaur : the Labyrinth's end monster.
Cyclopes : One Eyed beasts living in huge caves
Cerberus : Hades guard 3-headed dog
 
 
Artifacts [S]
=========
 
Their effects will be determined when the item system is complete
 
Adamantine sickle (Gaia -> Cronos)
The Altar (Cyclopes -> Olympians)
 
Nectar (RARE) - increase all stats by 1, 30% chance of -2 to all stats
instead (rejection doesn't count as having taken Nectar).
 
Ambrosia (EXTREME RARE) - makes character immortal (ie doesn't age) but
not invulrable. Must of had Nectar immediately prior or drop dead. Good
chance (75%) of killing character.
 
Apple of Eris (Hesperides -> Eris)
Bed of Helius (Hephaestus -> Helius)
Belt of Aphrodite (Hera -> Aphrodite)
Belt of Hippolyte (Ares -> Hippolyte)
Bow of Odysseus (Apollo -> Eurytus -> Oddyseus)
Brazen Castanets (Hephaestus -> Athena -> Heracles)
Brazen Shield (Hermes -> Perseus)
Bull's Hide (Hermes -> Hyrieus)
Chair of Forgetfulness (in underworld)
Golden Goblet (Helius -> Heracles)
Helmet of Hades (Cyclopes -> Hades)
Horn of Amalthea (Zeus -> Amalthea)
Ichor (the blood of Gods)
Lyre of Orpheus (Apollo -> Orpheus)
Palladium (in Troy)
Robe & Necklace of Harmonia
Shield of Achilles (Hephaestus -> Achilles)
Staff of Tiresias (Athene -> Tiresias)
Thunderbolt of Zeus (Cyclopes -> Zeus)
Trident of Poseidon (Cyclopes -> Poseidon)
Winged Sandals (possesion of Hermes)
Zeus' Umbilical Cord
Hephaestus' Great Hammer
 
Combat [A]
======
Combat is how GREEKIE will distinguish itself from the everyday RL. The
main differences that will be noticed is the long sight range, the
inability to use missile weapons at melee distance, and the movement of
three squares for every round of average combat.
 
Most RL's only play on a small part of the screen, whilst the rest of
the screen is not currently visible to the PC but remains as a
remembered map until revisited. As GREEKIE will feature lots of outdoor
battles as well as dungeon fighting, the long sight ranges will make for
a novel form of combat that fills the majority of the screen (normal RL
is 80x25 although 80x80 would be nicer).
 
Here are the base stats for the average PC at normal speed;
SIGHT RANGE: 20
MELEE COMBAT: 3 turns
MISSILE COMBAT: 2 turns
MOVEMENT 1 SQUARE: 1 turn
SWORD WEAPON RANGE: 1 square
SPEAR/PIKE RANGE: 2-2 squares (not usable a 1 square range, no weapon
switch penalty to sword) [*]
MIN MISSILE RANGE: 3 squares (-25% to hit, +25% to damage)
SHORT MISSILE RANGE: 4-6 squares (+10% damage)
MEDIUM MISSILE RANGE: 7-9
LONG MISSILE RANGE: 10-12 (-10% damage)
MAX MISSILE RANGE: 13-15 (-25% to hit, -25% damage)
OVERLONG MISSILE RANGE: 16 (-50%,-50%) 17 (-75%,-75%) 18 (-90%,-90%)
MISSILE PENALTY IF ENGAGED IN MELEE: (-25%) cumulative with following
penalties [**]
MISSILE PENALTY IF STRUCK IN PREV TURN: (-25%) cumulative with following
penalties [***]
MISSILE PENALTY PER ADJACENT MONSTER: (-10%) 1 square range
MISSILE PENALTY PER SPEAR RANGE MONSTER: (-5%) 2 square range
 
The standard missile weapon above is a bow, a javelin has a range of
3-10 squares (with similar penalties) but can be used as a spear/pike
weapon as well.
 
[*] A successful spear attack means the enemy (or the PC) cannot advance
within MELEE range in their next move. The spear can be used to keep
enemies at bay in this way, particularly ones that only carry swords.
 
[**] Engaged in melee means the PC has previously had a monster try to
attack him (miss/hit not relevant) and that monster is still within
melee range of the PC.
 
[***] Were there to be any spell casting (such as playing musical
instruments - often used in Greek Myth to subdue monsters) they would
suffer similar penalties as per missile combat.
 
