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[PbP] Godbound: There Came A Time When The Old Gods Died!
Dex Dynamo
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
The Throne stands empty.
Heaven has fallen, and the Words of Creation thunder from new throats.
Undestined, unfettered, unchosen, you are Godbound, and your will is writ with fire.
Heaven has fallen, and the Words of Creation thunder from new throats.
Undestined, unfettered, unchosen, you are Godbound, and your will is writ with fire.
Note: We've started worldbuilding for the game, but sign-ups are still open! Post !Signup if interested, and we'll add you to the game.
Godbound is a game of divine heroes in a broken world, individuals who have seized the tools that have slipped from the hands of the gods. Bound by seeming chance to the Words of Creation, these new-forged titans face a world ravaged by the ambitions of humanity and the cruel legacy of their folly.
In short, there came a time when the old gods died, and you are the gods that shall take their place.
Gameplay notes:
This game is going to exist in two phases. Because Godbound is a game that benefits from having a world for you to change through epic deed, we're going to start with some collaborative worldbuilding, loosely based on A Spark In Fate Core, which will give us both a world, with faces and places, and some story and aesthetic themes we'd like to explore in play.
Then, once we know our world, we'll make our gods and go about changing that world.
Anything I should know about the rules?
The rules for Godbound are available for free online, as is A Spark In Fate Core. The rules are largely based on old-school D&D with some interesting twists around utilizing Words Of Creation to create Miracles and enact great deeds.
We'll largely be playing by the rules with one exception:
- Ascending Armor Class: I don't like descending DC. When looking at Armor Class in the book, or recording your own AC, subtract the number listed in the book from 20. And when rolling an attack, roll above that number.
Anything I need to know about the story we'll be telling?
As far as scenes go, I'll be playing slightly epic in scale. I'm not as concerned with each individual blow in a battle, and it's assumed you'll be succeeding most things you do, so keep that in mind as you play. I want to see you do cool godly stuff.
Anything I need to know as a player?
Two things:
We'll be covering safety content prior to the game (Lines and Veils), and will be using X, N, and O cards throughout.
- X-Card: If at any time an element in play makes you uncomfortable and you want it removed, merely reply invoking the X-Card and we'll remove it from play, no questions asked.
- N-Card: If a given scene is getting intense and you need it to slow down, reply by invoking the N-Card, and we'll find a way to quickly wrap up and move into something else.
- O-Card: If you're really feeling a scene, and want to vocalize that you'd like to see more of it, reply by invoking the O-Card, and we'll keep that in mind and work to include more of it.
And in the interest of keeping play moving, I'm asking you post at least once a day in the game. That said, life happens, and some days you might not be able to. What I'd propose to the group is, in a group play scenario, after 24 hours, the group may elect to make your character's action for you, with the knowledge that your character will never fully destroy themselves while this is happening. That way, play keeps going, and we all have the flexibility of needing to take some time as needed.
And if we truly need to take a few days, we can always pause the game.
Sounds great, how do I sign up?
Reply to this post with !Signup, and when we have four to six players, we'll begin the worldbuilding process.
Players
- Invictus
- AustinP0027
- discrider
- Admanb
Dex Dynamo on
+1
Posts
Might as well take advantage of summer plus quarantine to do some PBP. I have downloaded the books; are there any parts of Godbound I shouldn't read?
!signup
!signup
That's half the reason I want to run it; I want to run a game with some of these character ideas.
Thinking, ex-hunter type (for Bow/Endurance) who always wanted to help people, and divine spark granted the healing side (Health, plus Endurance also kind of overlaps here).
No commitments though. It's been a lot of fun just coming up with different pairings.
also, I assume your change to AC is, instead of "subtract 20 from your AC", which is what is listed, you mean "subtract your AC from 20," right? @Dex Dynamo
We can run with three players pretty well, so I think tomorrow or Friday we'll start the (relatively brief) worldbuilding portion and start gearing up to play.
