YA GODS is a godgame, with an emphasis on empowering players to pursue their own narrative, while at the same time, tempting them to stray from the path.
At the beginning of this game, the world will be vast and unknown to the gods. Much of the world will be shapeless, but you are far from the first to colonize these lands. As such, ancient ruins and indigenous beings may be discovered. Yet for the most part the world will be built from the ground up by the players, serving both as an expression of creativity, as well as a sandbox to pursue goals in an evolving narrative.
This is a game more about creating and writing than it is about anything else. Players will be expected to and be rewarded for putting effort into their posts. This world will quickly populate with mortals, cultures, religions, monsters and all manner of interesting things to interact with, and building that kind of depth comes from both the GM and the players. Lean into the world and create something worthwhile, write around what interests you and you will find there will be plenty to work with.
Name - (Bob Ross - The Painter, Etc), [LEAVE BLANK FOR RANDOM]
Sphere - What you are god of, [LEAVE RANDOM FOR RANDOM]
Description - (preferably less than 10 paragraphs in length), [LEAVE BLANK FOR RANDOM]
Starting Bonus - (1) Artifact, (1) race of mortals, (1) Feature, (10) extra acts, [LEAVE BLANK FOR RANDOM]
All things have (5) points of ownership.
Ownership is affected by interacting with things, or having things one owns interact with other things, and in the case of Regions- can be accumulated or lost by interactions between the constituent parts.
Ownership is divided into 7 stages, and can be applied to most things.
-3 Chaotic dispute - a third party has successfully gained claim to a point of ownership during
an Invasive dispute viva force, *no one* is counted as having legitimate ownership, *everyone*
receives a 50% discount to acting upon things in this state, this lasts until 3 turns have
passed, (1) player has regained a Majority Ownership, or a majority of players involved
accept a declaration that this has ended.
-2 Invasive dispute - through force, a god has claimed (1) or more points of ownership from
another god, automatically causing dispute- during this all gods receive a 25% discount to
act upon this object
-1 Ordered dispute - through Casus Belli, a dispute has been orchestrated between (2) or
more legitimate holders of ownership, actions between said gods, targeting each other’s
ownership cost 50% less, or else receive no discount- uninvolved players pay 10% more.
0 Unowned / communal ownership - the default state of anything uninfluenced by the gods, or
Influenced by too many, no one is discounted, no one pays extra
+1 joint ownership - no one holds more than (2) of the (5) points of ownership for this, all
players with ownership get a 10% discount for acting upon things in this state, all other
players must pay 10% more.
+2 Minority ownership - one player holds (3) or more points of ownership, all other players with
ownership are counted as minority ownership, and get a 25% discount for acting upon this
object.
+3 Majority ownership - one player holds (3) or more points of ownership, this player receives a
50% discount for acting upon this object. All players without ownership pay 25% more.
For this game, I don't have terribly set prices. In other words, most things are a "get what you pay for" deal. The average price for most small items (plants, animals, small acts of god(s), curses or weak artifacts) would fall between 1 and 5 Acts. For larger creations (Mortal or monstrous races, artifacts, miracles, ect.) you're going to be looking at 5-10 Acts. I recommend price checking regularly, but in general my philosophy to this kind of thing is to try to reflect your intent as best as possible, with the amount of Acts provided. Regions and Magic systems are unique cases, in that they have pre-set minimum prices (listed below).
Regional pricing may vary
Creation costs
[number/acts]
1/20 Region - the ‘container’ for all other slots, during region creation, filling slots is discounted
by 50%, and additional slots can be purchased at a 50% discount.
1/* *special* slot - (1) per Region, can’t be increased, represents truly unique regional
features such as vast underground areas, ley lines, and region encompassing barriers,
can *radically* alter how a region functions, be that by *doubling* the effective area, or
applying an effect (semi)universally.
1/10 Biome slot - (1) per Region by default, represents the ‘general’ structure of the area, a
ocean biome is mainly underwater, a forest biome contains vast tracts of trees, a flesh
biome lacks vegetation.
1/5* Feature slot - (1) per Biome by default, represents ‘large’ landmark structures
independent of Biome, such as forests, mountains, cities, and or etc, *cost multiplied by
the number of extra feature slots*
1/3 Location slot - (3) per Feature by default, represents ‘small’ structures of importance,
such as Mines, Camps, Temples, and Castles
Slotting things in
1/20 Special structures
1/5 Biomes
1/10 Features
1/1 Locations
Modifiers & Multipliers
2/1 Mundane, (natural) - Forests, mountains, caves, lakes
1/1 Mundane, (manufactured/active) - Cities, volcanoes, Mt Rushmore
1/1 Magical - Fairy forests, Floating islands, a house with chicken legs
1/2 Unnatural - a *void*,
Carociber, radioactive wasteland
[Empty slots of all kinds tend to fill themselves given enough time. Pioneer species eventually colonize a biome, mortals eventually move in and create settlements, and naturally build buildings. The smaller the slot, the more likely it is to naturally fill up or change as time goes on. Leaving slots empty may allow you free benefits, but also leaves the slot exposed to nefarious actors and cruel twists of fate.]
