What if..?

[Cindy42]

What if you could no longer sell obsidian in Tuluk and wood in Allanak for obscene value multipliers?

Everyone would roll tailors and point Red Storm.


What if a warrior had such a high bandage skill that he could actually heal himself to full hp from mortally wounded? (assuming, of course, that he was such a tuffguy that he could still move)

Warriors would be -way- fuglier murderers in the desert, causing a greater percentage of those who run at the first sign of a cloak in the same room.

What if dwarves were the dominate race and ruled the cities instead of humans?

Everyone would be forced to have Focuses regardless of who they were, Muk Utep and Tektolnes's Focuses would be widely-known and worshipped as the Great Foci in their respective cities, and those with a conflicting Focus would be put to death. Humans would no longer be the upper crust racially. Elves would probably stay right where they were. There'd be weird shit going on depending on the Focus of some nobles and a few commoners, such as the walls of Tuluk being painted green overnight, or the wasting of government money to continuously fund bahamet or mekillot taming. Everyone would know mirukkim instead of sirihish. Because the human woman dies upon making a mul, maybe a few more would be made due to no detriment to the dwarven race in doing so, than if humans were boss, but not to a significant extent. Muls, as half-dwarves, might become a playable race with somewhat lower karma, like 1, and on some fluke by a noble's focus or something, some muls may be able to win their freedom and just sit in the gaj like the rest of us. Dying of mul-rage bystandery would become a viable method of dying.

What if plagues killed all known mounts like they did kanks?

[Saellyn]

What if you could no longer sell obsidian in Tuluk and wood in Allanak for obscene value multipliers?

Everyone would roll tailors and point Red Storm.


What if a warrior had such a high bandage skill that he could actually heal himself to full hp from mortally wounded? (assuming, of course, that he was such a tuffguy that he could still move)

Warriors would be -way- fuglier murderers in the desert, causing a greater percentage of those who run at the first sign of a cloak in the same room.

What if dwarves were the dominate race and ruled the cities instead of humans?

Everyone would be forced to have Focuses regardless of who they were, Muk Utep and Tektolnes's Focuses would be widely-known and worshipped as the Great Foci in their respective cities, and those with a conflicting Focus would be put to death. Humans would no longer be the upper crust racially. Elves would probably stay right where they were. There'd be weird shit going on depending on the Focus of some nobles and a few commoners, such as the walls of Tuluk being painted green overnight, or the wasting of government money to continuously fund bahamet or mekillot taming. Everyone would know mirukkim instead of sirihish. Because the human woman dies upon making a mul, maybe a few more would be made due to no detriment to the dwarven race in doing so, than if humans were boss, but not to a significant extent. Muls, as half-dwarves, might become a playable race with somewhat lower karma, like 1, and on some fluke by a noble's focus or something, some muls may be able to win their freedom and just sit in the gaj like the rest of us. Dying of mul-rage bystandery would become a viable method of dying.

What if plagues killed all known mounts like they did kanks?

No more wagons, no more escape from Desert Elves. Doom to all non-desert-elf races.

What if is friday was the only person in game to have a metal sword, and we all knew it?

[Mazy]

Many people would be butchered trying to steal a metal sword from a gorgeous woman, who is actually a skillmaxxed warrior. The raven-haired, bouncy-boobed chica ( that's not the actual sdesc but rather how I picture all of Is Friday's characters) would make a name for herself and be feared across the Known. Even magickers, distracted by the immense cleavage, would fail in their attempts at wiggling away the sword. Eventually, the chica would break the sword fighting against a gurth, or maybe a tregil.. the Scroll of Prophecy wasn't very clear about that part.

What if there was another elementalist guild? What would it be?

[Is Friday]

Many people would be butchered trying to steal a metal sword from a gorgeous woman, who is actually a skillmaxxed warrior. The raven-haired, bouncy-boobed chica ( that's not the actual sdesc but rather how I picture all of Is Friday's characters) would make a name for herself and be feared across the Known.

[Barzalene]

Many people would be butchered trying to steal a metal sword from a gorgeous woman, who is actually a skillmaxxed warrior. The raven-haired, bouncy-boobed chica ( that's not the actual sdesc but rather how I picture all of Is Friday's characters) would make a name for herself and be feared across the Known. Even magickers, distracted by the immense cleavage, would fail in their attempts at wiggling away the sword. Eventually, the chica would break the sword fighting against a gurth, or maybe a tregil.. the Scroll of Prophecy wasn't very clear about that part.

