What about a game where players take the role of Gods, but they are trapped on the other side of a portal at the start of the game.

In the beginning, the players have indirect control over champions who must build a portal, and prepare for their arrival?

I was reading the Epic Legacy AD&D rules, and it had ideas like "Athletics lets you throw things like a siege cannon" and I am reluctant to start players off that powerful -as one man wrecking crews - unless the challenges they face are equally as feirce.

So what if there was another pantheon trying to stop your efforts?


I'd like to use the most minimally viable rules but still have stats, that allow players to choose an Archon of Sorcerous power, or a Ravaging Barbarian but not an omnipotent all-powerful God - more like Hercules or Theseus as a Demi-God.

Is there such a system? Would anyone be interested in participatively helping me design one?

Kevin Crawford's Godbound from Sine Nomine Publishing was an interesting simplified d20 game/setting where characters are demigods that ascend to greater heights.

Whitewolf's Exalted was a complicated d10 game with a similar setting.

You might also want to look into Pathfinder RPG's Kingdom Building rules from Ultimate Campaign that explains a lot about building kingdoms and managing resources and mass combat etc.

Playing a deity that is kingmaking their heroes/villains who serve them would be a lot of fun if you mixmatch such play styles.


I also wrote about this myself making a homebrew for PFRPG1e and a simplified gaming system for it:

Demigod (Simplified RPG)
Everyone's a Demigod (House Rules for Pathfinder)
This message was last edited by the GM at 06:01, Mon 04 Mar.

I have run one game that 'sort of fits' with that theme -  but it was years ago when AD&D1 ruled the roost :)  It was a one-off, and I got players to create high level characters specifically for that game.  Even then, they were pitched against the high level minions of the pantheon they were 'fighting'.

I currently play in a 3.5 campaign game where we are freeing gods from imprisonment -  although the prisons are all on the material plane.  Characters are 10th level and we have to fight our way to the prisons, through various 'evil' settings just to get to the portal.  Once we get to the portal the defences ramp up to minor minions of the imprisoning deity.  However, we need to solve the solution to opening the portals before we get there - have the right sword to break the seal or know that we need to solve a riddle when we get there.

As a pathfinder DM, if I were running something like that now, I would use the PF Mythic rules.  They fit well with the concept of demi-gods from Greek mythology -  where the characters have some sort of divine spark from birth.  For a campaign game, I have them as part of a long term plan by the imprisoned deity -  he/she has been working on breeding heroes for generations, and these are the fourth or fifth generation.  They would all be able to trace their ancestry back through great heroes, mythic heroes and mythical beats.   Some might be all human, some might have a dragon or powerful elemental in their ancestry.  Then I   would start them at lower levels and give them a couple of Mythic tiers to start with -  and build them up from that, searching for the items they need to build the portal.  Then I would give them an extra Mythic tier every time they completed a section of the quest.

For a one-off, I would start them at higher level, with all their mythical and amazing powers - and just let them go for the Final part of the campaign story arc.

While I understand that isn't a recommendation for a game system - it  might help you decide on an approach to use.  The concepts work, more or less, with any system, it just depends on how much work you want to put into it - and the type of game that you want to run.

Thanks! I bought all of the Godbound books on your recommendation, and they do remind me of Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous.

The challenge I have is that a part of me thinks that once you make the player so powerful, it becomes difficult to throw anything at them that is challenging.

"Tiamat? I fling my fingernail of infinite destruction at him, while yawning. It auto-crits on a roll of 2 or higher.."

I want the players to FEEL like Demi-Gods but also struggle - like Hercules might. The beauty of Star Trek episodes was that despite their very advanced technology, they were often faced with problems that the technology could not simply zap or solve for them. Not once did they say "Computer, use your AI to tell us what to do" either.

No puzzle ever got auto-solved for them. Giving players such Godly intelligence, it's difficult to think of ways to put them in situations that would ever make them not simply solve the problem with a few rolls.



I need to give some thought to how to balance a powerful game like this. Birthright would turn the player into a Manticore or giant spider, but not necesarily make them so powerful they could simple gobble up all other Gods. They were connected to the land that they derived power from, and as well they had to protect it.

I just don't want anything quite as complex as Birthright. I did love Godbound's "Words" and "Gifts" and that's something I'll definitely use.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:55, Wed 06 Mar.

In reply to Malakhon (msg # 4):

You could customize the DCs and scaling while using the existing powers.

For example, if normally you have only 2 tiers you could scale it up to 5 tiers.

Describe how big/epic their effect is based on your customized tiering. For example, someone with the Earth power still commands earth but at tier 1 they're limited to 5-foot spaces and 2d6 damage while at tier 2 they'd have 50-foot spaces OR 4d6 damage at 5-foot and at tier 3 they'd have 500-foot radius or 6d6 damage etc. I'd have to look at the system to build a scale (it's been a long time for me) but by taking the same concepts and abilities and just creating your own sliding scale of power that you're comfortable with you can tailor the game as needed.

Example:

Tier 1: 10-foot radius (range is x10 radius), 2d6 damage/healing, 1 round duration (save ends early)
Tier 2: 25-foot, 4d6, 1 minute (1 save per round ends early)
Tier 3: 50-foot, 6d6, 10 minutes (1 save per minute ends early)
Tier 4: 100-foot, 8d6, 2 hours (1 save per 10 minutes ends early)
Tier 5: 250-foot, 10d6, 24 hours (1 save per 2 hours ends early)
etc.


ALTERNATIVELY, if you want Star Trek problem solving you can make powers Item-dependent and Situation-dependent where they have to charge up their powers in order to use the big stuff (can't do that mid combat) and their items can be disabled, disarmed, stolen, jammed, etc. temporarily requiring them to try to figure out how to get them back. Whatever powers they do have without their items/charge up time they'd have to use in a clever manner in order to swing the battlefield back to their advantage.


For players with incredible intellect, solving puzzles still requires the right tool. For example, you might figure out 65 different ways to solve a puzzle but all 65 of those require tools, resources, and time you don't have. Typically, a puzzle solved for me is just a bonus to the attack rolls, saves, defenses, you have during the encounter but it doesn't dodge the encounter.

I've picked up the old Council of Wyrms 2e book - where players take the role of Dragons. I am going to customize that so that the players share the same domain - I am thinking an ancient fallen city inside a mountain, perhaps to large for the greatest dragons to fly out on their own, but their hatchlings can leave the nest.

The players will be attended by Dragonborn priests, who can worship them like gods and allow for some rudimentary god powers. There will also be three tribes of Goblins that maintain the spider farms (Which the dragons eat) and serve their masters.

I just haven't decided what powers those are, and what types of Dragons would be available. I do not think all types.

You could probably steal the powers from Godbound since they're also d20 and rather vague.