Game Thread
Before man grew wise and weary, when knights fought in great battles against dragons and peasants toiled in fields praising the gods with every step, there were the Gods. So many of them, big and small, good and evil. They controlled humanity using their powers, and made the world for themselves. That was destroyed when they arrived.The Inquisitors. An onslaught of nightmares in black cloaks and white plague masks. They rallied the humans, they made them strong. Gave them flamethrowers and masks. They ripped out the sources of magic, burned the magical creatures where they could, killed the Gods when they could. Soon every single God was dead, and what fantastical creatures remained weeped blood as the Inquisitors marched.
But then it stopped. The Inquisitors left. Thus ended the Age of Legends, and beginning the Age of Famine. Humanity forgot the Inquisitor's wrathful campaign, and they grew strong and cunning, building machines and weapons to fight their wars and play their games on a worldwide scale. Bit by bit, what little magic was left began to starve. Centaurs became simply humans riding horses, witches were simply misunderstood alchemists, and even the Gods were man's great delusion.
Some of the entities survived, living off scraps of belief. One day, they knew they would rise again, even as they lived among the humans like pieces stuck in an entirely different jigsaw. They knew, though, that it would be a long day until that day came, and they had to wait.
Then the belief began to come back.
In 2008, Arcane wells sprung and things became odd. People saw bizarre creatures in the night who had no history of making bizarre claims, serendipity was strangely common, and some people even found themselves with strange powers. Manipulation of fire, a siren's beauty, incredible strength... Not a candle to the powers of old, but powers nonetheless.
However, in 2013, the world's destiny changed. In 2013, the Age of Famine ended, becoming the Age of Fire. A few special individuals found that through some cosmic calamity, they had become the kickstarters of this new age. They had the Arcane, weak from being reborn as it was, at their fingertips. The New Gods had arrived.
You are one of these individuals. You may fashion yourself as a scientist peddling impossible technology, a harbinger of darker forces to come, a revivification of the old ways of the Gods, or anything you wish. It does not matter for the moment. You have the fire within to change the face of the world. However, how you will use this fire is a different matter entirely. Fire can light the way to a new era of peace, but fire can burn.
What Is This?You may be familiar with the series of forum games known as Godhood. It focuses on Gods that are able to change the face of a primitive world. This answers the question of "What would happen if it wasn't a new unused world, but our world in the modern age?".
This is not a world ready to believe in Gods and fairies and elves anymore. Yet here you are, making figurative and literal waves. This is a world with a lot more to lose, a lot of history, and all the unpleasantness a modern world gives to replace the unpleasantness of an ancient world. Everything is in murky greys, the line between good and evil, criminal and the law, honor and dishonor, dark and light.
To help this theme along, you're not exactly a regular God. You're a person as well. You have a physical body and walk around on the Earth the majority of the time like regular people. You may be a God, but that's not going to pay the rent until you figure out how to explain to the police how 500,000 dollars just appeared out of thin air and not say out of an illegal racketeering operation. You may be the lightening god, but smiting those who oppose you won't work for long and an unconventional police detective might even try to arrest you after connecting the (rather strange and distant) dots.
Thus, you shouldn't limit yourself to being a regular old God. There is nothing stopping from you being a mage character, or a superhero, or the formerly unknowing child of a cosmic horror that would like to be just like daddy/mommy. What's stopping you? You've got godlike magic at your fingertips but that's an even better reason to choose whatever you like!
Here's a few tips on how things will work.
TimeEach turn will be the Spring and Fall of a year, starting with Spring 2013. What choices you make determine what you will do for the next few months until the next transition season comes. You can negotiate/socialize with other Gods in-character before I post if you wish.
LocationSo where exactly is this taking place? All cities are the same nowadays but locations still seem to matter. Where are you? Well, you are in an exaggerated amalgamation of every East Coast city. It's pouring every night, crime is up and keeps going up, and it's generally seedy and depressing. It has no name because it doesn't need one. It has a seedy rich district, a posh rich suburb, the Projects, the suburbs, corporate space, the industrial sector, the docks, anything you can think of. It's the perfect megacity, and the perfect playground for you.
ActsActs in this are a little more divided up then those in Godhood, but less diverse then in Pantheon to keep things as simple as possible while not confusing things. When people do mundane but challenging things, like breaking into houses or assassinating the mayor, they will have to roll a 20 sided die.
Zilch Acts: This is when you want to talk to humans, do something without godly assistance like breaking into banks or convincing someone to your side, or when you simply want to lay back and see how things develop. Requires a roll for acts involving skill.
Half-Act: This is where you use some of your godly power to help you out a bit in personal endeavors but you still have to the thing. Your lockpick is guided by the hand of destiny, but if you jam the lock it's useless. Will make a .50 act, meaning it can be only used for a half-act. Requires a roll but gives it a +5 bonus.