What if there was another elementalist guild? What would it be?

The donut guild
They'd make magically delicious artery clogging treats that were often lethal.

What if the gith wanted to become peacefully law abiding Tuluki citizens?

[Synthesis]

What if there was another elementalist guild? What would it be?

Excrementalist--Fart of Doom becomes an actual spell (also Pissing Evil).

[Dakota]

What if Zalanthias actually had an invasion by some new, messed up race from someplace far off in the Silt Sea (and not Giants.. though they could be like their heavy hitters).

More so, what if the Gith had somehow gotten in touch w/ the invaders and started a two front war against Nak and Tuluk?

[Taven]

I have to say, there's a lot of people in the What-If thread who didn't follow the rules. Ironically, I am now one of them. WHATEVER I TRIED TO FOLLOW THE RULES OK.

Taven's What If Answers - Page #2

What if there were a logical and realistic way to get ice in game?

Well, likely it would involve being on a high mountain somewhere. I'd imagine that Kadius would try and get a monopoly on it to sell it as a luxury good. However, Whirans would be far more effective at getting it. People would likely hire them in secret, and then Kadius would have to be content with only selling to all of Tuluk and to Borsail (because all the other Allanaki houses would suspiciously give in). This would occur until a whiran who resented Allanak's gem decided to get revenge by teaming up with an assassin, and poisoning all the ice they collected. This would led to an update in the history page, eventually, and cement Kadius' monopoly over the ice industry. Also, an enterprising dwarf would invent ice cream, and we'd have tasty treats known as "Detals".

What if "necksnap" were actually implemented?

Well... On the bright side, dwarves would be too short to use this command. We might actually see the the number of dwarf warriors dwarved by the number of human warriors, for a time. However, people would all want similar commands. They'd want cutthroat (no, not the GDBer, sorry Cutthroat), deathpress, and other similar commands. Cutthroat (which some would argue should be called "slitthroat") would be for if you had somebody subdued and wanted to kill them. Synthesis actually posted once (I believe it was him) about how back in the day you could subdue and backstab (I think) for an instant kill, and he always envisioned it as cutting someone's throat. Deathpress would be something a half-giant could do to you when subdued, crushing anyone smaller to death. In this alternate reality, staff already approved necksnap, so they'd approve these commands too. This would lead to the ability to kill someone skyrocketing, and the number of warrior PCs would drastically increase, since it would be faster to subdue and kill someone then train up an assassin.

What if Armageddon was based on Shadowrun instead of Dark Sun?

Then it wouldn't be Armageddon. I'm too lazy to look up Shadowrun information to make a better prediction.

What if Zalanthas had more nighttime hours?

Clans would fill them up with more chores. There's already some clans who have jobs and duties after dusk. Including more hours would just make clans feel obligated to include more duties. Luckily, most of these would involve tavern sitting ("patroling," "finding potential people to hire," etc). Because people would be required to tavernsit more, there would be less one on one relationship development (and also less mudsex). This would lead to more entertaining evenings for PCs, although it could potentially lead PCs to go crazy and do something like this only without the dare.

What if the shifting sands in the Red Desert revealed the Statue of Liberty, a la Planet of the Apes?

My immersionz!

What if character handsomeness / ugliness was a coded stat like agility, displayed with every 'look' command on said PC?

You'd have to roll it before apping for your PC, so that the staff could ensure that the level of attractiveness was proportional to the score rolled. Only those with "absolutely incredible" attractiveness would be allowed to use the word "cascading" and "full lips" would be reserved for someone who was at least "exceptional". However, despite the efforts of staff to enforce this new stat, players would still mudsex anything female anyway.

What would happen if it really was as hard for the PCs to make money, like it is for the vNPC population?

Well, I bet the Allanak famine would be solved by now, because players would be pissed off about their PCs dying. In addition, you'd have less people who made tailors or salted a couple RL weeks and suddenly had the ability to outfit their PCs in amazing gear. Thus, amazing gear would be even more amazing. You'd also see a lot less commoners in silks, and prices for ales and normal clothing would need to be adjusted. Basically, the whole system would see an overhaul. I think it would ultimately make play more gritty and harsher, and that would be appreciated, for the most part.

