Yup this is back.
What is Pantheon?Pantheon is among the God-Game Genres. Started by Megacaesar with Godhood I they all built on the same Premise: The Players are Gods in a World in which they can do as they please...well mostly. Pantheon specifically had always also been a bit more pvpey than most of the other God Games.
Basically what is happening as a Player is the following: You as a God use so called Acts for the particular purpose of creating or doing Stuff. I as the GM will describe how your actions fit into the world and how success- or unsuccessfull they are.
Usually these games are pretty RP-Heavy and live off of the interactions of Player Gods and the Mortals and of course between the Gods themselves
What are Acts?Acts represent your Divine Power. They came in various variations and determine how much "Essence" your God has at hand to use to create or destroy stuff.
Minor ActsA Minor Act is something already well beyond Mortal reach, it is to put it into perspective the power to influence an entire nation. It is the Power to teach Nations Technology, to mutate an entire species, the power to rise a single mountain or to create a single powerful being.
ActsThe Act is the standard measurement of Power for a God. A single act lets one raise continents, change entire countries, create species, demigods, monsters and a myriad more things. A Normal God usually gets 1 to 3 Acts per turn to do with as he pleases.
Great ActsThe Act of creating a World, an Afterlife, a Realm beyond the Mortal World, weapons of great destruction and artifacts of great power. The Power to change the face of a planet and to imprison another god. Great Acts are not easy to come by and it requires great amounts of energy,prayer, sacrifice or similiar things to get enough of them.
CommandmentsThe purview of the Pantokrator. Power beyond imagining. With a commandment one can change the very laws of reality. Physics and the laws of causality can be ignored with these, Dead Gods can be brought back, imprisoned ones freed. But Gods can also be slain at a single word and entire Worlds vanquished.
How does one aquire Acts?Through a myriad of options. The First one is Access to Fonts of Power. Fonts of Power have been created by the previous Gods to gain more power themselves. They represent fundamental powers of creation: Death,Life,Mortality,Fire, Earth and so on and so forth. Some are more vague in their description. These Fonts however grant one with Powers which they represent. With the Throne of Death you will be hard pressed to create normal flourishing life.
Secondly is worship and sacrifice. All sentient Mortals you create can worship you, through their combined power of belief they will empower you in the form they worship you. You might want to be the God of Healing but if they Worship you as the God of Decay then well...have fun with those Mortality, Pestilence or Death Acts. Beyond that they will however also provide you with unbound acts, acts without a sphere which will allow you to more freely do what you wish.
Finally there is one last option: to Feast. One can Devour other beings, species and even gods to gain their Acts. While devouring Mortals is trivial, it also grants only miniscule amounts of power, if any at all. Devouring Magical, Mythical and Powerful Beings can be more dangerous even to a god but will provide one with ample power. To kill a God however...
PantheonsPantheons are the moment when gods decide to work together and pool worship. Once a Pantheon is being established several principal roles need to be fulfilled: That of the Overgod, that of the Antagonist and that of the Mortal Protector. All other Gods are declared as Minor Ones. But what is the advantage of that? A Pantheon grants players a heightened amount of Power from the same number of worshippers. It is also a safe way to share worshippers, since instead of 1 god recieving 1 Act and the other recieving none both recieve one now.
Beyond that it establishes a Dynamic between the players. To keep the Pantheon Going the Antagonist has to act against the welfare of the worshippers, they protector in favor of it. As time passes these positions might be filled with different gods.
The PantokratorThere always has to be the strongest God. The One who keep this pocket of reality that you are living in alive and working. But more than that the Pantokrator is a garant for stability. You will start the Game after the Death/Vanishing of the previous pantokrator and as such without one.
The goal is to either bring all gods into a Pantheon under your rule as Overgod, to be the only surviving god or to simply force them to bend their knee to you and pay tribute.
Once that is achieved one can don the mantle of Pantokrator. For Five turns you will recieve a Commandement each turn and you will recieve all acts within the gameworld to distribute among the gods as you please (no you may not keep them, except for your own). During that time you are invincible to all other Gods which are bound to your will. After the fifth turn however, you are gone. What happens to a Pantokrator is a mystery none have discovered yet, but it is theorized that the sheer power you wield has melded you with reality itself.
Why would i introduce such a powerful mechanic? Well Games of Pantheon and/or other God Games tend to often end in cataclysmic battles for power and rivalry which never end. As such periods of Peace and Regrowth are needed for your miserable subjects. These periods are those during the reign of a Pantokrator.
Once the Pantokrator has vanished the circle begins a new and the surviving and new gods vie for power once again.
Mantle of Godhood, Divine ProtectionIn previous installements there were always problems with the fate of Mortals and how they are protected from other Divine Powers. Well fear no more, you can now grant beings Divine Protection which will protect them from direct interference via Acts. If the God personally visits you however or sents his minions things might look different.
