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[Tsuchigumo550]

Setting

The eternal war between the Black God and White God rages. The mortals still fight, but their strife has been called to peace. Through prophets of both gods and heavy losses in the last war, the people are unwilling to slay one another and retain the blessings of their God by ritual rather than bloodshed. Sacrifices have been made, and quite literally so, but the mortals have made their peace. Now is a time of exploration for the Mortal Realm- only a small part of their world is inhabited, due to the Cataclysmic Gray, a great reckoning where the Aether and the Mortal Realm collided and the war of the gods was fought on both fronts- until only those truly devout were left on the earth, clustered together in the last city. There, the Gods came to their first uneasy truce, allowing the Mortals to live.

The world has finally opened to the Mortals, and once more Aelus's golden streets and lofty spires are populated with the followers of both Gods. From here and from the many close-by border towns, great expansions are launched. Some take boats and sail for the open seas, some take great airships and fly above the clouds, and some take off on foot or by horse to find what there is to find out on the land. And find people did- sprawling ruins and dungeons now inhabited by all kinds of creatures unseen by the Mortals, many still holding treasure, and a time of wealth came to those willing to hunt for it...

You are one such mortal. Growing up as a member of one of the Twelve Houses, you picked up values and abilities that come in handy for the trials ahead. You and other various people you know- people you wouldn't go without- have made plans to become one of the many Adventuring Parties that seek to explore the world and blaze trails to places not yet seen- become successful enough, and it's possible you'll even be able to found your own outpost- then growing to a city under your guide. But before such dreams can be realized, the world must be uncovered from the veil it's under.

Heads up. I don't ever intent to run this. It's possible, maybe plausible, that something might come of it in the future, but it won't be this exact thing. Take from it what you will.

You are born under a House, each with a Sign of it's own. Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces. Each House specializes in one area of theology- writing, prayer, summoning, and the like. For instance, Libra specializes in those who write the scriptures of the White God, and can record knowledge and words of the White God and preach them. Words of God are powerful and not to be trifled with- the Names of the Gods can cause events equal to the Cataclysmic Gray...

Basically, there are six abilities for each God, and the chosen sign gives a boost to one.

Furthermore, Role is an important factor in how you are seen. Although religion is unified, there are many different denominations for each group, as such:
The Followers are the simplest group of followers, they simply observe holiday of their religion and take a day of every week to hear their God's scripture read. They get no bonuses or penalties.
The Spectre are a group of followers who cover themselves from head to toe in cloth matching the color of their God, and devoutly read and preach the Words of their God. They are able to read and write the Aether language, translate it, and read it. Unfortunately, to learn the Language and become a Spectre, they go through a ritual that deafens them permanently.
(Others later, maybe a total of four)

Past that, I don't know. The idea is, there's a great and ever-expanding dungeon list, you travel to them, and you fight things and solve the dungeon. You earn money and the like to a goal- such as a ship or Airship, to further your travels. Magic is replaced with Words of God and other similar God-power abilities, and Mana is replaced with Favor. Favor increases as you make sacrifices, pray, or wait (as supposedly those people at home are doing things to please the God) and the abilities most-of-the-time drain it. Also, two d20s are rolled every turn, a White Die and a Black Die. If the numbers are low, some abilities can't be used, if they are high, powerful abilities can be used.

[Dermonster]

Can I be Ophiuchus?

[Person]

I think I've figured out that I'm terrible at running games. 4 games in a row at this point that I've let die about 5-10 turns in at best. I enjoyed running them , so that's not it. Pretty sure this time it went to hell when I decided to run two at once, and noticed things got complicated exponentially somehow. They literally took max 20-30 minutes each to update. Any ideas on how to stop myself doing that? It's like I'm finding myself with awesome ideas, but no artistic skills, horrible linguistic ability, and no time to run them, ignoring the fact that I spend at least 5 times the amount it takes to update them on video games. If anyone wants the gun generator I can probably just post in now. *Sigh.*

[Digital Hellhound]

Is 20-30min a long time? Because it's been a while since I wrote an update in under 2-3 hours.

If your players liked the games, they were good. If I knew how to boost GM motivation none of my games would have ever died, so there I can't really help.

[Tarran]

Honestly, I don't think the speed of your updating is a problem. It's whether you enjoy doing your updates. Well, unless you take two or so weeks to update once. Then it becomes a problem.

[Xantalos]

Honestly, I don't think the speed of your updating is a problem. It's whether you enjoy doing your updates. Well, unless you take two or so weeks to update once. Then it becomes a problem.

What about god games? One I'm in took about a month to update, but it broke the character limit.

[Digital Hellhound]

Godhood-likes are more collaborative creative writing than standard games. They are also not RTDs.

[Xantalos]

Godhood-likes are more collaborative creative writing than standard games. They are also not RTDs.

...
That is true.

[lawastooshort]

Is 20-30min a long time? Because it's been a while since I wrote an update in under 2-3 hours.

If your players liked the games, they were good. If I knew how to boost GM motivation none of my games would have ever died, so there I can't really help.

Everything DH says is very much true.

In this post.

Also what Tarran said about enjoying the updating, I think that's quite important.

[lawastooshort]

Blast, now I have inadvertently doubled posted. Apologies. Anyway – disclaimer: I have never seen one of these films, but I have seen a couple of trailers, and I once walked past a poster. Also, despite the title, there’s no priests in thi- oh god that’s an even better idea.