What if you found a tank on Zalanthas?

Well, that's dependent on the PC (I considered going through each of my PCs and answering this, but all of them end up giving it to someone else and the story is pretty lame). A better question might be "what if a psychopathic dwarf found a tank?".

What if silt giants were guarding El Dorado?

It depends entirely on how many of them there were. I don't think that anyone would be able to get to it anyway. However, people would try and lead more silt giants back. This would cause Red Storm proper to get silt giants... Luckily, that would mean no more access to skimmers, and this would effectively end the threat. That is, until some focus-crazed dwarf tamed a roc and flew to the island. He'd slowly try to steal away all the gold, not to sell it, but to make himself a gleaming palace on a different island of the silt sea. Sadly, this would attract all the silt horrors from everywhere (the silt giants would not be able to battle them off), and the dwarf would get eaten (probably after some tentacle probing).

What if the Sea of Silt turned out to be created intentionally as a barrier to another, super powerful city-state and this new city-state became open for play but no one in it would know about the Known World on the other side?

This would only be possible if Waying weren't possible across the Silt Sea, otherwise they'd eventually find out by random mis-contacts.

What would happen if Red Storm East were smashed to nothing by Giants?

IC info is needed to speculate on this, I think.

What would happen if humans could be skinned?

Well, you'd have to wonder just what sort of meat was being sold in Allanak. The rinth would have more cannibals. Also, you'd have some players rolling up merchants, just to make some human skin mastercrafts. You'd get some pretty sick mastercrafts, and some pretty twisted PCs. Ultimately, this would lead to a merchant assassin family, where the assassian was a f-me who wore skin-tight outfits...made of the skin of her victims. She wouldn't make it onto the history pages, but she would make it into the memories of players (or the bragging thread, if it were reopened).

What if Allanak were destroyed a (RL) year or more before the transition to Arm 2?

Players would still stubbornly refuse to play in Tuluk, and Luirs or Storm would be the new PC center. Also, there would be way more complaints about the lack of apartments. Staff would open up the Storm militia for play, and it would get more attention. Players might be attracted to that, or they might gravitate toward Kurac for it's already established history. A few players would quit over it, but most wouldn't. There's also the potential to have the ruins of Allanak to play in, and that could lead to some interesting possibilities.

What would happen if Valasuras came back as a Lich?

Tektolnes would bury him again, like he did the first time, and like he did with Luirs. Man, what is with that dude and rock?

What if we all got it horribly wrong; what if instead of playing the game, Zalanthas was real life? And real life was the game?

Well, that would be different. It would mean that the player was just a blank slate, and that they slipped into the lives of vNPCs, subtly altering their lives. These player people would have no concept of real identity, since they would be intentively one personality and race and gender, before suddenly dying. All knowledge and personality would then die with that persona. The next persona might be a completely different race, gender, and personality. Eventually, however, much like in Dollhouse players would slowly gain a new and unique personality. Ultimately, however, they would be unable to escape the reality of Armageddon, and the vicious cycle that came with it.

What if we could play silt horrors or any beast?

I'd stalk people as an evil tregil. Also, there'd be a lot of nasty mount mudsex. Just sayin'.

What if we could play other peoples mounts?

See above. Also, this might actually be interesting. What if your mount actually had a personality, likes, and dislikes. What if it was more akin to a real world mount, like a horse? This could lead to some very interesting role-play over mount loss. In my time in Armageddon, I've only seen one player who actively cared about their mount as something more then a place to get from point A to point B. For a tiny bit of time, I played a PC who was obsessed with mount care, before he was tortured to death by lirathuans (never listen to your boss and run from a templar, people). I actually was hoping to develop more things about diseases and mount care with this start on an article, but due to laziness, I never got back to it. I might review it again sometime, and input is always welcomed.

What if it was Steinal really was discovered as a massive underground new area to explore?

Didn't we already have a question like this? I think that one was actually about raising Steinal or something, but still. Likely, it would be populated by some sort of nasty that would discourage any sort of exploration. I would make a PC to try to explore it anyway, however, and try to collect all the books and metal that I could find. Potentially, an Allanaki templar might also have an interest (for metal or secrets or records) and send a secret exploring team out there. They'd probably use gemmers (which is good for gemmer players), instead of soldiers (which is sad for them) because soldiers means they have to get more of a general approval.