To start, let's go over safety stuff—does anyone have any questions about the safety mechanics? (If you'd like to invoke the X/N/O card in play, just say so
in your post and we'll acknowledge it). Additionally, if anyone has any lines or veils, you can post them here, post them in a spoiler, or DM them to me.
With safety out of the way, following the guidelines in A Spark In Fate Core, we already know our games Genre, and Scale:
Genre: High Fantasy
Scale: Epic/Godly
What I'd like from you to start, though, both so we know specific tropes and concepts we'd like to include, as well as general themes, tones, and story styles we want to play with, is the following:
My inspirations:
Exites/Included
Other than all the above, I like the cosmology that is listed in the book, so I think it'll be interesting even just to play in that space.
Two questions I have:
1. Are our gods working together? Or is this a 1v1v1 type scenario?
2. Is a part of the world building process going to be us describing the world in some amount of detail? Places/Countries/Races seems like it's needed to be generally known for character creation even
One Punch Man?
Struggling to retain humanity and empathy after gaining superhuman power?
Randoms fighting off monsters because they have to when the heroes aren't there?
Characters who don't know power until it shows up next to them and shows then up?
The second part out of Mage (at least the vision of Mage I had) that lines up really well with this cosmology is that while the world is really going very, very badly, our heroes are powerful enough to actually present real hope. The setting reads apocalyptic, in the sense that the literal dissolution of the world seems inevitable, but our heroes might actually be able to long-term change that, even if focused in smaller areas, at least at first.
Sandman, by Neil Gaiman: particularly with a focus on the Hell/Heaven stuff. I like the connection between Sammael in Godbound as a Satan-equivalent who isn't actually evil, but instead has a Hell-oriented goal to do, and Lucifer in Sandman as someone who gives up Hell because he's interested in mortals and no longer interested in capital-E Evil.
This is fundamentally a thing about good and evil as labels: Angels are labeled Good, demons/hell are labeled Evil, but it might be the actions those beings perform that we should really care about.
Now that we collectively have a grounding in the sort of story we'll be telling, we're going to lay out the following things, in order:
As a group, each of us will create two of each of these, so we'll end with eight facts, eight sparks, etc.
If anyone has any facts they'd like to establish first or questions they'd like to ask the group? If not, I'll lay out some questions for folks in the morning.
- There are multiple nations/territories. How many of them are in direct conflict with each other and how much of that conflict is physical warfare vs a different type (e.g. social, economic, religious)?
Explicit Fact
- There are three nations (to be named later) where the attitudes towards deities reflect the broad scale. One nation serves whichever deity rules them completely, one nation is indifferent to whoever is in charge and does what it needs to get by, the other nation constantly revolts against it's deity believing no one should have that scale of powers
Are we typical fantasy, or is this our world or a futuristic tech world falling apart?
And I guess drawing on the previous fact:
The general populace has no idea why they're suddenly under siege by extra-dimensional beings and populated by God-bound.
Given the whole 'hell was meant for redemption until the gods all died, and now it's just a soul trap for all mortals as they don't have paradises or gods to escape to', I don't see how a nation could entirely spurn or be ambivalent to the new gods without lacking that understanding entirely.
Leads to, what is the dominant theory and proximate cause for the siege and breakdown in society?
Fact: Magitech. I'm a sucker for a good Magitech aesthetic.
Which kind of gives me an answer to your question:
I propose that there's no dominant theory, but rather a thousand smaller theories, because something so large cannot be explained in reasonable terms. If you lived near a magical reactor (which lit up when an angel plowed through it), well, obviously that's what caused all of this. If an evil fog descended upon your town, well, that evil fog consumed the entire world.
Which leads me to a fact:
The world is large, travel is not easy (aside from perhaps the occasional magical train, spell, or airship, but those aren't easy to come by), and people don't go very far. (with your characters likely being an exception to that)
And a question:
How large is the average settlement? ARE there massive cities still standing, or are the largest remaining places walled cities and fortresses? And when we say "a country," how big are we talking? Do we envision full Roman Empires, or "six towns and some field"?