Magic Systems
1/30 Source - a declared power-source for a truly world wide magic system
1/10 Mechanism - the actual Mechanics of the Magic system
1/5* Example - A singular Spell from the magic system. (*3 granted free with each Mechanism)
Exploring Dark Regions
While much of the world is shapeless and unformed, some regions predate your reign. These are called dark regions, named so because the gods can neither see within or act directly upon them until they have been explored. Exploring a dark region grants a small sum of Acts, or minor event. However, this is rarely a simple task. Monsters, mortals and minor gods may have prior claim over a region, and any treasures within. Without your divine powers, you'll have to rely on your mortals and minions to explore these pagan wilds.
After a dark region is explored, it becomes conquerable. This is a special state where any god can put forth a valid claim on the region, and attempt to take it under their own control. Gods who explored the region have particularly strong claims.
Mortals and Cultures
Regions can be populated by a wide variety of plant and animal species, but of all the creatures in a region, often it is mortals who are of the most interest to the divines. Mortals can be almost any sapient and self-aware species that is not sustained by divine or excessively magical means. However, the true hallmark of a mortal comes in their soul, which is small and bright. It is these tiny beacons that make mortals especially easy for the gods to focus on, as well as allows them to efficiently produce Acts for their deity through worship. Monstrous races similarly have powerful souls, making them more difficult, but workable subjects.
Attunement
Attuned is a catch-all term for mortals that are particularly connected to the heavens. While some mortals have naturally high attunement (often unknown to the individual until a deity reaches out in search of a servant or champion), individuals of power also naturally attune to the gods. This is the result of the same processes in the human soul that lead to the production of Acts. As leaders and individuals of note are often the target of many more thoughts and emotions than regular citizens, they receive micro-doses of Acts, which ultimately better aligns their souls into attunement with the heavens.
This makes these mortals much easier for the divines to observe from afar, as well as allowing for more direct communication. Attuned mortals could therefore be thought of as a special subset of mortals who are naturally sensitive the divine. This does not necessarily make them obedient, in many cases the opposite. As their proximity to the divine has categorically demonstrated their importance to the universe, this rarely shrinks the ego. Regardless, mortals are fickle beings and often need to be bartered with or otherwise persuaded to devote their existence to an unknowable higher power. In many cases, attunement can become hereditary.
As a note on the un-attuned, from the realms of the gods, they appear much as the realms of the divine appear to them, as very dim stars in the distance. While focusing on a single one of these may be possible, it is rarely relevant and difficult to maintain. The winds of fate rarely allow a mortal of note slip past without some amount of attunement.
Culture
A culture is a shared identity between large groups of individuals. Cultures in this context include the particular customs, beliefs, lifestyle and similar common features of a group of mortals overseen by one or more player. Cultures in this way reflect the general information of how a group tends to act, whether that is in their particular way of life, or architecture, or common social customs. Moreover, technological advances are shared via culture, their implementation and use slowly disseminating from one member of the culture to others until it is a common aspect of life for that culture.
Cultures are far from static modifiers and represent the state of a group of people in both how they have developed as a people, but also how they are actively progressing, or regressing, and changing as a result of the evolving nature of the world. Typically cultures will have a cultural head or small group of individuals who are considered the leaders of a culture.
Cultures will develop naturally from any collection of mortals, given enough time. In addition, cultures may divulge and speciate due to many factors, such as: political climate, outside influence, cultural hybridization, geographical foundries / distance, shifting environmental factors, and general strife. As a result, understanding the culture of an individual as well as the trajectory of that culture, is very useful information in deciding on courses of action.
Cults
Cults are very similar to cultures, in that they're a set of people who all have similar beliefs and practices. Cults regularly spring up and disband as the balance of power in the world changes, occasionally because of the direct actions of a cult. Cults do not follow the normal practices and methods of organized religions, often using occultism, mysticism, and heretical rights to express their devotion. Cults tend to center around a purpose or a particular deity (especially if that deity's worship is banned in the area). Cults can be powerful tools in the subversion of an enemy power, or can bring about the creation of monsters and artifacts if they become powerful enough. Independent actors for the most part, it will be much more common for your cults to petition you, than for you to have any directions to give them.
Directing Mortals
Each turn the owner of a culture may direct the development of their culture in some way. This might be to encourage them to research a particular technology, or to develop practices of work or worship. Directives given in this way can be slow, depending on the size of the culture, but allow players to mold and guide the cultures under their rule in a wide variety of ways.
Similarly, mortal leaders of features may be given directions on how to develop, maintain, or expand their domain.