What if a new kind of super-sorceror came about that could wallop defilers in the face?

You mean something different then preservers? I don't think so much would change. The exception would be if they were powerful enough to challenge the Kings of the City-States. But those guys have been around a super long time, and would likely crush the threat before it became real. Even if they failed to, the super-sorcerer would still have to deal with their massive armies and the fact that they have a homebase.

What would happen if Tek and Muk Utep had a baby?

I demand further circumstance information! The circumstances vastly change the nature of the answer.

What if half-elves were punk rock instead of emo/gothic?

There would be more half-elf bards?

What if the economy was actually balanced?

How do you mean balanced? Do you mean that people were paid less for salting or that it was harder to work as an independent? Do you mean that vNPC and PC pay levels were the same? Do you mean that the Merchant Houses no longer had their monopoly, and there wasn't a huge divide between the rich and the poor? That last one would completely alter the flavor of the game.

What if Templars were happier and nicer?

I'm pretty sure that this would only be because spice was legal in Allanak.

What if war beetles could talk?

I liked the actual answer to this question a lot and thought it was hilarious. I don't think I can make a better answer.



I may or may not do page #3 later.

[Xagon]

What if somebody mastercrafted a twenty-sided die? 

[Synthesis]

Actually, not too long ago, war beetles could speak sirihish.  Not sure if they changed it, but there was at least one circumstance under which a war beetle would scream AIIEEEEE! in sirihish.

[lordcooper]

You could RP in your RP.  I heard you'd like that.

What if Serenity crash landed just outside Allanak and the crew was unharmed?

[Kismetic]

You could RP in your RP.  I heard you'd like that.

What if Serenity crash landed just outside Allanak and the crew was unharmed?

They're gonna have a hoot of a time taking on the Templerate for their metal.  We'd all get to meet Tek, though.  And the twist of the show is that Muk is up in the tower, too, playing izdari with Tek.  That's how Mal bribes them out of enough metal to repair the ship.

What if all the pits in Zalanthas all led to the same place?

[Seeker]

What if all the pits in Zalanthas all led to the same place?

There would perpetually be a 4,000 cord-high tangled stack of Byn runners and first-time n00b d-elfs  at the bottom.


What if staff, after likely dozens of refused requests, finally approved someone's mastercrafted lighter than desert-air zepplin?

[brytta.leofa]

What if staff, after likely dozens of refused requests, finally approved someone's mastercrafted lighter than desert-air zepplin?

WE WOULD DEPLOY AN AIRBORNE STRIKE FORCE INTO THE HEART OF THE HEATHEN CITY.^*

What if half-elves had mul stats?

[Seeker]

What if half-elves had mul stats?

Um.... they would still be whiny, disgusting vermin?  Only with the tendency to slaughter entire villages and then break down into 6-hour crying jags afterwards.


What if staff implemented the much sought after Spelunker, Farmer or Cobbler sub-guilds?

[Barzalene]

I'd play a spelunker. Every time!

What if everyone were a spelunker but no one could find a cave?

[Ocotillo]

It would take three years for caves to be added to the game.

What if there were elven nobles?

[jstorrie]

Elven Noble Town would be quickly Steinal'd.

What if X-D played only high-ranking non-combat human leaders?

[Malifaxis]

The game would suffer.

What if no one used OOC knowledge?

[Spoon]

Everyone would die of thirst before they found the bazaar in Allanak.

What if there was no crim-code?

[Saellyn]

All the Rinthers would migrate south for a healthy dose of street murders.

What if Tektolnes was actually a geeky looking commoner?

[Kismetic]

What if Tektolnes was actually a geeky looking commoner?

He'd get renamed to Trektolnes.

What if some uber Rukkian made the Sword Chasm?

[BleakOne]

The Byn would fall off it too.

What if someone found a crashed UFO, containing the remains of Elvis, in the Salt Flats?

[Spoon]

The grimey, gap-toothed merchant has the following goods to trade:

1) a pair of blue suede shoes for 74 obsidan coins.

What if every PC could read?

[Barzalene]

Recruits would get whipped when they got caught passing notes at sparring.

What if everyone could start with one skill maxed?