KNOCK BACK EFFECT: A common tactic in GREEKIE RL will be to knock back
an opponent (such as a shield bash) to put them at spear range or
missile range or to create distance, whether the monster is stunned for
the round and how far back the monster goes depends on the PC's
abilities and the monsters defence.
 
FEEL FOR ENEMY: For every strike delivered to a particular foe (or
delivered to the PC by a particular foe) there is a +1 to hit cumulative
bonus against only that particular foe. If the PC hits a monster once it
is easier to hit them again. When combined with tactics this can be
deadly (eg Insane Accurate).
 
TACTICS: The PC can pick from 7 postures and 3 tactics. The longer the
PC plays in a particular posture and tactic the more skills they develop
for them, but this is a from a set pool that develops only +1 per level
and so is sucked from other postures and tactic levels:
      Postures
              Parry [+++def, no attack allowed]
              Coward [++def, --tohit, -todam]
              Defensive [+def, -tohit]
              Normal
              Aggressive [-def, +tohit]
              Berserk [--def, ++tohit, +todam]
              Insane [+++tohit, ++todam, no defence at all]
      Tactics
              Accurate [+tohit, -todam]
              Standard
              Bludgen [-tohit, +todam]
 
Missile weapons can be fired over and through enemies, of course with
the chance that they will hit those inbetween, including your own party
members or NPC's. This chance is increased with the difficulty of the
shot and number of bodies inbetween the PC and its enemy. Missile
monsters can also accidently strike their comrades, and spear attackers
suffer from a high chance (50% base chance) of attacking (but not
necessarily hitting) team mates accidently if trying to go straight
through them to the enemy.
 
As you can see missile weapons will have their uses at range, but will
not be a wise choice if overwhelmed and cannot be used at all for melee.
Meanwhile with the long sight range one can calculate tactics as they
engage in melee and monsters advance 3 squares per melee and close the
20 square gap. Within the dungeon, suddenly the tactic of hiding just
around a corner becomes immensely more valuable for say a monster versus
an archer type.
 
During play testing the above figures would be adjusted for game
balance, and to allow various styles of play to be equally attractive,
and the use of different tactics for different scenarios very advantageous.
 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
APPENDIX
~~~~~~~~
 
Contributors
============
 
R. Dan Henry
 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
The Ring of Bouncers: First Round
=================================
 
NB: Move your name to the bottom of the list once down...
 
* John Zaxaridis                [J]
* Kornel Kisielewicz            [K]
 
-- START 28/1/2005 round 1
* Slash                        [S]
* Ethaniel                      [E]
* ABCGi                        [A]
* Slash                        [S]
* John Zaxaridis                [J]
* Meldokios Dragon              [D]
* Filip Dreger                  [F]
* Tomasz "Warui" Nowakowski    [T]
* Markus Stehr                  [M]
 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Document History [A]
================
 
GREEKIE 2005
 
VER    DATE    AUTHOR  NOTES
0.0.9  26/1    [S]    Initial version bounced to [E]
0.1.0  28/1    [E]    Added one ancestor and one unique item
0.1.1  30/1    [A]    Fixed contents, doc history and author naming &
other doc conventions - added combat
0.1.2  03/2    [S]    Added divine Interventions and Wishes, fixed
some author naming
0.1.5  07/2    [F]    Added a small section on gods' power and
politics</div>
0.1.6  13/2    [T]    Some changes in ancestors, culture section
0.1.7  14/2    [M]    Added: culture -> teutons, wishes -> spoil city,
skills -> politics
0.1.8  16-02  [E]    Added: Education System (mentors & schools), Monster
names and types
</pre>
 
[[Category:Alpha projects]]

Latest revision as of 15:38, 6 June 2024

GREEKIE is the name of a project that seeked to build the design doc and then develop a game based in the Greek mythology.

The goal was to have the game be developed by a group of individuals from all around the world. Currently, however, the project is dead.

The first version of the design doc was made by Ethaniel, Meldokios and Slash; then the first bounce took place, where the doc was sent via email amongst the "bouncers" team, and each one made additions and corrections to it.

After the first round finished not much else was done, until the document was put together in a website by Slash, together with a new development dynamic and a discussion forum; however people didn't participate directly on this phase, with the exception of R Dan Henry suggestions and some minor comments.

Finally, Slash put it into a wiki and created a new forum for it at http://z12.invisionfree.com/greekie/, as of 2024 both are lost to time.

Latest known contents of the Design Doc (v0.1.8)

CONTENTS
========

INTRODUCTION
Game Goal
Document Guidelines
      Bounce Rules
Vote Overview

THE MANUAL
Being Attributes
      Hero Bonuses
      Culture
      Mentors
Gods
      Divine Interventions
      Politics of religion
      Wishes
      Divine Interventions by god
             First Generation
             Second Generation
      Divine Intervention Effects
Skills
The World
Monsters
Death
Artifacts
Combat

APPENDIX
Contributors
The Ring of Bouncers: First Round
Document History

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
INTRODUCTION
~~~~~~~~~~~~

