Game Idea: Children of the Gods

[Jay 2K Winger]

Annnnnd we're off! http://customerssuck.com/board/showthread.php?t=89244

A few things to note. All of your characters know of Johnny Mercury-- well-known actor that he is-- and it's known to the Divine community that he's one of them, and one of the more active "messengers of the gods." They may have met him personally once, even, but he's not exactly friends with anyone.

Now it's time for the introductory posts! Give us all an inkling of what your character's been up to, what they recently did in their most recent mission, where they are when they get the message, and whether they're receiving a letter or a face-to-face meeting. If the latter, note that in the post, and I'll respond in kind. It will either be Johnny Mercury or another scion coming to deliver the message and tickets.

All that clear? If not, post it here, and I'll try to clarify.

[Jay 2K Winger]

Okay, I'll be working on getting this started shortly.

A few other things of note:

Pantheon relations
The various pantheons have ... chilly relations, to be blunt. Each pantheon thinks of themselves as The One True Divinity, of course, but they grudgingly accept the existence of the others at the moment because, well, they're at war, and they need all the allies they can get.

There's always going to be some butting of heads when gods of various purviews bump into each other. (Thor and Zeus almost always come to blows, likewise the various war gods.) There are some exceptions to this. The gods and goddesses of love tend to get on well-- sitting around sipping divine nectar and swapping stories-- as do the trickster gods, albeit the latter love to pull pranks on one another. The earth gods tend to get drunk together and complain about pollution. Gods who favor strategy and cunning get along all right, but there's always a game of one-upmanship going on between them. The gods of the sea? A tossup, as they're as mercurial as their home.

The Divine Pecking Order
At the top of the ladder, there are the Greater Titans. These entities are unfathomable, even to the gods, and they encompass the entirety of a single force of reality: Light, Darkness, Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Order, Chaos, et cetera. Long imprisoned by the Gods in the Great Prison of the Underworld, they are freed now, but are slow to act, stretching their ancient muscles after their captivity. They have no desires that we can understand but to be free to act.

Next come the Titans, who each represent a particular aspect of the Greater Titan of which they are a part. The Titans have intelligence and desires that are more understandable, and these are the entities which are dangerous, for they seek outright revenge on the Gods for being imprisoned. They are the entities that seek to reshape, control, and/or destroy the world as they see fit.

Roughly on par with the Titans are the Divinity, the Gods themselves. Since antiquity, they have overseen the running of the world, but in these modern times, belief in the gods has waned considerably, so some are not as powerful as they might have once been. Still, they are more than capable of battling the Titans, but it is taking the majority of their concentration to keep them in check.

The Titanspawn are just below the Divinity in terms of power, but their numbers make them formidable. These are the Oni, the Frost Giants, the monsters of myth and legend. There are orders of power within the ranks of the Titanspawn, from their generals all the way down to the grunts. En masse, they are a match even for the Gods, and some are used just for cannon fodder. The generals are far more cunning and much more dangerous, and they work in the world to undermine the Gods' power however they can.

Roughly on par with the mid-range Titanspawn, there are the Divine Children, such as you, the players. As with the Titanspawn, there are orders of power. There are Unawakened, children of the gods whose powers have not truly awakened yet, who have not been visited by or been made aware of who their Divine parent is. There are the Scions, children of the gods like you, who are aware of their heritage and have begun to use their powers to help in the fight. And then there are the Demigods, the pinnacle of power for those of Divine birth such as you, who are a magnitude of power above you. One can't get more powerful than a demigod without becoming one of the Divine outright.

Finally, there are the mortals, the mundane folk that populate the world. They are far more numerous than any of the other ranks in the pecking order, and both the Divinity and the Titans regard them as something like a "sleeping giant." Mankind is powerful, collectively, in its own right-- in ways neither the Gods nor the Titans understand. Hence the secrecy of the war. There are agents for both sides-- some aware of who they're serving, some not-- but by and large, mankind is unaware of what is really going on.

Passive Divine Ability
This is an ability that everyone of the Divinity-- which includes their children-- possess.

I Can Sense You, Highlander (Divine Sense) -- Those of the Divine can sense the presence of another one of their kind in the area. They can't pinpoint them precisely out of a crowd (unless they know them personally), but it means that the children of the gods can sense the presence of another of their kind if they're somewhere close. This does not work, alas, for detecting the Titanspawn.

Just something to note.

GM Rules for the Game
1. Real Life Comes First. "Rule One" takes precedence over the others. If you're not able to respond right away, that's fine. We won't be going super fast with this, and if you need to bow out for a while because of RL concerns, that's fine. We can either auto-pilot your character for a while, or have them written out temporarily.

2. Be Respectful of Others. This essentially boils down to "no power gaming." There are some exceptions to this-- which I'll elaborate on later. But basically, if you're dealing with another named character, defer to the judgment of the person running that character.

3. Don't Make Claims Without Consent. Doubtless your characters have accomplished something worthy to be considered for the tasks ahead, but be reasonable about them. (e.g., don't run around claiming to have beaten up a god like Loki, or something. Truth be told, nearly everyone manages to punch Loki in the jaw once or twice, but only another god of the Norse pantheon can really beat him down properly.) Also, the Hulk can beat down Loki any time he wants, but the Hulk's not available.
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I'll be putting up the game thread itself this afternoon.

