One Hour One Life Forums

a multiplayer game of parenting and civilization building

You are not logged in.

#1 2018-03-03 12:13:18

colinmarc
Member
Registered: 2018-02-28
Posts: 17

THE TENETS

Inspired by brianj's post, I drafted SEVEN TENETS for survival in One Hour One Life. Feedback welcome.

THE SEVEN TENETS:

LIVE LIGHT UPON THE LAND
IF THE LAND IS DEAD, LEAVE IT
CLOTHE YOURSELF AND YOUR KIN
ONLY THE FARMER EATS FROM THE DIRT
A TOOL, LIKE A CHILD, NEEDS A HOME
VIOLENCE BEGETS VIOLENCE
ONE MOTHER, ONE DAUGHTER

LIVE LIGHT UPON THE LAND

The land is sacred. Our footsteps must be light upon it; take no action that has permanent consequences, even if it means your death.

Know the signs:

Do not drink the last drop from a pond, or it will lay dry for eternity.
Do not cut wild wheat or carrots, so that their seeds are always at hand.
Cut only cypress trees, and do not ravage the forest.
Kill only animals with children, or you will drive them from the earth.
Pick only fruiting milkweed, or it will grow no more.
Manage soil and clay carefully, or you will have to create it yourself.

IF THE LAND IS DEAD, LEAVE IT

Do not linger like an infection on the wound you have created. Go east, to greener pastures. Always east of eden.

CLOTHE YOURSELF AND YOUR KIN

Cold, you are hungry. Hungry, you are a burden to your village. Live with modesty, and when you die, give your clothing to your child to wear.

ONLY THE FARMER EATS FROM THE DIRT

The farmer knows which carrots must seed and which may be eaten. He will carry them, like his children, to the baskets. Only eat then from the baskets.

This too is true of the baker, who will deliver her pies to the common food stores. Do not invade her workspace.

A TOOL, LIKE A CHILD, NEEDS A HOME

Keep the tools in their homes, in the center, where people live around the fire. Always bring them back to their home, even if your hands cannot carry so much in one trip. Then you will not have to search when you need one.

VIOLENCE BEGETS VIOLENCE

Teach the tenets to children, not violence. Your carrot patch is precious, but less precious than the peace. Like milkweed, once broken, it is gone.

ONE MOTHER, ONE DAUGHTER

Too many children will eat all the food. In times of hunger, keep one daughter and cherish her. Keep sons, and hate them, as you like.

Last edited by colinmarc (2018-03-05 12:41:14)

Offline

#2 2018-03-03 12:36:23

rosden
Member
Registered: 2018-03-01
Posts: 23

Re: THE TENETS

I like the always go east I think its good.
I also think that could be used on the only the farmer eats from the dirt as well though
because the farmer doesn't always place baskets of food around
having a line saying "if there are no baskets to eat from, eat but not from the bottom row".

And with the ONE MOTHER, ONE DAUGHTER tenet I believe sons can also be a problem if 3 sons are born (its not too unreasonable to have 6 babies born in one life at high traffic times)
throughout your lifetime and your daughter births 2 sons that can also be a drain on the food resources having a maximum of 1 or 2 sons per female could stop those
situations

Offline

#3 2018-03-03 14:24:32

Uncle Gus
Moderator
Registered: 2018-02-28
Posts: 567

Re: THE TENETS

Maybe before casting your dumb child into the forest, teach them one of the tenets. Or just say "search the sacred forums, cursed child".

Offline

#4 2018-03-03 16:01:33

bransler
Member
Registered: 2018-03-03
Posts: 12

Re: THE TENETS

I love the ideas behind laws and tenets. No doubt we will refine them as we go.

Thanks btw, to the nameless mothers who taught me these things the hard way.
"OMG, why did you pick that?"

Offline

#5 2018-03-03 21:24:12

brianj
Member
Registered: 2018-03-01
Posts: 36

Re: THE TENETS

I think we should try and structure these together into a unified religion.

The sustainability laws would come first-- make sure a new player knows how to avoid trashing the land.

Next come the Farming Tenets-- rules for building stable society.

A big problem I see is that you have very little time to teach your kids. I think new players should always learn the laws first. Maybe if someone doesn't know the laws, teach them, then send them east?

Then, if they already know the laws, teach the tenets and keep them.

Offline

#6 2018-03-03 21:27:37

Uncle Gus
Moderator
Registered: 2018-02-28
Posts: 567

Re: THE TENETS

It's culture, yes, but it's not religion. Religion pertains to the supernatural. This is our culture, our Way. The Way of Eve.

Offline

#7 2018-03-03 21:31:20

brianj
Member
Registered: 2018-03-01
Posts: 36

Re: THE TENETS

I'm going to start a wiki page & a new forum post for building a unified set of cultural rules.