Game Goal [S]
==== ====
The goal of the game is to have a lot of fun, and become an hero to
enter the olympus. There is no great evil, no chaos, just the wish of a
commoner or almost commoner to have a place along the gods.

Document Guidelines [AS]
======== ==========
The version numbers must match the bounce, so Round 1 bounce #2 is ver 0.1.2

If you author a section put your initial (see APPENDIX) first (eg [E]),
if you contribute to a section add you initial to the list (eg [EA]).
Repeating your initial is fine, this allows the bouncer to see who has
changed his section recently (eg [EADSET]).

Don't use carriage returns, allow word wrap to handle new lines for you.

Add your new content to the CONTENTS, increment the version number and
date and add a line to the document history before passing on. Try to
follow previous formatting rules for readability.

Use http://www.spellcheck.net and http://dictionary.reference.com or
same to check your spelling and grammar.

Once this document reaches a certain size it will be moved to a wiki so
it remains manageable.

Bounce Rules [S]
------ -----

>From the newsgroup;

For this very first round, we will use the "send document by email"
rule, so please read the following carefully:

* Please try to check your email daily

* Upon receiving the mail with the subject: "GREEKIE BOUNCE # (x), ROUND
1", where x is the sequential number of the bounce that must increase
with every email pass, you have 2 days to read the doc, modify its
contents and add new things.

* When two days have elapsed *since you got the document*, you must
bounce it to the next developer in the ring, refering to this post if
you have doubts about the bounce order. This is done to prevent time
zone conflicts.

* The transfer format you use is up to you; plain txt file or html
single page are adviced.

* In order to control the "game" and prevent conflicts, you must add the
address "java.koder at gmail.com" in the CC field every time you pass
the doc to the next bouncer.

* And remember, have fun writing the doc!

Vote Overview
==== ========

A vote was carried out to determine the general flavour of the RL and
give some basic direction, permadeath being the only non-negotiable vote
result;

THE "GAME" DETAILS

DESIGN DOC BUILDING

[ ] Wiki     ... (27%)
[ ] Passing around a document via email    ... (27%)
[ ] Updating a common website    .. (18%)
[ ] Newsgroup    ... (27%)

CODE/INFO SHARING
[ ] CVS    ... (25%)
[ ] Wiki     ..... (42%)
[ ] Passing around a document via email    .. (17%)
[ ] Updating a common website    . (8%)
[ ] Newsgroup    . (8%)

PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION

LANGUAGE
[ ] C++    . (14%)
[ ] Java    .... (57%)
[ ] C    . (14%)
[ ] FreePascal    . (14%)
[ ] Other

USE SOURCE
[ ] Start from scratch (+ tools/libraries)    ..... (71%)
[ ] Angband    . (14%)
[ ] Nethack
[ ] H-World
[ ] ToMEEngine    . (14%)
[ ] Crawl
[ ] DungeonMonkey
[ ] Other

LICENSE
[ ] Copyrighted
[ ] Open Source    ..... (71%)
[ ] GNU    .. (29%)
[ ] Other

SUPPORTED OS's
[ ] Linux
[ ] Windows    . 12%
[ ] Both Linux and Windows    .... (50%)
[ ] Other    ... 38%

UI ISSUES

DISPLAY
[ ] ASCII    ..... 63%
[ ] Tile    . 13%
[ ] Both ASCII and Tile    . 13%
[ ] Graphical (ie like H-World or Baldurs Gate)    . 13%

CRITICAL DESIGN ISSUES

GAME TYPE
[ ] Pure RL    . 13%
[ ] Standard RL .....  63%
[ ] RL/RPG hybrid    .. 26%
[ ] RPG
[ ] Other