[Mytical]

Oh don't worry, not going to use them anyhow. Sticking with Lupo..just my mind being weird..of course right now my health is not so hot, and have a surgery the 9th..so it might be awhile before I can do anything with a character.

[Jay 2K Winger]

The only thing I hear in my head now is Leron from Gurren Lagann calling for a group hug.

D: Now you have me imagining that.

Although with Naams' Aiden around (Mr. Even-The-Guys-Want-Him), we don't really need a Cupid's child.

Also, I'd have to put the kibosh on Lloth-kin, sorry. Though now we may see actual spider-monsters, now that you've put the notion in my head.

[Mytical]

*lol* Ever see a movie called "Wagon's East"? The gay cowboy (John C. McGinley also played on scrubs)? That is the voice I imagined for him.

[KabeRinnaul]

Cupid's Son - My first gay character (well male that is gay that is). Would have been a challenge. His powers of course would be based on causing people to STOP fighting. Things like "Can't we all just get along." Which would cause enemies to want to hug it out instead of fight..and the like.

The only thing I hear in my head now is Leron from Gurren Lagann calling for a group hug.

[Mytical]

Jay and Kabe have won me over on this *laughs* Causing me to realize that it would actually be something that would drive Lupo and give him exactly what he wanted..the ultimate challenge. Now..just what to do with the Cupid's Son and Lloth's Daughter my fevered/twisted mind came up with. *laughs*

((Short version of the two follows))

Cupid's Son - My first gay character (well male that is gay that is). Would have been a challenge. His powers of course would be based on causing people to STOP fighting. Things like "Can't we all just get along." Which would cause enemies to want to hug it out instead of fight..and the like.

Lloth's Daughter - More of a stealth/assassin character. A couple of web based powers, a stealth ability, poison .. the like.

Sometimes my mind..she is weird.

[Naamah]

Heh. I've done writing collabs with Naamah before.

Welcome, Naams.

You're cute when you drastically understate our work together.

[Jay 2K Winger]

That would be me. Jay brought the big guns for this one.

Heh. I've done writing collabs with Naamah before.

Welcome, Naams.

[Mytical]

Well your the GM, so I would abide by that ruling. Lupo is no slouch, and has his uncanny dodge after all. I will pm you a question though (sorry inquiring minds want to know)..one I brought up to Kabe. I have till the sixth to change the character yes? May go in a new direction something out of my comfort zone, but sometimes a challenge is good.

[Naamah]

I know there's another person coming in-- they recently signed up on the boards and their first post was going to be their character's bio.

That would be me. Jay brought the big guns for this one.

[Jay 2K Winger]

Jay..being worried about two combat specialist, when one know all the moves the other had very quickly, I sent a message to Kabe. While not being able to learn moves would sort of make the point of my character moot, I'd like some sort of divine block or something that would slow the process WAY down when it comes to Kabe's character. Normally my character sees a move once, he can reproduce it just as skillfully as the person who he sees..for Kabe's character..it would actually take time/effort for my character to learn. Something totally new and foreign to him . Would that be acceptable?

How about this: For most fighters it can be copied because the fighter is intimately familiar with their own moves. Because Kabe's in a ancestral memory rather than his own skill you can't copy it because he's not the one actually performing the moves.

Just an alternate suggestion

Chanlin's suggestion works for me.

Divine Abilities are not something that can be copied by someone else-- even those with a Divine Ability to be able to duplicate something after seeing it. Attempting to do so would cause the person copying it to botch the attempt somehow.

Think of it like this, and we'll use Luke and Lupo as examples. There's a fight going on, and Luke goes into "battle mode" and starts channeling his ancestral memories. However, he is effectively copying his ancestors' abilities himself. If Lupo looks on and tries to duplicate it, he's making a copy of a copy. And if you make a copy of a copy, it's never quite clear.


In other news, the re-write for Haruko is acceptable, and so is Jack Childs. We're getting a nice group going here, and I see we have another player wanting to jump in. I know there's another person coming in-- they recently signed up on the boards and their first post was going to be their character's bio.

We'll probably get going on the game itself next week.

[Chanlin]

Normally my character sees a move once, he can reproduce it just as skillfully as the person who he sees..for Kabe's character..it would actually take time/effort for my character to learn. Something totally new and foreign to him . Would that be acceptable?

How about this: For most fighters it can be copied because the fighter is intimately familiar with their own moves. Because Kabe's in a ancestral memory rather than his own skill you can't copy it because he's not the one actually performing the moves.

Just an alternate suggestion

[Mytical]

Jay..being worried about two combat specialist, when one know all the moves the other had very quickly, I sent a message to Kabe. While not being able to learn moves would sort of make the point of my character moot, I'd like some sort of divine block or something that would slow the process WAY down when it comes to Kabe's character. Normally my character sees a move once, he can reproduce it just as skillfully as the person who he sees..for Kabe's character..it would actually take time/effort for my character to learn. Something totally new and foreign to him . Would that be acceptable?

[firecat88]

I wanna play. D= I probably won't be able to come up with a character until tomorrow. I have the idea, but no time to write up the bio at the moment.