Last edited by brianj (2018-03-03 21:31:34)

Offline

#8 2018-03-03 22:32:48

Doctor Flintrock
Member
Registered: 2018-03-03
Posts: 34

Re: THE TENETS

Hm, speaking of religion; it might naturally develop in certain communities but at the moment the game doesn't explicitly encourage worshiping and superstition.

I wonder what would happen if some basic form of creative outlet was added. (Pictograms and idol-making?)

Offline

#9 2018-03-04 16:33:01

jord1990
Moderator
Registered: 2018-03-03
Posts: 186

Re: THE TENETS

Now that building major things is becoming a thing maybe we should put in a tenet for people to only use wetland trees for construction since they dont give anything usefull.

Offline

#10 2018-03-04 19:34:18

Uncle Gus
Moderator
Registered: 2018-02-28
Posts: 567

Re: THE TENETS

Yes! It's so annoying when you want kindling and all the useful trees have been cleared for miles around.

Offline

#11 2018-03-05 12:38:29

colinmarc
Member
Registered: 2018-02-28
Posts: 17

Re: THE TENETS

Made three tweaks:

- Added some more signs to LIVE LIGHT UPON THE LAND (trees, soil)
- Got rid of THE CHILD MUST KNOW THE TENETS (because we really want to be teaching them)
- Added VIOLENCE BEGETS VIOLENCE

Offline

#12 2018-03-05 16:40:40

asterlea
Member
Registered: 2018-03-01
Posts: 55

Re: THE TENETS

For "Only the farmer eats from the dirt" maybe you can mention domestic gooseberries too. They should ideally only be grown and used only for compost, and only picked by people who will water them after so they don't die.

Also, for Violence, maybe there should be a guideline that weapons are for hunters and that knives should be carried in a hunter's backpack at all times so others don't play with them. Even if not malicious, it's super easy to accidentally stab someone, I've done it myself. Maybe arrows too, but they are a bit trickier to use and slower at killing multiple people so they're not as dangerous, and you should have at least three to defend against bear attacks so they'd fill up a backpack, otherwise I'd say those must be carried too, but as is I'd say if possible have someone carry them (or some of them), but not as important as the knife.

Offline

#13 2018-03-05 19:37:47

Uncle Gus
Moderator
Registered: 2018-02-28
Posts: 567

Re: THE TENETS

There should be a rule that if you pick the last domestic gooseberry, you are responsible for watering it.

So it turns out farming berries is actually constructive and necessary, even if it is a risk to the soil. I'll update my farming guide thread.

Offline

#14 2018-03-06 02:26:09

Twinsen
Member
Registered: 2018-03-03
Posts: 116

Re: THE TENETS

Uncle Gus wrote:

There should be a rule that if you pick the last domestic gooseberry, you are responsible for watering it.

So it turns out farming berries is actually constructive and necessary, even if it is a risk to the soil. I'll update my farming guide thread.

Domestic berry should be a secret garden feature.

Offline

#15 2018-03-06 04:15:06

Uncle Gus
Moderator
Registered: 2018-02-28
Posts: 567

Re: THE TENETS

Nah, because you need berries to feed sheep and making compost (not that that's really viable at the moment, but I'm sure it will be balanced eventually), so farming berries mainstream is actually worthwhile.

Offline

#16 2018-03-07 00:55:06

asterlea
Member
Registered: 2018-03-01
Posts: 55

Re: THE TENETS

Well, you still don't want people randomly eating the berries because then you can't use them for sheep or compost. And the thing with berries, seeding carrots, and milkweed is that, for all of them, if people who don't know what they're doing come along and pick them at the wrong time it could mess things up to one degree or another, so i think there is an argument for having all of these more removed from the main carrot farm. I think a good strategy would be to have the main carrot farm removed from the fire/town center, with food left in baskets near the fire so to discourage people from hanging out at the farm if they aren't a farmer, and then the more complicated plants on the opposite side of the main farm from the center, with some space between so if people do wander over to it they'll hopefully just stop at the feeding carrots and not go further to mess with the other stuff if it's not relevant to their job. Fences to separate them could be a deterrent too, once they're available.

In the last few camps I've tried to start I'll put the farm in the marshlands near ponds, and fires/tools a bit away in the grasslands near a juniper and a leaf tree, with the plan to have the seeding plots/berries/etc. further into the marsh so they're still near ponds, but I've never lived long enough to get to that step, so who knows how or even if they evolved after I was gone. It's hard to effectively organize things when you're there such a short time and then others can come in and do things differently and you never get a chance to try out the whole strategy and see what does or doesn't work.