PLOT
[ ] Overarching theme    .. 22%
[ ] Fixed    . 11%
[ ] Fixed but multiple paths . 11%
[ ] Random selection of fixed each game    ... 33%
[ ] ToME style 20 random quests
[ ] Plots with patchwork elements selected randomly
[ ] Random Story Engine (the dream!)    . 11%
[ ] No major plot    . 11%

TURNS
[ ] Turn based    ..... 63%
[ ] Turn based with segments (ie 10 steps to a turn) .. 25%
[ ] Real Time
[ ] Baldurs Gate "stoppable" Real Time
[ ] Other    . 13%

RANDOMISATION
[ ] Random dungeons    ..... 29%
[ ] Fixed dungeons
[ ] Occassional fixed dungeon locations (ala Nethack)    ... 18%
[ ] Fixed overall Greek Map     ..... 29%
[ ] Some randomisation of fixed map .. 12%
[ ] Random overall map    . 6%
[ ] etc    . 6%

PERMADEATH
[ ] Permadeath    ...... 86%
[ ] A Permadeath mode or "half/half"    . 14%
[ ] No Permadeath

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE MANUAL
~~~~~~~~~~

Being Attributes [SEST]
================
As we are looking for a simple and fun experience, let's try to have as
less atributtes as possible, and not to mirror DnD classical stats. I
think with these attributes will be enough to make our actions and they
would allow enough character differentiation.

Might: Resumes the proficience in combat, both Strength, Defense and
Agility.
Speed: Movement Speed
Attunment: Connection with the gods, one attribute for each deity
Personality: Interaction modifier.
Knowledge : Lore about, monsters, history, places, people 

The character creation method consist on choosing 2 heroic ancestors,
which define your initial stats; the following is the list of ancestors:

Hero                  Bonuses
----                  -------
Hercules              Might * 3
Thesseus              Speed * 2, Attunment
Achilles              Might * 2, Attunment
Velerophontes         Might * 2, Speed // Who was that one? I looked up
in google and found nothing.
Jason                 Might, Speed, Knownledge
Odysseus              Attunment, Personality, Knownledge
Perseus               Might, Knownledge * 2
Alexander the Great   Might, Personality * 2
Homer                 Personality, Knowledge * 2
Leonidas              Might * 2, Personality
Hector                Might * 2, Knowledge

After playing some good enough characters (see Death), the player may
choose different ancestors, which as a maximum may have 5 points
distributen.

Culture [STM]
-------

The player may choose between the following cultures, which bring
modifications to the initial stats, these are:

Minoan
Trojan
Amazon      : female only, excellent fighters and rangers
Phoenician  : social
Assyrian
Hittite
Nubians
Etruscan
Thracian
Spartians   : excellent Fighters
Macedonians
Athenians   : literate
Teutons     : poor ranged weapons, bonus on crafting

The culture influences the initial Attunment with the different gods,
thus giving each culture different advantages.

Education [E]
---------

I have a delema for this one... This is used to further determine the 
skills and education of our PC. But if you agree, should we use 
"mentors" (like Plato or Chiron) or "schools" (like Spartan millitary school etc.)?
Anyway, this is what i'm thinking of...

 Mentors [E]
 -------

  Kheiron (Chiron): Centaur mentor of many heroes like Achilles, Jason, Peleus...
  Plato : Philosophy and science
  Orpheus : music and poetry
  Aristotel : (Alexander's mentor)
  Pericleus : millirary and politics
  Hippocrates : Healing
  Asclepeus : Potions and herbs

 Schools [E]
 -------

  Drama or Music : something like a bard school
  Spartan : Battle school
  Academy of Plato : philosophy, mathematics ( adds to knowledge att.)
  Private tutors : just adds to money cause the pc is rich to have private tutors
  No Eduacation : -knowledge, +might (cause pc worked instead)
  Priest school(?) : adds to attunment


Gods [SSF]
====

Divine Interventions [SS]
------ -------------
The player may ask for different interventions to the gods, which may be
granted depending on his attunment. The MP is represented by the favor
index to the god to which the favor is being asked, and is reduced
everytime the power is summoned. The more the attunment the higher
likeliness of a sucessful effect and the higher the regeneration rate of
favor.

There is absolutely no "magic", as in the act of the player creating a
divine effect by himself; he must always ask the gods for it. This also
means that the traditional roguelike items such as magic wands, rods,
spellbooks, scrolls, etc. must not exist. Off course, there are special
artifacts created by monsters, heroes or gods.

In order to call for a divine intervention, the player is prompted for a
god and a wish; then depending on the attunment of the player, both
general and within the god, a divine intervention.

For this to be possible, the gods will be Actors inside the game, that
will be constantly listening for the wishes of the people in the world
and deciding what effect to produce over which targets.

Politics of religion [F]
--------------------

The relative power and alliances of gods constantly oscillate, as they
live their eternal soap-opera. One day Zeus is alligned with Hera