Full Act: This is where you use your power in a direct manner. Creating life, new objects, or explicitly supernatural powers would fall under this. Does not require a roll.
You gain a full act at the start of every turn. You can gain more via worship, finding a natural source of arcane power, or whatever method you devise yourself.
Writing & PostsWhen you post, write about what your character does in a prose format. I may use characters you created for the narrative later. When you have completed it, post in bold a unbiased summary of your actions.
I'd prefer it if everyone tried to do their best at writing here. I'm no exemplar of good writing, but let's keep this a narrative first and a forum game second. Things that are allowed in terms of narrative:
* First person perspective, just try to keep it unbiased when stating your actions.
* Diary entries, blogs, etc
Character Sheets
Name:
Gender:
Backstory:
Appearance:
Symbol:
Style:
Human Skill:
Name: What you are called.
Gender: What gender you think applies to you.
Backstory: What happened to you before this? This helps keep a balance on your character and allows me to create potential plots.
Appearance: What do you look like? What do you wear?
Symbol: What symbol do you think represents you? Choose a classic one, or make up your own.
Style: What is the "flavor" of your abilities? Is it dark and evil looking, angelic and epic in scale, based around nature, or something else entirely?
Human Skill: What are you good at before this? Gives a +3 to rolls relating to this skill.
Name: Seth "The Bear" Williams
Gender: Male
Backstory: Seth was formerly a gangster in the Mafia, intimidating shopkeepers and beating them up when needed. He was diligent, he was cunning, and he did what he was told. However, one day his bosses caught him robbing money from their banks and shot him in the head, leaving him in a shallow grave. Wouldn't you know, he got back up as one of the walking dead, and he's got a grudge. He aims to take down those who killed him, and perhaps even take over the mafia.
Appearance: Constantly keeps himself wrapped up in scarves, hats, coats and anything else that can hide the skin, dressing primarily in black. He's tall and obviously muscular. Under his clothes, he is partially rotted. He is extremely pale, forgets to blink, and has a scratchy raspy voice. Seth has short brown hair and formerly green, now grey eyes.
Symbol: A red skull.
Style: Necromantic. Seth is a zombie and uses his powers in a death based manner.
Human Skill: Unarmed.
The graveyard was somewhere on the edge of town, past the industrial factories and the farms, and into the wild forests of pine and beech. The fog rose from the nearby lake and hovered above the broken tombstones and lichen-eaten angel statues. The headlights of the car watched as Seth popped the boot and dragged a body bag toward one of the tombstones. He was a tall figure, in a trenchcoat, army pants, fedora, sunglasses, and with a bandana wrapped around his mouth. He set the bag up against a tombstone, opened it, then kicked the slumbering person inside.
"Wake up." Seth said, his voice scratchier then a record left out in the rain. "Wake up or I make you."
The mafioso (Seth vaguely remembered his name, something Italian) had a massive head wound down the side of his head caused by Seth hitting him with a lead pipe. He had been stuck down in Seth's basement for the past few months, and now Seth was ready to start breaking him. He whimpered in his dirty little suit.
"I know you. Do you know me?" Seth asked.
"Oh God, you crazy fuckin' psycho, just get out of--" the mafioso got a kick to the ribs, causing him to splutter.
"I said, do you know me?" said Seth, after he seemed to have recovered.
"I don't know you, you crazy son of a... I don't know you! Why are you doing this?"
"Remember the Bear?"
"Yeah, we iced him a year ago, he was stealing from the don! Shot him in the head! Why does that matter!?"
"Look around."
The mafioso looked around, then blinked. "This is where we killed him."
"You buried him in a shallow grave, yes. Tell me, do you believe in God?"
"... Yeah?"
"Well, see, God didn't make this place. The devil did. You know why they abandoned this place? Because bad things happened here. People saw demons and ghosts, heard voices when no-one was around... This is not hallowed ground. This is the opposite. You don't bury someone here."
"... What the hell are you talking about?"
"Ya see..." Seth grinned then took off his bandana and fedora, showing his rotten skin and glowing eyes. "I am the Bear. You were one of the thugs that took me out here and shot me, right?"
The thug stared, then began to whimper and pray to himself in whispers. Seth took a knife from his pocket, then grinned.
"This place needs a sacrifice anyway... how does ten thousand years of service to me in undeath sound?"
The mafioso began to weep.
Seth kills the captured mafioso, then binds him in service as a "Servant". Servants have human intelligence, are similar in physiology to Seth but have no powers and have a pathological need to serve their owner. In this case, Seth.
Please PM me your character sheet along with an example of an act, please. I am looking for seven players.
Author
Topic: The Age of Fire: A Modern Godhood Game (That's All, Folks) (Read 117933 times)