Pantheon
Application ThreadRP ThreadIRC-Channel: #PantheonB12 on freenode.netOkay, so what is this about? I think all or most of you have read at least one of the excellent Godhoods from Caesar. While Godhood is an awesome game and all, it lacked the rivalries and constant infighting between the Gods that is present in so many Mythologies. What it also lacked (in my opinion) was the ridiculous amounts of Not-Quite-Gods and Maybe-Gods,Ascendants,Titans,Demigods,Heroes and what have you not. If you look at your average Mythology it becomes pretty quickly crowded with a myriad of such beings why you can't really classify as Gods although they can stand toe to toe with one.
This gave me an idea. Why not enter different "types" of gods which play entirely different? Why not make a Pantheon a wee bit more useful? And why not turn the whole game into a giant free for all that the ancient Mythologies oftimes were in contrary to (and that is not meant as a critique) Godhoods mass alliances?
But enough of Explanations what i have in mind is this:
I will accept 10 players to begin with. The number may raise or fall depending on how much work this turns out to be. Now you guys can choose between a little Arsenal of different "types" of gods, each playing (hopefully) different.
First of Acts:
In Godhood we had usually the System of just simple Acts. They were the amount of power a god used for doing something. An Act entails the creation of a Race or the raising of a Continent from the Seas. Now in between there were tries to further differentiate Acts. After all using one Act for giving a Race the Knowledge to create Steel and creating a Planet seems a bit weird. Thus suddenly we had Minor Acts, Normal Acts and Mighty Acts, each interchangeable like your 100 Cents for the Euro.
In Pantheon this will be different. Indeed there are Mighty Acts, Acts and Minor Acts but they are NOT interchangeable.
Mighty ActsAnd from his own Substance he cut away and created a son.Mighty Acts are truly things of omnipotence. The Creation of A World requires an Act, as does the Killing of a God(at least). Mighty Acts are usually restricted to the Overgod and the Elder Gods, maybe one of the mightier Titans is able to get his hands on some. Other beings just aren't as powerful.
ActsAnd from the Mud he formed a Being and with his breath gave it life."Normal" Acts are actions of true godly power. The Creation of an entire Race, the Raising of Continents from an Ocean are all Acts. Acts are restricted to the Younger Gods, some of the Titans and the odd Demigod or Ascendant. Though the Ancients can't get them directly they occasionally gain them through not so savory means(but usually they don't need them anyway due to having Mighty Acts).
Minor ActsAnd he brought them the Fire and taught them how to use it.Minor Acts are action beyond anything a mortal can hope to achieve. Razing a Mountain or Giving a whole people a Technology or flying/teleportation are things which can be considered Minor Acts.
Demigods/Ascendants are usually restricted to them although many a thing a Titan can achieve can be called a Minor Act in itself. The Ancients have no need for Minor Acts, they are so mighty that they can do a Minor Act at their will. However the Younger Gods are not that powerful. They can get Minor Acts occasionally by small Blood Sacrifices or by spikes of power in their Spheres.
Now let's Continue onwards to which roles you can take:
That's right you can play him. However for that role only 1 Player is allowed.
Summary
The Overgod is the Creator of the Universe, he is the Alpha and usually the Omega...although not necessarily. He starts out as the mightiest of all Gods, and starts with the ridiculous amount of 10 Mighty Acts. Furthermore he gains 3 Acts every turn. Sadly there is a downside. Since the Overgod is the Creator of the Universe he can't draw power from it. He would only draw it from himself. Thus he draws it from the Aether(It is the Place between the Universes). This act is extremely exhausting and thus the Overgod needs to Sleep.
For every Mighty Act the Overgod uses he sleeps one turn. That means if he uses 10 acts on his first turn he will be asleep for the next ten turns to awake with 30 acts, correct? Wrong.
While the god replenishes 3 acts per turn the Elder Gods and some of the other Ancients are slowly leeching energy from him. ( See it as maintenance cost for keeping up gods) The more Ancients exist the greater the draw of Power from the Overgod. However there is a threshold: the Overgod can only be reduced to 3 Mighty Acts at Minimum. Leeching beyond that point is impossible.
Now whoever was interested before might now say...bah...why should i play if i can only join in every 3 to 5 turns? Well while the Overgod dreams he is not entirely useless. He dreams through the eyes of his Avatar a Shapeshifter who gains one Minor Act per turn. This means while he might not be wandering around Crushing entire Suns in the palm of his hand, he can do quite mischievous things, besides this Avatar is immortal. When it is killed it merely remanifests at some other point in the Universe. See the parallels to our wandering Zeus'ses and Odin's? With this Minor Act he could make many a mortal Woman the proud mother of...something, only to name an example.