against Poseidon, the other day she might find out about his affair with
Venus and switch sides. Those conflicts reflect on the real world - as
we have seen in the history of Troy (the whole epic war started as a
small quarrel between three goddesses).

As a real hero, our player takes an active part in the events. All gods
have a single attribute: power. The player can affect this attribute by
completing certain quests. He/she may for example kill an ancient beast
who took over Zeus's temple (Zeus gets power +1), give an antient
artefact (Almathera's horn?) to Poseidon (Poseidon gets power +2), help
build a dame on a river (Poseidon gets -2 power), and so on.

The important thing is: every players's action has more than one
consequence. When he slays the antient chtonic beast that conquered
Zeus's temple, he makes Zeus stronger (+1) and his attunment with Zeus
increases (+2), but it also makes Hades angry (it was his beast after
all! attunment -2!) and not at all less powerful. The trick is to be
attuned with the stronger gods, not with the losers. Or perhaps to help
gods you are attuned with in becoming really powerful?

>From time to time some random occurances change gods' power and
player's attunement. Like:
- Zeus marries Hera - player's attunment to each of the gods becomes
the average of his former attunments.
- Zeus divorces Hera - the players attunment to Zeus or Hera (depending
on whom he helped last) becomes +3 and to the other -4.
- A great flood raises Poseidon's power by 2
- other...

These dynamic changes of power and attunments should make player more
involved in the epic world he lives in. And also adds a bit of politics
to his quest of entering Olympus - making the game quite realistic.

Wishes [SM]
------
Protection: Pray the good for protection when in danger, may bring a
counter attack
Relievement: Bring peace to the wounded body or spirit
Bring Wrath: Directly Attack the enemies.
Spoil Town: Fills up suppliements of a town

Divine Interventions per god [SJ]
------ ------------- --- ---

Zeus (Life,Leadership): God of the sky and weather.
Protection
  1 Electrify
  2 Electric Wind
  3 Spark Shock
Relievement
  1 Wounds Cure
  2 Wounds Cure
  3 Restoration
Wraith
  1 Shock
  2 Lighting
  3 Lighting Storm

Hera (Family,Loyalty): Associated with peacocks and pomegranates.
Protection
  1 Fake Knack
  2 Charm
  3 Hearth Softener
Relievement
  1 Journey Duty
  2 Strength of Revenge
  3 Strength of Revenge
Wraith
  1 Attraction
  2 Disgrace
  3 Air of untrust

Poseidon (Sea,Ocean): Associated with earthquakes and horses.
Protection
  1 Sea wave
  2 Lighting Horse
  3 Ocean wave
Relievement
  1 Second Air
  2 Combat Maestry
  3 Bow of Honor
Wraith
  1 Wild Malboro
  2 Storm
  3 Fission

Hestia (Hearth,Virginity): Assosiated with union and justice
Protection
  1 Holy Air
Relievement
  1 Make Wish
Wraith
  1 Fair Fight

Hades (Death,Treasure)
Protection
  1 Unholy air
  2 Crow's Call
  3 Dragon Call
Relievement
  1 Silver Coin
  2 Gold Pot
  3 Silver Goblet
Wraith
  1 Fear
  2 Storm
  3 Caronte's Bell

Divine Intervention Effects [SJ]
------ ------------ -------
Air of untrust:
Brings untrust into a group of beings, making them fight between themselves.

Attraction:
Makes a Being feel attracted to other one, just to find his sharp weapon
as a welcome.

Bow of Honor:
Creates an ethereal trident that may be used by the invoker for a short
time, increasing his combat skill.

Caronte's Bell:
Calls for the massive death of people, the sucess is very limited.

Charm:
Makes a being forget he is in a fight and feel like defending the enemy.

Combat Maestry:
Raises the agility of a battler, allowing him to perfect his combat skill.

Crow's Call:
Calls a band of crows to attack the enemies of the invoker

Disgrace:
Turns two beings into discussion, which may become a fight to death.

Dragon Call:
Calls a fire dragon from the hades to scare all the enemies of the invoker.

Electrify:
Envolves a being with electric energy so that it harms the ones that
touch him.

Electric Wind:
Creates a wind current that expands from a being and throws the beings
around him away

Fake Knack:
Fools someone into thinking that he befriends an enemy

Fair Figth:
rom a group of enemies the stronger will challenge you, the rest will
agree will result

Fear:
Causes fear in a group of enemies making them run away

Fission:
Creates a ground movement that destroys all kind of objects in certain
range, rocks from the mountains and stones from the cities become deadly
as they fall.

Gold Pot:
Creates a pot full of gold

Hearth Softener:
Makes a being completely think that he stands for nothing and he must
aid his enemies.

Holy air:
Makes being not harm another one.

Journey Duty:
Recover all lost strength of a being as there is still a duty to be done.

Lighting Horse:
Summons a silver horse into a location, which helps the invoker to run away.

Lighting:
Summons a lighting ray to an aproximate location, causing huge damage
uppon the object in which it lands.

Lighting Storm:
Summons several lighting rays to a location, destroying everything that
is nearby.

Make Wish:
You may ask anything from gods...

Ocean wave:
