The game of Evolution

[LordChaos13]

Hey all
After roaming around the net and getting some inspiration from Evolution D20 (in the homebrew section, mostly concept right now but its cool) and the old Freeform Forum Spore games I decided to try my hand at some Freeform stuff.


So basically how it works is this:
Health: How much damage you take before kicking the bucket
Stomach: Same as HP but for food
Toughness: Damage Reduction, protects against specific things (eg. mental attacks, sharp things)
Senses: Multiple, just like Toughness. Can be things like Sight, Sound, Electromagnetic Fields etc.
Movement: How you move, the more points in a stat the faster one moves. Swimming, Flying, etc.
Attacks: How you deal damage durr. 1Dx where X is the amount of points in that stat (a lvl3 Bite does 1D3 damage for example)
Evolution: Gain by eating, spend by reproducing and evolving
Flux: Hard limit to how much one can evolve in a certain amount of time. Descends at 1/2 Stomach (so when you lose 2 stomach you also lose 1 Flux) and when reproducing (making a kid = 1 less flux)


Starting Stats:
HP: 2/2
Stomach: 4/4
Toughness: None
Senses: (to be decided)
Movement: 1 (Swimming I)
Attacks: 1 (Engulf I)
Evolution: 0
Flux: 0/4


Blinking lights go off all around, grey beings in white labcoats clustered around a small tank of water. Several small lifeforms already injected into the tiny biome and interacting, evolving alongside one another at glacial pace.
But this, this was what the whole experiment was about. Chattering nervously one of the beings steps forward to press a button. An infinitesimally small thing placed right in the centre of the tank.
The capsule containing the same initial compound as they themselves were made of, way back when their kind was created by another race of aliens.

Deep in the inky blackness of nothingness you feel something stir...you? Whats a you? How are you thinking this? How are you thinking at all?
Your brain would hurt if you had one.
All around you you feel bits of yourself forming up, compressing into an even smaller thing than before.
Feeling yourself scramble and shift into place you try to reach out and see whats out there and whats happening to you.
Something inside yourself begins to respond. Parts of yourself, which you want to call your DNA for some reason, forms and rearranges


First vote: What does your DNA form?
Sight II (can see light Yes/No in certain places. Basically really fuzzy black and white without any distinguishing Grey)
Scent I (you can kind of smell the presence of things and recognize types of cells if you get close)
Sound II (The movements of other cells in the water draws your attention, basically very primitive passive water-echolocation)

Choose 2 please.

[BasketOfPuppies]

I Hereby Decree Sight II And Scent I.

[Drakeburn]

I vote for Sight II and Scent I as well.

[LordChaos13]

You coalesce more, wriggling round with your tiny proto-membrane
A final piece clicks into place and you can See! And smell!

You notice a really large Black thing right below you, several white bits wriggling around on it. A small clump (around 4-5) of black things not far to the south of you.
Above is just empty whiteness. you see nothing in your field of vision, though that may be a limit of your vision.

HP: 2/2
Stomach: 4/4
Flux: 0/4
Evolution Points (EP): 0

What do you do?

[BasketOfPuppies]

You coalesce more, wriggling round with your tiny proto-membrane
A final piece clicks into place and you can See! And smell!

You notice a really large Black thing right below you, several white bits wriggling around on it. A small clump (around 4-5) of black things not far to the south of you.
Above is just empty whiteness. you see nothing in your field of vision, though that may be a limit of your vision.

HP: 2/2
Stomach: 4/4
Flux: 0/4
Evolution Points (EP): 0

What do you do?

Swim/float/coalesce/blobulate towards the clump of black things

[radmelon]

Swim/float/coalesce/blobulate towards the clump of black things

Seconding.

[LordChaos13]

(I'm going to try and update once every 2 days, no matter how many votes. I have tiebreaker)

Deciding the white thingies on the black is a bit too far away you begin to wriggle and writhe towards the small clump of black.
As you get closer you begin to smell their scent in the water, a smell that seems to remind you of submission, prey.
As you approach they do not seem to react, floating there moving only due to currents and eddies.
Drawing closer you notice one of the black things become wider, eventually popping off a second black thing. All around the others are doing the same.
The centre of the clump, seemingly empty at first glance resolves itself in a kinda-dark way. Clearly some form of almost-see-through thing about 10* as big as you or larger and the current meal of the sleeping black dots.

OOC: The swarm killed it somehow, ate it and then went into Reproduction, budding off more of their kind, likely several in succession. Unfortunately they cant react in this state

HP: 2/2
Stomach: 3/4
Flux: 0/4
Evolution Points (EP): 0

[Korith]

I vote that we eat prey

[BasketOfPuppies]

NOMZ!I'm hungry, couldn't you tell?