This Means the Overgod has two Play Phases: Awake and Asleep. The first one playing like an Omnipotent God, the second one playing the wandering God just watching how his creations fare and "aiding" them a bit if he so desires...
Finally: the Overgod can not draw endless power from the Aether. With each hibernation period he gets 1 Mighty Act less. Until he can draw no more power from the Aether. From then on out you have to get creative as on how to get your Acts.
Starting Acts: 10 Mighty Acts
Acts per turn: 3 Mighty Acts
Avatar Stats: Immortal, 1 Minor Act per turn, teleporting and flying is free as well as shapeshifting
Sign-up Sheet:
Name:
Appearance:
Description:
usual Avatar Appearance:
The next mightiest thing on the ladder. I'd like at most 5 players in that Position, although 3 would be about perfect.
Summary
The Elder God are enormously mighty beings which come into existance when the Overgod changes things of monomentous importance. The Creation of a Star would be such a thing.
Elder Gods represent Elemental Forces in the Galaxy. These Elemental Forces however have no influence over the God. While there very well maybe a Elder God of Darkness he is not necessarily Evil or caring about destroying the Elder God of Light. It is just his nature and the Element he was bound to.
Although Elder Gods are incredibly mighty they have a problem. They are bound to the Overgod in a most unpleasant manner. They leech their powers from the Overgod. While an Elder God starts with 3 Mighty Acts and regenerates 1 Mighty Act per turn, it is taken from the pool of the Overgod. Now with too many Elder Gods come into existance this gets problematic, as each sips an Act each turn and the Overgod has only 3 in total. This inevitably leads to a shortage of Acts, but how to ship around that?
For this the Elder God has several possibilities.
1. Cult of Believers:
While this might sound like a good idea at first it has several problems. Cults are not nearly as successfull as Religions and rapidly fall to the established Religions and Faiths of the Younger Gods. Plus they only produce normal Acts.
2. Blood Sacrifices:
You read that correctly. If Elder Gods can procure Blood sacrifices they gain more Acts. The Efficiency of such a thing depends on the size of the Blood Sacrifice and if it is given willingly or not. Blood Sacrifices might give anythign between 3 Mighty Acts and 1 Minor Act respectively.
3.Eating a Divine Being
If you somehow manage to kill a Divine Being(Overgod,Elder God,Younger Gods...) you can absorb his Substance and add it to your own. In case of the Overgod this yields 10 Mighty Acts, 3 Mighty Acts for an Elder God and 2 Mighty Acts for an Younger God. Ascendants bring depending on their power between one and several Acts. Ancients are handled on a case to case basis.
In other words as Elder god you are the superior predator in the Universe, well as long as Papa Overgod is asleep. Or none of the Ancient Ones shows up.
Starting Acts: 3 Mighty Acts
Acts per turn: 1 Mighty Act(as long as the Overgod has any to spare)
Sign-up Sheet:
Name:
Elemental Concept:(Darkness,Light,Shadow,Energy,Time,Earth,Water...and so on and so forth)
Appearance:
Description:
The Younger God. There are no restrictions as to how many players play them.
Younger Gods play pretty similiar to the usual Gods of Godhood.
Summary
Younger Gods are born if a particularly strong tenant is created. If for example somebody discovers Agriculture soon some Mortals will believe that there is a god of Fertility and pray to it.
This causes the God to wink into existance. Belief is the Strength and the Weakness of the Younger God. His believers grant him his powers but when they cease to pray to him he slowly withers away as he loses his power.
When a Younger God comes into existance his mere creation grants him the power of one Mighty Act. From there on out he is totally reliant on his believers for Acts. As the Number of Mortals grow so does the power of the Younger God.
While this may all be well and good a Younger God only gets Normal Acts from this. To get the power of the Elder Gods however he needs Mighty Acts. He gets them by founding a Pantheon together with other Younger Gods. When a Pantheon has enough followers to gain 5 Acts per Turn, it gets 1 Mighty Act. This one they can use as they see fit. Even more useful aslong as Younger Gods are allied in a Pantheon they are safe from the predations of the Elder Gods. While they still can be killed the Pantheon gains the acts of the Dying God and not his killer. Furthermore the Pantheon can burn 5 Acts to prevent the complete Death of the God. What happens then to him you ask? That depends on how he was killed and how you intend to safe him.
But before you feel too safe, Younger Gods beware the vermin between your feet. Ascendants. They are able to cast you down from your Pantheon position and take that place turning themselves into Ascendant Gods. Once cast outside you are vulnerable to the predations of the Elders again.
