Gods Play Dice and Cards

In the Beginning
To begin we are all here to have fun first a foremost. We the denizens of this forum represent the churning primordial chaos and entities and forces of unfathomable age and power. That being said this project still adheres to common laws of nature, sorry but the square cube law will always reign supreme. That doesn’t mean we can fudge and hand wave some things just don’t go too far off the deep end.

Status and stats
The goal of all life is to survive long enough to reproduce. Sometimes things don't go quite according to plan. A species health stat represents its ability to survive hardships like predation and environmental change. If a threat has a power that beats the species Health it will progress down the Status Chain until it is Extinct. It will  get one last chance upon reaching this status to adapt and recover, these are the times life takes the most extreme measures. If it evolve to a point where nothing currently can beat Its Health score it will progress up on the Status Chain.

Status Chain

• Thriving
  
• Normal
  
• Threatened
  
• Endangered
  
• Extinct
  

The array of primary statistics that may be edited and interacted with by us:
Health: It is the species ability to weather physical attack and hardships.
Intelligence: Int is the species ability to feasibly problem solve and apply interact with their own kind, other species and the environment.
Power: A species ability to pose a threat to another species
Defense: A species ability to resist being threatened by another species
Mobility: Species ability to run, climb, fly, swim and/or how fast they can accomplish this.
Stealth: A species ability to avoid notice by other species.

Then there are the secondary statistics which are derived from other attributes and traits of the species:
Stamina: A species ability to undertake physical activity.
Sense: A species ability to take in stimuli from the environment and spot Stealthed species.
Intimidation: A species ability to challenge a targets resolve without frightening them without physical conflict.
Resolve: A species ability to resist confusion, trickery and intimidation.

Lastly, the species will be gives a Size Class or Size for short, this will determine reductions and multipliers when encountering species of other size classes. Size is a loose classification used to give a general over all mass of a creature.

Size Class
-2 - near microscopic creatures, parasites.
-1 - Most insects
0 - Mice, Frogs, Songbirds
1 - Rabbits, House cats, small dogs
2 - Large dogs, apes, humans
3 - Tiger, Horse, Rhino
4 - African Elephants, Orca
5 - Blue whale, titanosaurs

'Attacking' and 'Defending'
Attacking = Threatening: Targets Health - (Attackers Power - Targets Defense)

If this results in the target's Health being 0 or greater the target is fine just the product of natural predation/climate change/ ect. If the result is -1 or lower the target is threatened and moves down the status chain by one status. If the result is -5 or lower the target species moves down the status chain by two statuses. (Natural disasters and the like will have ways around some defenses or play traits against species. Shaggy fur is a great defense unless your enemy is an encroaching heatwave.)

Evolution and other advancements  
At the beginning of a scene through random selection a issue or selective pressure will be determined for a species. This can be something as simple as over predation, a overcrowding of the species niche, famine or a wave of ash and fire coming to sear the land barren of life. Whenever a scene is posted any player may post and request further information and, offer generalized guidance for a species response or offer up their tokens to perform various tasks. Should no one offer any suggestions or tokens then the species will be left to random chance. It might sound greatly oversimplified and it is. It is greatly oversimplified for the complexity of the evolution of life. But this is the best medium that could be derived to join my lovers of crunchy TTRPGs and nebulous narrative adventures.

Time and Turns
Time is a key factor to evolution. As such we will define it as best we can here. A turn is a length of time divided up into 5 scenes. Each scene will play out as described and after each scene you all will weigh in, offering your input on how to proceed. After the final scene the turn will conclude and time will march on to the next five scenes. Tokens will be deducted, traits will be written into a species, and time will march on.


Gods and Gaps
This is where we come in each of you have a number of Research acquired through posting and interacting around the forum. Other than offering simple and general suggestions you may spend Research to alter the scene further. When offering tokens specify how you'd like them to be implemented, how does an increase in statistics present in the species, how do they migrate to a new biome, what chaos is unleashed on the land to test them?


Research Cost : Result
10 : Grant species a random Primary Increase and Reduction
20 : Grant species a random Secondary Increase and Reduction
30 : Grant species a random Primary Increase
40 : Grant species a random Secondary increase
50 : Grant species a Primary Increase
60 : Grant species a Secondary increase
50 : Alter a trait of the species.
60 : Grant or Remove a trait from the Species
100 : Alter the species Niche or move Biomes
100 : Create a divergent species
100 : Create a local environmental crisis
1000 : Create a global environmental crisis