Creates a huge wave of water that displaces eveything around it to a
long distance.

Restoration:
Completely restores the status of a being

Sea wave:
Creates a small wave of water that pushes objects away from a location

Second Air:
Gives a being a second air at the fight, thus recovering his combat
capabilities.

Shock:
Electrifies a being causing him damage and reducing his speed

Silver Coin:
Creates a silver coin

Silver Goblet:
Creates a cup of a liquid that when drink may increase your luck in the
hades.

Spark Shock:
Summons a thunder ball around a location that throws everything away at
long distance.

Storm:
Brings loads of water uppon a field, and gigantic waves in the sea,
drowning and reducing the combat capabilities of the enemies.

Strength of Revenge:
Makes all the hidden strength of a being emerge to seek revenge.

Unholy air:
Makes beings refrain from aproaching another one.

Wild Malboro:
Calls a wild horse that may scare and attack the enemies

Wounds Cure:
Cures the health of a being.

Second Generation [S]
------ ----------

Aphrodite (Love,Beauty)
Athena (Wisdom,Science)
Ares (War,Anger)
Hephaestus (Fire,Smith)
Apollo (Prophecy,Art)
Artemis (Hunt,Survival)
Hermes (Hagging,Negotiation)

Skills [SM]
======
Combat:
Weaving:
Music:
Item Crafting:
Politics: High points here can bring or end war

The World [S]
=== =====
The world is composed by a fixed overworld (Greece) connected with the
main cities which are randomly generated and located, representing the
uncertainly of the location of towns in this ancient age. There are also
some dungeons sprinkled into the mountains of Greece.

The world will also have special features like the Mt. Olympus, which
has limited access until the character attunment with Zeus is high
enough; the minotaur maze and some other spice locations based in the
Greek Myths which have yet to be defined and specified one by one.

The world is ambiented in the Bronze/Iron age in Greece, with the main
weapons being the Spear and the Shield. There are also bows of limited
range and effectiveness, and the cities and towns must be built having
in mind a very primitive distribution of small houses and some important
buildings.

The dungeons will be caves with stairs up and down. The player must
visit them and get to their bottoms to increase his Might and Attunment.

Death [SA]
=====
This RL, as agreed by democratic vote, is to be fully permadeath
compliant - this is a condition on which certain members ([AK]) agreed
to join the project at all and as such is non-negotiable.

Upon Death, the character is taken to the Hades, where his fate depends
on what he did in his life. There's no turning back to "real" world, but
he can interact with the dead in this dark zone.

When a character dies his main traits are recorded to allow the player
to define a future character as the descendant of him, however for this
to happen the player must have found a partner for his character in the
run of the game, and this will not very easy to prevent possible exploits.

This genealogy thing will increase the satisfaction perceived by the
player, in that he will feel like he is playing with a "family" if he is
good at the game.

The descendant inherits aproximately the attribute distribution of his
ancestos, in a scale depending on how good was the character and how
deep he was in the genealogy tree. He may also possibly get one or two
special items; this will reward the good players that advance their
characters enough to meet a partner.

When the player wins the game, he becomes an hero and thus can't be
killed; however if he is badly hurt in his post-game adventures he will
be taken to the Olympus, with most of his skills diminished and no
equipment.

Monsters (enemies) [E]
======== =========

This is mostly to give names and short descriptions for monsters and in
later bounces, their stats and attributes.

Automotons : animated statues created by the smith-god Hephaestus
   *Bronge Bulls : Bronge, breathing fire
   *Kafkasian Eagle : Bronge
   *Talos : Giant Robot of bronge. (Used to protect Crete against pirates)
 Phoenix : big bird with regenerating health
 Minotaur : the Labyrinth's end monster.
 Cyclopes : One Eyed beasts living in huge caves
 Cerberus : Hades guard 3-headed dog 
 


Artifacts [S]
=========

Their effects will be determined when the item system is complete

Adamantine sickle (Gaia -> Cronos)
The Altar (Cyclopes -> Olympians)

Nectar (RARE) - increase all stats by 1, 30% chance of -2 to all stats
instead (rejection doesn't count as having taken Nectar).

Ambrosia (EXTREME RARE) - makes character immortal (ie doesn't age) but
not invulrable. Must of had Nectar immediately prior or drop dead. Good
chance (75%) of killing character.

Apple of Eris (Hesperides -> Eris)
Bed of Helius (Hephaestus -> Helius)
Belt of Aphrodite (Hera -> Aphrodite)
Belt of Hippolyte (Ares -> Hippolyte)
Bow of Odysseus (Apollo -> Eurytus -> Oddyseus)
Brazen Castanets (Hephaestus -> Athena -> Heracles)
Brazen Shield (Hermes -> Perseus)
Bull's Hide (Hermes -> Hyrieus)
Chair of Forgetfulness (in underworld)
Golden Goblet (Helius -> Heracles)
Helmet of Hades (Cyclopes -> Hades)
Horn of Amalthea (Zeus -> Amalthea)