Another interesting aspect of the Elder/Younger Dynamic is Religion and Blood Sacrifice. While Elder Gods can gain enormous power through blood sacrifices you can too although far less efficiently. On the other hand your Followers produce full-blow religions which can easily convert the Cults of the Elders.
Starting Acts: 1 Mighty Act
Acts per turn: depending on the number of followers.
Sign-up Sheet:
Name:
Sphere:( Technology, Death,Life, Fertility,Nature, Greed, Money,Mining,Metals...Minor Elemental Principles and the usual Sphere stuff)
Appearance:
Description:
You came here for the !!FUN!!. While i will allow a total of 10 Gods i will randomly introduce Mortal beings which can be played.
Summary
Some Mortals, very few indeed can advance beyond what they are usually capable. they can grow beyond what is possible for them and Ascend to Godhood.
For that however they have to be touched by Fate itself (in other words: me) When a Mortal was touched by Fate he can be controlled by a Player. From then on you have 1 Minor Act. How you use it is up to you. How do you ascend you ask? Well that is something you have to find out...there are indeed many ways how to do that. But if you upset the Natural Balance of things, Existance will right itself. If one ascends another has to fall...
How to sign up:
post interest if you see that i announce that a Mortal has been Fate-Touched.
And last but not least:
Titans, Elder Things, Beings from Beyond the Veil(Astra'ath as one example.), Giants, Dragons. You name it. All these things have in common are that they can step toe-to-toe with a God although they aren't quite as versatile with their powers. IF you want to play an Ancient send me an PM with the specifications of what exactly you had in mind to play. However there wil only be a maximum of 2 Ancients to prevent everybody taking that position...
Finally, the game is meant to be RP-Heavy. Fluff your Actions out, explain the reasonings behind your actions such things. Build the Character of your God and don't make him a bland blank.
As before i'd like to point at Godhood for Inspiration, Remember Mythologies were full of colorful Gods who were anything but perfect in Character...
Make your Acts count. It is Boring to just read:
Cthulhu creates a Planet to 50% covered in Water.Give people something to read fluff out your actions. When you are done with that you can still post the exact measurements in your Action at the bottom of the post...
Gathering his Powers Cthulhu uses them to create an Ocean World he will call Gaia. Conjuring up a massive Molten Ball of Rock he waits till it is cooled down before he fills the vast canyons with water. Still primeval Gaia could be best described as brooding. Jagged Mountainsides rise from the vast Oceans, which are whipped by constant terrible Storms and Rains, occasionally a Mountain Peak explodes and showers the surrounding areas in brimstone and Lava. All life seems impossible on this foreboding World.I figure you get the gist.
It's not first come first serve. Even if somebody already chose a Sphere or Element, you can still apply...i will choose once i have enough Applications.
UPDATE:
Direct CombatDirect Combat works the following way:
each Combatant has a set amount of HP. I roll Opposing 1d6+Bonus until one runs out and dies.
If several Combatants are in the battle they only add HP and Bonus on each other. That is if there are just two sides. Three sides mean an additional 1d6 and so on.
Indirect CombatAKA using of Acts to kill A God.
1 Act causes 3 HP Damage
1 Mighty Act respectively 9HP Damage.
inflicted wounds in Direct or Indirect Combat last until healed. 1 Act suffices for healing. 1 Minor Act for Ascendants.
Bonuses, Weaponized Acts etc.
generally there are 3 Ways to enhacne your combat capability:
Weaponized Acts: add a bonus respective to the infused Acts to the Rolls
1 Act adds thus +1 to your 1d6 roll
1 Mighty Act adds +3 to your 1d6 roll
Armors: add HP respective to the infused Acts to the Rolls
1 Act adds thus 1HP to your Health
1 Mighty Act adds 3 HP
Focuses/Relics: are things which give you either a HP or a Strength Bonus. That means you have to be close to them to get the Bonus. An example would be Sychasis. On the plus side Relics/Focii can be overloaded with Acts hurled at you on the negative side, they cost more than they give in Bonus. Example:
A)Sychasis has been Made from 2 Mighty Acts. God A throws 1 Act at Sabt Golgo. She instead overloads Sychasis with it. Sychasis will keep the Act for Sabt Golgo for the remainder of the Battle. After the Battle Sabt Golgo can use the act for herself, that is if she survived.
B) Sychasis has been made from 2 Mighty Acts. God A throws 2 Mighty Acts at Sabt Golgo. She instead overloads Sychasis with it. Sychasis is destroyed from overload.
The Overgod, can be only killed in his sleeping phase by Direct Combat. While he is awake he can be killed by all other means.