Inheritance

Okay, I've got a HUGE game balance question...

If I alter someone and want their children to inherit the miracle:

1) Is this possible? It would seem so, given the number of 'deity creates animal' myths.

2) Do I pay for a new miracle when the scale increases, or does the upkeep just increase?

3) Do I even pay for the children at all? (I'd say yes, but I've made mistakes before.)

4) Is the miracle as powerful as the original? If I have warriors who have to fight salamanders on a regular basis, and I raise their Body dice type to d10, do the children have d10 or just d6+1? I'd go with the latter, it keeps deities from 'uber miracle' their people to the best in the game.

Let me be clear: I feel the fact the elder races have better stats and abilities than the default human to be a great balancing factor. But logically, via creation myths, gods should be able to modify their peoples. This begs the question of tribes with wings, or green (photosynthetic) skin, or who give birth to litters of 8. A world of chaos, and variety. Fun to play in, difficult to maintain balance.

5) Which begs the question of interbreeding between miracle-lines, giving host to a whole NEW bag of questions.

Just thought I'd ask; my appologies if this was actually covered in the rules somewhere.

This question I plan to answer in an Elite Followers and Tokens pack.

I will bring forth some rules on this subject and they will not complicate the game. For right now they are ideas. If you have some suggestions, let me know.

I want to make sure people have fun with their favorite minions as well as their god characters.

When would this pack be coming out?

Well, I sort of see it as follows. You make it a permanent miracle on the first generation, which you have to support and upkeep. That percent of your population then have that trait. If generation of new members to your tribe maintain the same percentage as mentioned in the NGH, then when you gain new followers due to birth a certain percentage of them would benefit from this miracle naturally without having to be supported by the miracle. Thus if you give half of your initial 100 tribesmen water breathing through a permanent miracle (50% of your population) and you generate 20 people in the next year, 10 of them (50% of your population gained) have water breathing naturally. You still have to support the initial fifty still with your miracle, but now you have a portion of your population already possessing it at birth. Likewise, when a portion of your population dies, 50% of them are from the number that have water breathing.

I understand the idea and to be honest this needs to be played out in a campaign to get a true answer. What ideas we have now, might be not so good later on.

For the PBP I plan to use the chart provided in Fate's screen and in the NGoM NGH. After the first year we will roll for each god on this chart upon their celestial season/ festival. That way we can see what effects it has on the population.

Note: Birth rates for humans were horrendous in early man. People had many kids with several dying on their way to adulthood. Everything from SIDS to Neglect to Starvation/ Disease and other ailments affected the survival rate. Also gods would not be willing to stop this all the time. This will drain a god if they saved ever man woman and child. So tough choices have to be made.

I personally would not count children under the age of 16 as a follower for the Belief total. Over 16 the child will go through whatever tribal customs there are for adulthood. Then you can add the adult to the tribal population that believes. In this case with 100 people I can only see about 4 per year per 100. This is without fators in the yearly roll chart. So this will be played by ear and subject to many opinions before this comes to a satisfactory conclusion.

Thanks

Regarding Birth Rates in the game...

This isn't a reality based game though? Inclusion of Undines, Gnomes, and Salamanders somewhat clues one in to that fact. So the number of people achieving maturity can be much higher than it would be in a normal society of this technological level.

Just thought I'd note this. After all, if you only gain 4 people per 100 base a year, it's going to take roughly 23 rounds to double your population.

Also, while you noted that no one under 16 should be considered among the followers, realistically, females would have been inducted into womanhood as soon as they began their first menstrual cycles, so between 11 and 13, in a society of that era, and boys younger than that would have been being sent to war and making recognized offerings at the altars of their gods. I know the game doesn't track men and women followers, but it was just a note offered to be kept in mind.

Understood,

But there are other ways to increase your population such as through conquering other tribes, taking their women and children. Or doing the whole "Preacher" thing where your priests go to godless tribes and try and convert them using an opposed spirit roll.

Lets wait this one out after some play. If people are not getting enough followers through yearly rolls and other means, then we will work a mechanic in.