Ichor (the blood of Gods)
Lyre of Orpheus (Apollo -> Orpheus)
Palladium (in Troy)
Robe & Necklace of Harmonia
Shield of Achilles (Hephaestus -> Achilles)
Staff of Tiresias (Athene -> Tiresias)
Thunderbolt of Zeus (Cyclopes -> Zeus)
Trident of Poseidon (Cyclopes -> Poseidon)
Winged Sandals (possesion of Hermes)
Zeus' Umbilical Cord
Hephaestus' Great Hammer

Combat [A]
======
Combat is how GREEKIE will distinguish itself from the everyday RL. The
main differences that will be noticed is the long sight range, the
inability to use missile weapons at melee distance, and the movement of
three squares for every round of average combat.

Most RL's only play on a small part of the screen, whilst the rest of
the screen is not currently visible to the PC but remains as a
remembered map until revisited. As GREEKIE will feature lots of outdoor
battles as well as dungeon fighting, the long sight ranges will make for
a novel form of combat that fills the majority of the screen (normal RL
is 80x25 although 80x80 would be nicer).

Here are the base stats for the average PC at normal speed;
SIGHT RANGE: 20
MELEE COMBAT: 3 turns
MISSILE COMBAT: 2 turns
MOVEMENT 1 SQUARE: 1 turn
SWORD WEAPON RANGE: 1 square
SPEAR/PIKE RANGE: 2-2 squares (not usable a 1 square range, no weapon
switch penalty to sword) [*]
MIN MISSILE RANGE: 3 squares (-25% to hit, +25% to damage)
SHORT MISSILE RANGE: 4-6 squares (+10% damage)
MEDIUM MISSILE RANGE: 7-9
LONG MISSILE RANGE: 10-12 (-10% damage)
MAX MISSILE RANGE: 13-15 (-25% to hit, -25% damage)
OVERLONG MISSILE RANGE: 16 (-50%,-50%) 17 (-75%,-75%) 18 (-90%,-90%)
MISSILE PENALTY IF ENGAGED IN MELEE: (-25%) cumulative with following
penalties [**]
MISSILE PENALTY IF STRUCK IN PREV TURN: (-25%) cumulative with following
penalties [***]
MISSILE PENALTY PER ADJACENT MONSTER: (-10%) 1 square range
MISSILE PENALTY PER SPEAR RANGE MONSTER: (-5%) 2 square range

The standard missile weapon above is a bow, a javelin has a range of
3-10 squares (with similar penalties) but can be used as a spear/pike
weapon as well.

[*] A successful spear attack means the enemy (or the PC) cannot advance
within MELEE range in their next move. The spear can be used to keep
enemies at bay in this way, particularly ones that only carry swords.

[**] Engaged in melee means the PC has previously had a monster try to
attack him (miss/hit not relevant) and that monster is still within
melee range of the PC.

[***] Were there to be any spell casting (such as playing musical
instruments - often used in Greek Myth to subdue monsters) they would
suffer similar penalties as per missile combat.

KNOCK BACK EFFECT: A common tactic in GREEKIE RL will be to knock back
an opponent (such as a shield bash) to put them at spear range or
missile range or to create distance, whether the monster is stunned for
the round and how far back the monster goes depends on the PC's
abilities and the monsters defence.

FEEL FOR ENEMY: For every strike delivered to a particular foe (or
delivered to the PC by a particular foe) there is a +1 to hit cumulative
bonus against only that particular foe. If the PC hits a monster once it
is easier to hit them again. When combined with tactics this can be
deadly (eg Insane Accurate).

TACTICS: The PC can pick from 7 postures and 3 tactics. The longer the
PC plays in a particular posture and tactic the more skills they develop
for them, but this is a from a set pool that develops only +1 per level
and so is sucked from other postures and tactic levels:
      Postures
              Parry [+++def, no attack allowed]
              Coward [++def, --tohit, -todam]
              Defensive [+def, -tohit]
              Normal
              Aggressive [-def, +tohit]
              Berserk [--def, ++tohit, +todam]
              Insane [+++tohit, ++todam, no defence at all]
      Tactics
              Accurate [+tohit, -todam]
              Standard
              Bludgen [-tohit, +todam]

Missile weapons can be fired over and through enemies, of course with
the chance that they will hit those inbetween, including your own party
members or NPC's. This chance is increased with the difficulty of the
shot and number of bodies inbetween the PC and its enemy. Missile
monsters can also accidently strike their comrades, and spear attackers
suffer from a high chance (50% base chance) of attacking (but not
necessarily hitting) team mates accidently if trying to go straight
through them to the enemy.

As you can see missile weapons will have their uses at range, but will
not be a wise choice if overwhelmed and cannot be used at all for melee.
Meanwhile with the long sight range one can calculate tactics as they
engage in melee and monsters advance 3 squares per melee and close the
20 square gap. Within the dungeon, suddenly the tactic of hiding just
around a corner becomes immensely more valuable for say a monster versus
an archer type.

During play testing the above figures would be adjusted for game
balance, and to allow various styles of play to be equally attractive,
and the use of different tactics for different scenarios very advantageous.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
APPENDIX
~~~~~~~~