I really love this and want it to amend my fact. Instead of the split of three I had, I want your scale. Still one that sees the deity as their salvation but that is the outlier for the rest of the world who is cautious and confused instead. (So basically chop the other two from the fact)
Fact: Almost every region still has its massive city from the Before-Times standing, but, following up on Dex's world-size fact, logistics have broken down so far that they can't serve their former population. This is not to say that they are empty: they each have resources and infrastructure that are incredibly valuable. Almost all of them still serve some population, and some of them serve as several different villages, each separated by abandoned areas. But none of the old cities still hold even a large fraction of their old capacity.
Who lives in Anur-Azak, the nearest great city, and why do none of them live in the High Gardens?
Hell yeah we are
I thiiiiink I'll take that confusion for a compliment, Austin? but I'm definitely not Infidel :biggrin:. Also, naming the inhabitants of Anur-Azak is, I think, way less important than describing them.
Fact: The people of Anur-Azak are a true melting pot, as the city was repopulated by refugees and immigrants from all around. Re-populated, because all the original inhabitants of the city just... vanished. All the buildings, plants, and animals were left untouched, but not a sentient soul could be found. As for the High Gardens, they're as beautiful and idyllic as they ever were, but the closer you get to them the louder the Voices get. It's become something of a game among the young and bored to try and get as close as possible before they overwhelm you (usually with a rope tied around you in case you pass out) but no one comes away with any memory of what the Voices said -- they just have one sensation: pain.
Facts
We can continue to build facts and questions (this is very much a back-and-forth until we feel like we have enough world to explore), but this is also a good segue into Faces, Places, and Sparks:
I'd like two Faces, two Places, and two Sparks from everyone (including me), to give us a really mapped out world we can explore. Same deal as with Facts: we can keep them vague and say "I'd like for a character of this type" and have other players flesh them out, or state an explicit detail, as fleshed out or narrow as we'd like. We can also ask questions for players to answer.
Places:
Faces:
Questions:
Dorothea: She's the de-facto governor of one of the villages in Anur-Azak. She fled her farm when the monsters came and killed her husband and children and has come to impromptu leadership of the collective through gentle kindness towards those around her tied to cold calculation of how best to survive. She cares deeply about her citizens but constantly has in mind the big picture of what has to be done to survive.
Fact: God-bound are not rare too, but are uncommon. Seen as a result of the breakdown of the world, they are to be distrusted, are as useful as their abilities, or are to be exalted depending on your locale.
This makes the Deity of Xyrestia as much a position borne of good PR in the nation as well as from raw power.
Merchants would come from all locales to fit into the packed trading court, the strong walls ensuring protection from whatever might roam the countryside. So dedicated to their place as a trade haven, the rulers of Zhuun would use their army to patrol the countryside to reduce bandit presence and encourage trade. They built roads in every direction and dedicated engineers to their maintenance.
When the world ended, and the traders stopped arriving, Zhuun fell quickly. They had built their entire existence around trade and the fees/levies they took from the traders, and had no actual supply chain themselves. Most people up and left the city, leaving only the ruling class to wallow in the thought of their previously glory. Bandits quickly arrived, and every conquering thief was eventually ousted with one who was a little stronger and more violent.
The city still stands, but as a shell of it's former self. Those who rule the city call themselves Warlords now, and large swaths of buildings have been ruined or burned down, long past the point of being fully looted for anything that might be still around. The palace still stands at the heart of the city, but day by day more destruction occurs whenever the inhabitants get bored or overly rowdy.
Kane: The current warlord of Zhuun. Kane rose to the top of the city quickly through a campaign of brutal domination of anyone in his way. A large, muscular man, Kane became known for violence from first entering the city walls. It didn't take long for him to find the favor of the previous warlord, and when that warlord showed a moment of weakness, Kane ended him and became the new warlord, as were the standing rules for the city. Might equals right in Zhuun.
Question: Someone tell me about the capital city of Xyrestia.
Question: What (either as a Fact or a Place) is life like OUTSIDE the cities, in the sprawling landmasses between their hollowed-out cores?