The Mortigeist Counter is something we’ve put a lot of thought into over the years. The Mortigeist serves as a great plot device we can use to bring together all of our players and guilds. It’s deeply tied to our lore in a way that a lot of players can use to enhance their roleplay and backgrounds. Wherever you go in our world you’ll encounter people who know of and fear the Mortigeist.
The Mortigeist Counter brings us together
…by giving us something to worry about. The initial version of the Mortigeist Counter incremented down by a set value every time an elf character died in game. 1 elf death counted for a number of deaths on the counter. This is because our world is a harsh one and deaths happen all around us, even when we’re not in game, but the mechanic was tied directly to elf deaths in the logistics database.
With the website redesign we added some extra functionality. The value of each elf death fluctuates by a random amount every time. it can be higher or lower. It’s fairly consistent but is controlled by a random number generator. The counter also goes down a little bit every day by a random amount.
There are some pros and cons to this. Having it go down consistently, but unpredictably, can really lead to some suspense leading up to games. It can also make it a little more challenging to plot teams as they put together mods for a weekend. We appreciate the heck out of our guilds plot teams for, among other things, the creative ways they’ve integrated the Mortigeist into their games.
We’re at our best when we’re together
Having lore that connects our characters helps our roleplay. Having global events impact all of our guilds ties our community together, regardless of distance. Having people debate the merit of The Mortigeist shows us that we’ve created something interesting that inspires passion in people.
As the Mortigeist Counter moves inexorably downward think about your elven friends. They’ve just suffered a terrible blow at Warcry 2019. Keep them safe.
Our world is a dangerous place.