Roll to Fairly Fast and Feckin’ Furious

”Oh feck! They’ve taken out the feckin’ popemobile convoy! Feckin’ feck! We’ve got to feckin’ do… STUFF before the feckin’ bomb… explodes or something!”

”FECK!”

”SHITE!”

”How about we do Mass?”

Character Sheet:
Father: Your Name
Stats: Distribute FIVE points between the below. Each point is a 1/6 chance of a +1.
Shooting a Gun Sideways:
Latin Swearing:
Electronics:
Wearing a Vest:
One Other Skill of Your Choice To Be Validated By The GM:
(I’d suggest Crossing Your Arms; Pouting; Looking Mean; Being Bald)
Bio/Details:

[Xantalos]

YES
YES
YES

[Tarran]

You forgot a driving skill, which is kind of strange considering the movie you're supposedly inspired by.

Suggestion: Driving While a Badass.

[Xantalos]

You forgot a driving skill, which is kind of strange considering the movie you're supposedly inspired by.

Suggestion: Driving While a Badass.

Driving like Vince Diesel?

[lawastooshort]

You forgot a driving skill, which is kind of strange considering the movie you're supposedly inspired by.

Suggestion: Driving While a Badass.

Yeah but then they're priests. I don't think they're legally permitted to learn to drive in most European countries.

Also I'd probably go with Driving While Frowning.

edit: I don't THINK.

[Harry Baldman]

You know, I had an idea for a semi-minimalist RTD. It would be sort of a god game, and mostly goalless, neither of which are very good things (at least for an RTD), but I figured it could work for setting generation.

The Hands That Shape: Universal Manipulation.

You are the shaping forces of the universe, incapable of creation or destruction, but certainly able to manipulate a whole lot of things. Your goal - have fun. Or be constructive. Your choice, really.

Spoiler: In The Beginning (click to show/hide)

The universe starts with two things - the Hands That Create and the Hands That Destroy. These are two unintelligent beings that stand above all - primal forces of existence that create things and obliterate them, respectively. These undefined things flow from the Hands That Create to the Hands That Destroy in a straight metaphysical line. In the very beginning, this line contains in itself Space, Time, Matter and Energy, all of which (except for Time, which flows in a Make-Unmake direction rather than the other way around or sideways) are in a jumbled mess in the beginning of time in a wider sense. It's all very fine and good, if a bit dull.

Spoiler: The Players (click to show/hide)

That's where you, the players come in - the players are the Hands That Shape. They are incapable of true creation or destruction, and must content themselves with manipulation. None of them have names, appearances or any sort of specific definition aside from their actions (successes and failures) and their derived creations. They cannot speak to the Hands That Create or the Hands That Destroy or influence them in any way. They can, however, communicate, cooperate or oppose each other in several ways.

Spoiler: The Derived Creations (click to show/hide)

Each player - each nameless player - can manipulate some of the resources given (initially Space, Matter, Time, Energy) into something new, be it a specific thing they want to exist, a law that holds true for the universe at large or maybe a different organization of the constituent elements of the universe. They can do all of that, no sweat, though it requires a roll to judge their success.

However, nothing is truly permanent but that which is suitably well-defined, and this is expressed as the Immutability Level, which starts at 0 and can go up to 3 for particularly well-defined, elaborate derived creations and 4 for a fundamental principle of the universe that many other things rely upon (except, of course, the Hands That Create or the Hands That Destroy, which cannot be influenced normally). The more fundamentally entrenched and defined a concept, the more Immutability it possesses. Immutability manifests itself when other Hands try to manipulate your creations - the Immutability Level is equal to the penalty they will take to the roll to try and change your dear old things. Naturally, should enough players rebel against your concept (each can give a single +1 to another's action of manipulation if they surrender their own). You can also try to set up a rival concept and set it on a conflicting path with the other concept, which may result in concept-to-concept combat, which might get violent and end with the Hands That Destroy fetching the losing concept and tossing it into oblivion.

As to what you can do, there is no real limit aside from two rules: you cannot tamper with the Hands That Create and the Hands That Destroy and you cannot directly invoke any and all pop culture references. The first rule is to keep certain core concepts intact and prevent complete breakdowns of the game, the second is to prevent the bog standard "I SUMMON CTHULHU HAR HAR HAR" actions that, in my opinion, are hardly ever amusing and result in pointless, unimaginative conceptual regurgitation that never goes anywhere interesting. However, if you absolutely must have Cthulhu in this game, make his cousin Unpronounceable Bob, palette swap included in complete package. Or better yet, put your own twist on the frequently abused old guy and don't just rip things wholesale from other things and put them into a third set of things they don't really fit into by any reasonable measure.

Spoiler: Sounds Like Serious Business (click to show/hide)

It might sound like that, yes, what with the zero-tolerance policy for easy references. And it might even actually be serious business, depending on the GM and the players. However, that is ultimately an unlikely prospect. You can be as serious or comedic with it as you want, the reference embargo is only meant to discourage cheapness in ideas and concepts and make players think more about what they create.

It might also turn out to be rather boring (or rather weird, considering that you can warp time and space itself), though that is an ever-present risk in many games. You be the judge.

Opinions?