Religions
In addition to cultures, mortals often have a religion and pledge their faith (and often more) to a god or a pantheon. Religions in this game are generative and dynamic, representing the shifting faiths, opinions, and beliefs of the NPC masses of the world. You might find that your have various religions with you as their head, which all believe very different things about the world as well as your character. Managing these expectations, working within them, and slowly altering them to fit your needs is part of the fun of this world.
Religion Type
Religion type is an overarching category that indicates the nature of the religion. At the start of the game, most faiths will either be tribal or wild faiths, but as the game progresses, domestic, warlike, and other types of faith will certainly arise. The type of faith describes who the worshipers of the faith are and general expectations of those followers.
Religion Aggression
The aggression of a religion indicates how hostile it is to other faiths, with very hostile religions launching crusades and holy wars often, whereas peaceful and accepting faiths will be pleased by long periods of peace and prosperity.
Religion Traits
Most religions will have a series of traits that explain beliefs, practices, and other information regarding that faith. These modifiers further elaborate on the nature of the faith, beyond just the religion type, and often reflect the specific needs and religious practices specific to that faith.
Objects of Power
In addition to the creation of mortals and other lesser life, the power of the gods can be used to create beings and objects of power. The application of power in this way is so widely varied and free-form that this will serve more as guide than an exhaustive list of potential options.
Artifacts
An artifact is any small object of divine make that has been imbued with an innate power of some kind. Artifacts can provide all manner of boons and maluses to the holder of the object as described during their creation. While incredibly flexible applications of influence for a player, they lack wide-ranging effect. Artifacts typically affect a small area, an individual, or a particular target of some kind. As such, they're best thought of as tools that can be used to push agendas through other agents, rather than intrinsically. Artifacts originally belong to their creator, but theft, adaptation, and or corruption may open the door for additional claims.
Relics
Relics are a special class of artifact that are not created by the gods, but instead manifest naturally in the world. These are special objects that appear often as a side effect of larger events. These are objects of influence without direct claims from the players, with the rightful ownership claim either being non-existent or belonging to an NPC.
Holy Sites
Holy sites are special buildings or features that have a religious significance to one or more gods. These cannot be created directly but will regularly appear in areas with large amounts of divine activity or with religious significance to mortal followers. Holy sites are very useful buildings, often providing some kind of advantage to their owner, or a boon to the feature or region they can be found within. However, their relevance to their owner also makes them a particularly attractive target to bad actors, and losing a holy site can have wide-reaching consequences for the followers of the owner.
Casus Belli
What counts as a Casus Belli? Effectively anything, gods are known for perceiving accidental slights as deadly attacks- and obliviously ignoring botched assassination attempts with equal ease, common Casus Belli include the theft or misplacement of artifacts, the murder of important Mortals through natural causes, and "Because I said so"
Magic Systems
Magic systems are composed of three parts, the “Source”, the “Mechanism” and three or more “Examples”
The “Source” is where the magic gets its “power” from, this can be anything from lifeforce, to ten types of free floating mana, to fossil fuels, of note is that it may be replaced with a suitable regional “special”, or to a lesser extent- regional feature, though it must be noted in such cases such magic will be tied to said region, and weakened (or non-existent) elsewhere. Each source costs a total of 30 Acts.
The “Mechanism” is what directs the magic, and is where the actual inner workings of the magic are described. One Mechanism can be tied to several “Sources” and similarly several “Mechanisms” can be tied to one source. Each Mechanism costs (10) Acts, and comes with (3) free “Examples”.
Each “Example serves to help the GM understand the level of power involved in a Magic system, the mechanics behind its functioning, and provide several “guaranteed” spells Mortals who research the system will encounter that will help them shape their usage of it, the first (3) examples for any system are free, each additional one costs (5) Acts, this includes Additional ones added after the system is created.
Research
Researching new technologies in the main method of advancing mortal civilization. It is wise to research often as it is the main method at the player's disposal for steering mortal civilizations.
Researching new technology is very simple. Anything you could want a mortal civilization to do, to build, to understand, or to think can be researched. In that way, ideas like 'democracy' and 'mathematics' are equally viable research topics as more concrete technology such as 'plate armor' or 'chariots'. Methodologies such as "horseback riding" or "iron smelting" are also topics that can be researched.
Here is a template for pursuing a research topic:
Name:
Act investment:
Description, what the technology is: (A general description of what the technology looks like. If it is a physical object, a description of what that looks like. If it is an idea or methodology of some kind, then just a blurb on what the idea is.)
Description of what the technology does: (A general description of the intended goal of a technology and how that goal is achieved. In other words, what does it do and how does it do that).
Underlying technology: (If you are progressing from one relevant technology to another, such as upgrading a building, or advancing a trade.)
(Basically, if you can draw on one of your other technologies to help figure out this perspective one, list it here)