But generally you can expend power to grant mortals protection from being simply smitten, earthquaked, plagued or whatever else your opponent might come up. However it won't protect against sentient beings and monsters making hunt for your charges.
Once you join the game you rise to Godhood and as such you irrevocably bind yourself to reality. By Donning the Mantle of Godhood you can no longer simply die. Well you can but that does not mean your god is gone for good. It simply means that another god took all your acts and artifacts and made off with them. As long as someone still believes in you, you can be brought back. And while you are dead you are controlling those certain someones. Be it some scattered cultists, a number of demigods which escaped the wrath of your opponent or even an entire nation of believers you can be brought back...albeit weakened. However should your last worshippers be killed, should your very name be forgotten by mortal beings, you will cease to exist and be gone for good from the game.
ImprisonmentThere always was the problem of how to handle imprisonment of gods. I decided to go with the same route as if you died. You will continue play as your mortal servants and worshippers, however you can grant them boons and miracles with which they are able to free you more easily.
But how does imprisoning a god work? You can throw a god into a divine prison through the simple expense of a great act. However you first have to create one and each prison is unique and works differently.
But what happens if both gods imprison each other simultaneously? In those cases congrats you just achieved Mutually Assured Imprisonment and will have to wait for your mortal servants to find a way to save you.
War of the Gods (and Mortals)Quite often people and gods will get into conflict. In Earlier games this has been handled by simply adding up Acts of the opposing sides and the one with the higher result becomes the winner. That lead to a myriad of problems, since players which didn’t hoard acts for the express purpose of murdering other folks were at a disadvantage.
As such Gods and Heroes and everything and everyone starts with a PR (Power Rating) which will be kept secret. This Power Rating is independent from Acts and cannot be directly improved by them. Players will have no information about Power Rating either. Why is that? Mostly to prevent power gaming. Pantheon has always been a game about the RP like all Godhood-like games. Now obviously resolving conflicts via rp only leads to endless problems, in the end I settled for Power Ratings which determine the strength of items, characters and gods. It also allows at a certain point that even mortals can face a god in battle.
Anyway what you will receive however is a vague information on the Strength of the Enemy if you are facing them and warnings in the case that you are about to engage into a battle you can’t possibly win (or only win with a very small margin).
Artifacts, Items of Power and Legendary CreationsAnother problem in the Pantheon and Godhood games was the creation of items of great power. Why would one forge a 3 Act Sword if he could just keep those three acts and maybe even use them for something more useful later?
Items of Power and Artifacts are now your only direct way of raising the Power Rating of your god. So the One Ring actually becomes something dearly sought after. But what would prevent a particularly bloody minded god from just forging items of war all day long and then use his ridiculously boosted up PR to murder everyone?
Well I can’t of course entirely prevent such things but one such limitation on forging is that not everyone is capable of it. If you play the God of Forging a kind of Wieland the Smith (if you are familiar with Germanic Mythology) or Hephaistos (if you know Greek Mythology) you will be able to create mighty items of power beyond anything another god or mortal can create. As such a God of Forging can become quite influential and sought after by the others.
However there is more than just throwing an act in for creating an artifact of power. Materials are everything the rarer and more exotic or powerful the materials of the artifact the more power does it possess.
The Afterlife/Parallel Worlds/Pocket UniversesQuite often in these games players try to create their own pocket dimensions closed off from everyone else and it has always been a problem for RP (due to those players hiding in isolation) and Gameplay (how does one get in there, what rules account in there etc.).
As a god you can indeed create your own World beyond the mortal world via the expense of a Single Great Act. Within that World all your Acts are enhanced in strength by one stage. An Act becomes a Great Act and a Great Act a Commandment.
All beings of your creation also receive automatically Divine Protection for free.
However these Worlds cost 1 Great Act per turn to maintain. More so these worlds provide no acts via worship. Like all other Gods, the Central Mortal World is your prime source of power.
Even more so each of these Pocket Worlds needs a Physical Connection to the Mortal World which is even accessible for a mortal being.
Other Gods Acts are reduced in power by one stage within that realm. So a Commandment becomes a Great Act and so forth if it is expended within your private realm.
Once such a realm has been established it also possesses a Throne of Power. Whosoever owns that throne owns the realm. If the Throne is vacated (either due to inability to pay the Tribute of One Great Act or due to Death or Imprisonment) the realm will start to crumble. If no one steps in to take the throne an Exodus Event will happen. The realm will fall apart and Catastrophe will ravage the mortal world. The Surviving Inhabitants of the Realm will flood into the Mortal World potentially creating further crisis.