Contributors
============

R. Dan Henry

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Ring of Bouncers: First Round
=================================

NB: Move your name to the bottom of the list once down...

* John Zaxaridis                [J]
* Kornel Kisielewicz            [K]

-- START 28/1/2005 round 1
* Slash                         [S] 
* Ethaniel                      [E] 
* ABCGi                         [A] 
* Slash                         [S] 
* John Zaxaridis                [J] 
* Meldokios Dragon              [D] 
* Filip Dreger                  [F] 
* Tomasz "Warui" Nowakowski     [T] 
* Markus Stehr                  [M] 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Document History [A]
================

GREEKIE 2005

VER     DATE    AUTHOR  NOTES
0.0.9   26/1    [S]     Initial version bounced to [E]
0.1.0   28/1    [E]     Added one ancestor and one unique item
0.1.1   30/1    [A]     Fixed contents, doc history and author naming &
other doc conventions - added combat
0.1.2   03/2    [S]     Added divine Interventions and Wishes, fixed
some author naming
0.1.5   07/2    [F]     Added a small section on gods' power and
politics</div>
0.1.6   13/2    [T]     Some changes in ancestors, culture section
0.1.7   14/2    [M]     Added: culture -> teutons, wishes -> spoil city,
skills -> politics
0.1.8   16-02   [E]     Added: Education System (mentors & schools), Monster
names and types