[Drakeburn]

Eat! Eat! Eat! Eat!

[Cuthalion]

Chow!

[Szilard]

Omnomnom.

[LordChaos13]

GLOMP! You surround a splitting dark thing letting your primitive cell pieces eat it up.
Repeating several times you begin to feel bloated, large and full of digesting things.

Your sight flickering off a couple times, each time a little longer before you don't turn them on again.
Your DNA sequence being rearranged after looking at the dead things inside you. Adding your own little twist of course


Reproduction time!
How do you reproduce?
A) Budding. You form a small version of yourself with no memories and 1/2 health and 1/2 max stomach. It grows to full size in the time it takes to lose 1 Stomach but needs food immediately because it has 0/2 Stomach. 4 Flux gained but you maintain awareness. Costs 1/2 your max stomach (in this case 4 so 2 stomach) to activate.
B) Splitting. Where there was 1 now there is 2. Both have the same memories. You can split for 1 stomach cost but must divide any Stonach between the two (so if a 4stomach cell split divide 3 Stomach between 2 cells however you want, from 0/3, 1/2 etc). Costs 2 Flux
C) Egg. You can only do this 1 time every 6 Hunger (when you lose 1 stomach). Costs 1HP to use. A small portion of yourself detaches and floats away, a small time later hatching out into a Budded cell but contains your memories and 1/2 of its newly small Stomach instead of 0. Cost 2 Flux

[BasketOfPuppies]

I'm thinking splitting.

[Drakeburn]

I'll go with splitting as well.

[radmelon]

I'm fond of egg, myself.

[SolarEdge]

I vote splitting

[LordChaos13]

3 Splitting, 1 Egg.

Splitting it is


A short time later your senses flicker on. Staring straight ahead at...yourself?
So THAT is what you look like...You thought you'd be handsomer
Speaking of yourself...WHY ARE YOU IN FRONT OF YOURSELF!!
Turning your senses off and on a few times to make sure...yeah you are in front of yourself.

HP: 2/2
Stomach: 1/4
Stomach: 2/4
Flux: 2/4
Evolution Points (EP): 0

Do you want to be the one with 1 Stomach or 2?
Also how do you react to seeing a copy of yourself in front of you

[BasketOfPuppies]

I say 1 stomach. I react by moving towards. It slowly, using my senses to determine more about it.

[Drakeburn]

While I say go with the one with 2/4 stomach. As for reaction, use senses to study about to see what it can learn.

[LordChaos13]

It doesn't matter much short-term given you are in a massive group of things trying to multiply 5-6*

It does however tell me a lot for later
Yay plot?

[radmelon]

Continue to consume.

[Meta-Meta gamer]

lead split version and self to more of this "black cell stuff" and eat it, together.

[BasketOfPuppies]

lead split version and self to more of this "black cell stuff" and eat it, together.

Seconding. change my vote.

[LordChaos13]

Giving the black spot another once over curious you wriggle over to a nearby sleeping prey, pushing it at the other you. Watching it engulf the food and wriggle in a general 'yummy. Also hi' way (no I have no clue how that looks) you eat another of the dozen things.
As you nom your way to fullness you notice it seems to look to you more and more, almost as if its missing a certain Spark. Fortunately it is smart enough to think, just not adapt or take charge as much
OOC: Basically there are two kinds of You.
A) Leaders. They are the PCs, the Chief (most of the time), the ones who adapt and try things not engrained via watching other Yous and copying. They evolve new things willingly, break the status quo and do general 'PC' things.
B) Followers. They do what you've already done. Eat a You? Followers are now cannibalistic. Hunt the small black things your eating now? They will eat those things and hunt them when hungry.


By the time you get full, feeling your DNA buzzing a little with the bombardment of bits and pieces of partially-digested strands and rungs, you notice a few begin to stir, one close to you having just split making odd motions at you, both the newborn and original.

HP: 2/2
Stomach: 3/4
Flux: 2/4
Evolution Points (EP): 3

You cannot split for 1 Stomach-cycle (until your Stomach drops by 1 point)

[BasketOfPuppies]

What else can I sense?

[LordChaos13]

The white moving things are still ever-present. The kind-of-invisible corpse is still floating.
The only thing that changed is you have a buddy and the prey is starting to wake up.
There are about 25-30 of them not counting any obscured by others or still splitting so its closer to 60+ by the time they awaken

[radmelon]

How much DNA/Hunger do we have?

[BasketOfPuppies]

I think we should go up to the moving white things.

[Meta-Meta gamer]

could we split again? As there is safety in numbers.