Godhood: Speed Mode!Godhood is a roleplaying/creative writing game where the players ascend to Godhood, creating a world from the Essence and the Void. An empty world with lore both written by the players, and hidden in its origins.
This thread is meant for discussions about the Godhood forum game and other OOC discussions, including any observations from lurkers/watchers. Please keep the RP thread free from such clutter.
The spirit of Godhood is normally all about long, exciting flavourful acts with deep character insights into the world being made. Speed Mode is about forcing all of that into
a maximum of three paragraphs (discounting single lines and conversation) to prevent turns taking too long. The GM has a similar restriction. Players are encouraged to be as deep and flavourful as before, but to be concise as well.
For reference:
Godhood VII, run by Caesar.Game RulesTo play, players should PM me a God template (and optionally place it here in the thread for others to view), along with a short act and flavour that the god might take. I will approve templates based on the flavour act given. A maximum of six gods will be allowed (with one special reserved spot for Caesar, should he wish to play). When I have enough gods, the RP thread will open with the starting conditions for the world.
God TemplateName of God:
Titles:
Description of Character:
Spheres:
Manifests as:
Characteristic Animal:
Secondary source of Power:
Divine responsibility:
Name of God: The Name of this God. (Optional: You could be nameless and instead opt to start with a title that fits the God's personality. It will still have to be added to THIS line.)
Titles: These have to be earned, and they relate to certain achievements of the Gods in question.
Description of Character: The general personality and actions that define this Gods.
Spheres: The Spheres that this God is associated with. The God will earn new spheres through belief, or other discriminating actions. Every God starts with one wide sphere, related to either important parts of nature, the elements, life itself or important aspects of humanoid communities. (Examples are: Earth, Water, Air, Fire, Death, Life, Chaos, Order, Love, Hate, War, Peace, Trade and Agriculture.) If you are unsure whether your sphere is wide enough, you can ask me.
Manifests as: The physical description of a God. A God WILL have to manifest to enter the mortal realm and influence in from closer by. The manifestations will have to be remotely humanoid at the least. (So it could be a normal woman or a twisted monstrosity with huge fangs, but not objects like a sword, nor animals.)
Characteristic Animal: Every God is related to a (mundane) animal. This animal will be more important than you might think, as it will determine several aspects of the God's starting situation, along with the ways the God is worshiped and what animal they can manifest as/effect. Try to choose animals that are more likely to be known by people in the more ancient cultures. (So do not choose things like the Blobfish. Do choose things like the eagle, a deer, a grouse or a wolf.)
Secondary source of Power: Every God will receive (a) secondary source(s) of power throughout the game. These are important for they will keep the God alive and increase their influence over the world while they are active. (Example: A temple their worshipers erected.)
Divine responsibility: Gods may be assigned a specific task by their worshipers. They will have to make sure that they take care of this task, or otherwise their followers might start to lose faith. Firm belief of mortals gives the Gods tasks. Taking good care of those expectations by their respective followers will yield great rewards.
Start of Game.
Name of God: Tholag Hammerfist
Titles: None yet.
Description of Character: Enjoys to see people drink, laugh and dance. Tholag Hammerfist strictly follows a code of honor, to never attack an enemy that is not equally armed, nor break your word. Hammerfist despises little people. Tholag uses brute force over tactic in a battle. The Drunk tends to be bad-mannered, and overly friendly.
Spheres: Thunder.
Manifests as: A long and tough man, towering above the average humanoid by about two feet. His face is covered in hair.
Characteristic Animal: Bear
Secondary source of Power: None yet.
Divine responsibility: Organizing feasts amongst the Gods.
(Note that Tholag would have earned part of his Spheres, for example through the unanimous belief of mortals that his laughter causes thunder)
Further into the game.
Name of God: Satoi
Titles: The Bringer of Hail, The Cold
Description of Character: The Cold tends to avoid most other Gods and mortals. Instead, her attention is focused mainly on the tundra, and the harsh life that is lived there. In some winters she will join the falling carpet of snow, strengthening it even further to protect her lands. This is her way of fighting.
Spheres: Ice, Winter, Fishing.
Manifests as: An elderly human woman.
Characteristic Animal: Dire Wolf
Secondary Source of Power: The Pools of Whispers.
Divine responsibility: Ensuring the abundance of fish before the winter months.
Acts- At the start of every turn, all Gods receive acts. The amount of acts they receive are based on their connection with the essence (which should be strongest at the start), the combined strength of their received worship (several fanatic cults could be just as strong as an entire moderate population) and secret factors.
- Theoretically you can store as many acts as you want. At a certain point, however, it might start giving drawbacks to store so much divine energy. Five acts is always safe.
- Going into a negative amount of acts might have severe consequences, potentially ranging from being helpless while your enemies destroy your interests to canceling out your acts and finally to twisting your acts into unintended harmful events. There is also a chance nothing bad happens, if the negative is shallow.
- Any thing you decide to do in each turn will take up acts (except for storing them). Some will be worth even more, although you should try and estimate how much each of them would be worth.
- Try to flavor your acts first in italic text, then summarize the actual effects in bold, like in this very simple example:
He smiled cynically, and then finished his creation, watching as the steam rose from the new pit, the birthplace of the automaton.
T'kernas creates the first automaton.
Example ApplicationTo clarify, gods do not start with titles, secondary sources of power or divine responsibilities.
Name of God: Jack
Titles: None earned.
Description of Character: Jack, god of Murder, is vicious and unstable when he feels unthreatened, but often assumes a charming and polite guise in the presence of those powerful enough to injure him. He is petty in the extreme and will kill or torture for the slightest insult, but also is eager to further the plots of petty murderers out of either amusement or vinctiveness.
Spheres: Murder.
Manifests as: A lean young man in murky brown clothing, usually armed with a knife. Can optionally take the form of anyone who has murdered or been murdered to achieve theatrical effect.
Characteristic Animal: The crow.
Secondary source of Power: None yet attained.
Divine responsibility: None yet taken up.
Endra clutched the wet cloth to her eye, vaguely aware that she would have to rub the pink stain out when she was done. Prince Argoth struck hard when a servant displeased him, especially one who might well be pregnant with a bastard. She would have to run, soon - once the Prince's anger cleared, he would send men to kill her lest the child present a threat in years to come. She took the cloth away from her bloodied face and began searching the small side-kitchen for supplies with which to flee.
A dagger lay on the tabletop. It looked fine, a steel blade with ornate silver handle and a smooth onyx stone set as the pommel. One of the Prince's men must have left it. As she stared at the blade, gears whirred in her mind. Her thoughts turned to the palace, a building she knew every last inch of. She knew all the servants' passages, she knew the routes the guards patrolled - she had served them beer often enough. She reached out and as she picked up the dagger the vague promise crystallised into a certainty in her mind.
Prince Argoth was going to die.
Endra left the kitchen, dagger stuffed beneath her dress, completely unaware of the young man lingering in the corner. He cut a piece off an apple with the twin to the dagger from the table and chewed thoughtfully, watching her go.
Jack ensures that a servant's murder of Prince Argoth, ruler of the great and powerful city-state of Magnia, is successful. He makes no effort to protect her escape.
The above action would cost 1 Act.