Offline

#17 2018-03-07 00:57:38

asterlea
Member
Registered: 2018-03-01
Posts: 55

Re: THE TENETS

colinmarc wrote:

Manage soil and clay carefully, or you will have to create it yourself.

This makes it sound like you can create clay.

Offline

#18 2018-03-08 11:10:46

deliveryservice
Member
Registered: 2018-03-05
Posts: 3

Re: THE TENETS

I am the Tenets follower.
I shall be the vessel for the Tenets.

Live light upon the land!

Last edited by deliveryservice (2018-03-08 11:13:00)

Offline

#19 2018-03-08 11:58:47

Zwilnik
Member
Registered: 2018-03-03
Posts: 45

Re: THE TENETS

I tried a little experiment today with a rabbit camp away from the main village. I managed to set up in the yellow grasslands with 2 fires (one always burning, one that is allowed to become hot coals from time to time), a flint chip, bunch of firewood/kindling (borrowed the village's axe but returned it wink ) and a sharp stone. Then set off with my snares to catch rabbits. Rather than bring each rabbit back to the village to process it, I was able to handle them all at the rabbit camp and take the furs and cooked rabbits (or some of them, I needed a food source wink ) back to the village in one go.

Ideally I'd like to have a decent supply of thread there too (needles aren't a problem, but would need a source of milkweed) then clothes could be made at the camp too.

Offline

#20 2018-03-08 14:00:22

Tanelorn
Member
Registered: 2018-03-08
Posts: 9

Re: THE TENETS

Is there any particular reason for heading east? Why not North, South, West or in any random direction?

Offline

#21 2018-03-08 14:12:26

colinmarc
Member
Registered: 2018-02-28
Posts: 17

Re: THE TENETS

Tanelorn wrote:

Is there any particular reason for heading east? Why not North, South, West or in any random direction?

It's a biblical reference. Genesis 4:16: "And Cain went out from the presence of the LORD, and dwelt in the Land of Nod, on the east of Eden."

But there's a reason for it all being the same direction. If everyone always moves east, then we'll gradually move the possible spawn areas of the western dead lands, and the possible spawn areas will stay together.

Last edited by colinmarc (2018-03-08 14:13:56)

Offline

#22 2018-03-08 14:35:25

hawklander
Member
Registered: 2018-03-07
Posts: 4

Re: THE TENETS

the one mother one daughter tenant seems a bit unpractical. while i do see its importance to sustain a settlement i think that as a settlement grows it would be harder to keep track of the one daughter tenant and would propose a chieftain system where the chieftain's job is to assign roles to the children and teach the ways of the world to them and "regulate the population for the future" so that the settlement's population can be stable to the area in which it is located.

but i do like the idea of one daughter for smaller settlements that do not have enough.


-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
                   Builder, Explorer, Farmer and was eaten by a bear.

Offline

#23 2018-03-08 15:05:27

Zwilnik
Member
Registered: 2018-03-03
Posts: 45

Re: THE TENETS

Something I've also realised about children. While it's worth getting them working as soon as they can pick things up, it's very easy for them to accidentally starve if they're doing tasks away from the centre of the village and food source. So it's probably best to have the young kids doing the carrot harvesting (with an adult in the area to make sure they're know which ones to pick and which rows to leave to seed etc.). The only issue there is that makes it harder for them to use berries as a food source, so either having regular drops of baskets of berries or have regular 'lunch breaks' smile

Offline

#24 2018-03-08 15:15:10

Kinrany
Member
Registered: 2018-01-22
Posts: 712

Re: THE TENETS

If there was a mechanic that punished overeating, you could just let children eat carrots, and everyone would eventually get used to careful timing and eating at exactly the right moment.
Farms are also relatively easy to keep warm since they're small.

Offline

#25 2018-03-08 15:15:55

secondchild
Member
Registered: 2018-03-04
Posts: 17

Re: THE TENETS

Zwilnik wrote:

Something I've also realised about children. While it's worth getting them working as soon as they can pick things up, it's very easy for them to accidentally starve if they're doing tasks away from the centre of the village and food source. So it's probably best to have the young kids doing the carrot harvesting (with an adult in the area to make sure they're know which ones to pick and which rows to leave to seed etc.). The only issue there is that makes it harder for them to use berries as a food source, so either having regular drops of baskets of berries or have regular 'lunch breaks' smile

I tell all* my babies that they should always carry food with them when they're little. So if they're fetching water, their basket will only have two pouches, plus a berry or carrot, etc.

Harvest is a great idea for kids (as you said, as long as seed garden is far enough away they don't pick accidentally). It also gets them hands on early with farming, which is an important skill to have if you want to raise a family of your own.

*all that I keep

Offline

Board footer

Powered by FluxBB