Sign-Up and Starting SituationOkay I think that was everything in new and old changes to the game, let’s move on to sign-ups.
There are two new things here:
1.Previous PantokratorThis will determine the starting situation of the World you will start in. there are three choices:
A) The Godslayer
…And so the Godslayer had subjugated all around him. His enemies slain, his allies elevated he ruled for Aeons before vanishing…Udil Godslayer finally ascended even beyond Godhood and took the mantle of Godhood himself. Of the Old Gods only few are remaining but the World is littered in mighty artifacts of long forgotten gods and the wilds teem with great mythical beasts and magical beings. (Balanced Start)
B) The Phoenix Ascendant
…burn did all who stood in way, the Phoenix rose his power blinding those unbelieving, a world devoid of colour and magic.The Phoenix defeated the Coalition of Gods devouring and slaying them all. Of the Old Gods none remain, the beasts have been slain and the artifacts destroyed. Nothing remains but mortals and the fonts of power. (Players may only start as Ascendant Mortals)
C) The Pantheon Dominant
… The Phoenix slain, Spider and Godslayer van(qu)ished, the Pantheon succeeded in the end. And end to supremacy but no end to war…a cold benighted wasteland…The Coalition of Lesser Gods established their Power. The World is rich in Artifacts and many of the Old Gods still remain. However the Mortal World is ravaged by constant war and mortals have become few in numbers.
2. Your Type of GodElder GodOnly available if you have played in Pantheon 1.You are one of the remaining Gods of the Era of the previous Pantokrator and even before. Contrary to the Younger Gods you have no physical form as such. You take whatever form you please and are fundamentally bound to the Fabric of the Aether.
If you are killed you will simply reform at a later date again, your acts still belonging to you since your very essence is intervowen with them. You don't need to expend minor acts for teleportation or similiar things either.
However if you should lose all your acts you instantly die no matter if someone is still praying to you. That makes imprisonment a dangerous proposition. However to imprison an elder god is fundamentally harder than imprisoning a younger one. Only a Commandement can achieve a lattice strong enough to hold an Elder God.
Younger GodYou are a Younger God. Contrary to the Elders you have not come from the Great Beyond but are one of their creations who has donned the Mantle of Godhood and thus has fundamentally merged with the reality of this Universe. Imprisoning you is easier than imprisoning an Elder God since you are bound by the Laws of the Universe to a certain Degree. You have a physical Body, changing it requires great energy as does moving great distances. However your very existence makes you hard to kill. As long as there is even one believer left you can be reformed. However your bond with the Aether is weaker and as such Acts can be more easily riven from you. Your Death means losing all of your acts. Beyond that the Death of a Younger God will weaken the very borders of the veil. For every Younger God that succumbs the Barriers of the Veil will weaken.
This will allow more Voidborn to enter. A Younger God itself is usually a former Creation of the Elder Gods. If you have read/played Pantheon that is advantageous but it is not necessary. Still, it would be nice if we could see some former Demigods, Monsters, Mythical and Magical beings swinging themselves up to Godhood.
AscendantThou art but a Mortal. Some unknown being or divine providence has chosen you as its champion. Gifted with Divine Protection, you can challenge the Gods themselves. Although certainly not directly...maybe it is time to aspire to greater things? You cannot be imprisoned by direct means, but your death is final. (restricted to the following races: Human, Dwarf, Squiddle (Sentient Octopii), Seaspawn (basically Deep Ones), Crowborn (Corvid Humanoids, think Tengu from Japanese Mythology))
VoidbornYou are from beyond the Veil. You are thirsty and hungry and this Bubble of Reality, of Awareness provides sustenance. Your very need to devour other Life makes you dangerous. To God and Mortal alike. However your Powers are immense. Should a Voidborn be imprisoned it will strengthen the Veil and reduce the numbers of Voidborn able to enter. A living Voidborn can influence the dreams of mortals and can ignore Divine Protection. A Voidborn recieves 2 Voidborn Acts per turn which allows it to perverse the creations of other Gods, but only to a certain Degree. A Voidborn cannot recieve true worshippers or use fonts of power. However should it devour enough gods and with it the equivalent of three great acts it will be able to turn into a Younger God, thus permanently strengthening the Veil in a similiar way that imprisoning it would have done. Killing a Voidborn will have no effect on the Veil.
Name: Name of your God
Starting Scenario: One of the Three Offered
Type of God: What kind of God you would like to play. The initial group of players cannot start as Voidborn.
Description: Who or what is your god? What does it look like? General Background to your Character.
Sphere: Creation, Death, Crafts, Agriculture, Water etc.
Please send your Applications via PM, as always selected by quality not first-come-first serve.
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Topic: Pantheon III: Era of the Pantokrator OOC-Thread Applications always welcome (Read 6701 times)