Playing Gods Campaign idea
 

So I've been kicking around an idea about a new campaign, where the players play gods. There fighting with/against other pantheons in order to spread their influence and worship.

I want to get a heoric epic feel for the campaign. As if they're playing in their own personal Illyiad. Birthing heroes, guiding their people to glory and conquest. That sort of thing.

So I'm thinking that the players get glory points depending on how many worshipers/temples they have. They pick a college or a list of spells and make that their domain.

So Wayne the munchkin picks some spells from the movement, mind control and body colleges and becomes the god of war. Rod the roleplayer picks some from the illusions college and becomes the god of thieves and illusions. Tom the powergamer picks the air college and becomes mighty Zeus. Bill just goes the whole necromancy route and becomes the god of death.

As they get more and more glory points it becomes harder for them to interact with mortals without having them struck blind or burst into flames. But they can send them dreams or take the form of other creatures or people.

They can also beget children with mortals and create heroes. Heroes can withstand the power of the gods better than humans and will be endowed with great feats of mind or body.

The power of the heroes fades with each generation of children after them.

The gods can also create artifacts as per the enchantment rules and bequeath these relics to heroes and chosen mortals.

I'm also thinking that they can possess the children of mortals and walk amongst their worshipers. But there'll have to be some kind of trade off for that.

So basically at the beginning of the campaign when they don't have a lot of worshippers their weak and can act directly in the world. When they gain in power they have to start interacting indirectly or destroy what they have created.

What do you think?

Re: Playing Gods Campaign idea
 

It sounds good but also sounds almost exactly like Scion, which while a bit broken was a pretty cool game. So this game should work pretty well as long as you're a good GM

Re: Playing Gods Campaign idea
 

Dig around in the used-books bins for a book called Primal Order by an outfit called Wizards of the Coast ( this was what they were doing before the collectible-card thing took off). It's not GURPS, but does have rules for using it as god-level effects in a GURPS game, and how to determine power-from-worshippers, controlling planes, etc.

With that said, the 'start interacting indirectly' thing sounds very much like Scion, and is probably unnecessary from a plot standpoint- once the characters reach a certain power level, they should have opportunities to do things outside of the mortal realm.

Re: Playing Gods Campaign idea
 

I actually played in a game similar to this, and enjoyed it thoroughly. A friend and I had pretty complex religions and characters, but we also had standard D and D trope gods.

The biggest complaint I had was that we really didn't have a reason to work together. Why would my character, A complex god of Luck, Leadership, and Civilization) work with a god of nature hellbent on keeping humans from building cities? Aside from the looming crisis of not being worshiped anymore, it was very difficult to work together.

With the right group, the intraparty arguing can be fun. With the wrong group, it can be disastrous.

If you do do it, let me know how it goes!

Re: Playing Gods Campaign idea
 

One approach you can take is to require that that a god's true form have a level of Awe, Confusion or Terror based on the god's current character point level. Alternate less powerful forms are therefore necessary if a powerful god wants to do anything except rain destruction and drive everyone mad. At the same time however the larger and more widespread a god's following is, the more he'd have to delegate anyway. He can't be everywhere and while he may create heros and clerics he'll have to usually leave them to their own devices. Besides he'll be busy dealing with other gods and beings of a similar threat level.

Re: Playing Gods Campaign idea
 

An invaluable resource, and not just because it has a GURPS conversion is

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Primal_Order

http://www.rpg.net/news+reviews/reviews/rev_2459.html

'Tis somewhat old but covers just about everything you can think of. From the little things like why even the weakest god is still a god and the strongest mortal is not (something called Primal energy - gods have it and it underlies *everything*) to the big things like why you don't want to fight a god on their home plane to how much energy gods get from worship (and how much they spend to support same) to what happens in those rare cases where a deity is driven to true suicide (trust me, it's bad).

Hard to track down these days but the rules for adaptation to GURPS work incredibly smoothly. The mechanics are close enough it could almost be a supplement.

Re: Playing Gods Campaign idea
 

GURPS Religion might be helpful

Re: Playing Gods Campaign idea
 

I really want to disagree with you there, but if someone has no clue about how religions work, it could be. I am of the opinion that it was the worst GURPS book written.

Re: Playing Gods Campaign idea
 

I like that book :(

Re: Playing Gods Campaign idea
 

It's cool, we can still be friends! :) It's just I was a theology minor, so nothing in the book wowed me.