The Primal Order [Archive] - Wizards Community

The Primal Order [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Alex_Trabia
04-17-08, 10:56 PM Anybody still know of/use this book? I've found it to be the most unique and entertaining RPG book I've read.

For those of you in the dark, it's old WotC fare which gives a compelling and insightful book on dieties in role-playing games. Not only that, it's entertaining, full of funny comics ("I sense great evil... that way!" -The rest of the party is running already from a horde of demons-)
ripvanwormer
04-18-08, 10:27 AM Yeah, it's a fun game. I have the main book, as well as the Pawns (describing divine-level monsters) and Chessboards (describing ways to build planes of existence) supplements. I didn't get around to buying the last supplement, the one had a bunch of sample deities in it. I thought it was the least interesting (and Chessboards was the most interesting, by far).

I always thought it'd work best being played alongside several Risk or other military/tactical games, so that you can represent conquering various worlds to improve your pool of worshipers and power. The flaw of The Primal Order, I always thought, was that there weren't many good objective ways to simulate the growth or decline of a deity's worship except through conquest. They had guidelines for the things that might make a deity's worship popular other than forcing everyone to convert or die, but it was a bit lacking, mechanically, in that area. Normally I'm not big on needing game mechanics for everything, but when the power of your character is tied so closely to something, it seems like it'd be good to have a rigid gamist approach (especially since you'd be able to compete against other players, which sounds like it'd make a fun tournament-style game). You'd need to invent a host of charisma-based skills to make checks on, possibly, and make opposed checks against deities who claim the same portfolio in the region with the various situational modifiers the book listed.

Adopting it to the 3e divine rules would involve coming up with primal energy point costs for the various divine salient abilities, mostly.

Alternatively, there was an RPG called Aria where you could have player character nations. Adopting The Primal Order to Aria always seemed a worthwhile project, so you could switch between playing a nation, a group of heroes during a crucial event in that nation, or that nation's gods. Aria was more about collaborative storytelling and world-building (you were intended to build the world's magic system together, for instance), but the mechanics could handle the rise and fall of deities as easily as any other crises and developments the world encounters.
sciborg3
04-18-08, 11:36 AM thanks rip, now i want to play an rpg that doesn't exist.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Alex_Trabia 04-17-08, 10:56 PM	Anybody still know of/use this book? I've found it to be the most unique and entertaining RPG book I've read. For those of you in the dark, it's old WotC fare which gives a compelling and insightful book on dieties in role-playing games. Not only that, it's entertaining, full of funny comics ("I sense great evil... that way!" -The rest of the party is running already from a horde of demons-)
ripvanwormer 04-18-08, 10:27 AM	Yeah, it's a fun game. I have the main book, as well as the Pawns (describing divine-level monsters) and Chessboards (describing ways to build planes of existence) supplements. I didn't get around to buying the last supplement, the one had a bunch of sample deities in it. I thought it was the least interesting (and Chessboards was the most interesting, by far). I always thought it'd work best being played alongside several Risk or other military/tactical games, so that you can represent conquering various worlds to improve your pool of worshipers and power. The flaw of The Primal Order, I always thought, was that there weren't many good objective ways to simulate the growth or decline of a deity's worship except through conquest. They had guidelines for the things that might make a deity's worship popular other than forcing everyone to convert or die, but it was a bit lacking, mechanically, in that area. Normally I'm not big on needing game mechanics for everything, but when the power of your character is tied so closely to something, it seems like it'd be good to have a rigid gamist approach (especially since you'd be able to compete against other players, which sounds like it'd make a fun tournament-style game). You'd need to invent a host of charisma-based skills to make checks on, possibly, and make opposed checks against deities who claim the same portfolio in the region with the various situational modifiers the book listed. Adopting it to the 3e divine rules would involve coming up with primal energy point costs for the various divine salient abilities, mostly. Alternatively, there was an RPG called Aria where you could have player character nations. Adopting The Primal Order to Aria always seemed a worthwhile project, so you could switch between playing a nation, a group of heroes during a crucial event in that nation, or that nation's gods. Aria was more about collaborative storytelling and world-building (you were intended to build the world's magic system together, for instance), but the mechanics could handle the rise and fall of deities as easily as any other crises and developments the world encounters.
sciborg3 04-18-08, 11:36 AM	thanks rip, now i want to play an rpg that doesn't exist.