GODHOOD V [OOC]: Having Defied The Curse

[Demonsul]

Godhood is an accursed genre. Every Godhood game is plagued with slow updates, abandonment, slower updates, difficult commitments and no updates. However, today, on the eve of the fifth game, things will be different. Today, we strike back against the Godhood Curse!

Godhoods one and two, I did not have the fortune of joining personally. Three and four, I participated in, and three is trapped in the slowing treacle of dual GM update schedules and nobody really knows what is going on with four.

Well, I think you can gather from what has already been said what I plan to do.

Gameplay / Gods / Acts:
For those not familiar with the gameplay, every player will create a God, as their character. Their god will be exactly that - divine, all-seeing, and very powerful. Gods will have control over spheres of influence (elements such as water, or perhaps something more abstract). However, their capacity is limited by their power, which is handily measured in units called Acts.

Acts can be gained by things existing in the universe that fall within the spheres of your God. For example, a God of plants would gain acts from a huge jungle, whereas a God of headaches would not. However, there is a second method of gaining power; worshipers. Anyone with a sapient race that acknowledges their existence will get some acts from them, while dedicated lifetime worshipers would grant even more acts. Additionally, there may be universal occurrences that deal out acts; for example, at the start of the game, everyone will get extra acts from the cosmic energy left over from the beginning of the universe.

Acts are spent on...well, godly acts. You could from planets, spawn and manipulate plants and animals, bless a race with intelligence or create legendary artifacts or heroes. It's all up to you, really. For the costs, basically use your common sense. Although I will provide some examples (see below), you will probably need to decide on most things yourself. Or you could ask me, I guess. Fear not, if you miscalculate I will simply adjust your creation to suit the amount of acts you spent on it.

You will gain new acts every turn, which will stockpile with your acts from last turn. In addition, some things may happen by themselves over the course of the turn, including evolution (which is slow and unpredictable, and should not be relied on to advance your creations - this is a game about Gods, after all, not natural selection) and random occurrences that could be beneficial or harmful.

New Stuff / Spirits:
Something I will be introducing are 'Spirits', based on the idea from Supernerd's demigodhood. However, these are not the same spirits you would recognize. These Spirits are transient Gods, or perhaps 'Small Gods'. They will come and go. Basically, any player who wants in but missed signups (or didn't get in due to there being too many people signing up) can PM me to be a Spirit, and join and leave the game partway through.

All Spirits will have only one sphere, and cannot claim a sphere already owned by a God. Spirits will receive a lump sum of acts when they join, and will receive vastly diminished acts compared to Gods from both followers and their sphere. In addition, if they miss a turn or run low on acts, they will dissipate and leave the game. This is so that you can play without having to manage a full commitment if you wish. Spirits can rejoin, but not on the same turn they dissipate. You cannot make more than one Spirit, and bear in mind that you will always be at a disadvantage compared to the full Gods. Be aware that I will not wait for Spirit responses if all Gods have posted.

In that same vein, if a God player vanishes off the face of the universe, their God may 'devolve' into a Spirit. A Spirit player that has showed suitable commitment and skill in gaining Acts and power could equally be promoted to full God. I will offer this via PM, and it will be rare; do not ask for or demand it.

Act Examples:

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These costs are not fixed. Attempt any of these with as many acts as you like, the result will be scaled to fit.

• Moving an object less than 100m across casts nothing. Moving anything larger costs 1 act, up to planets which cost more.
• Creating a barren ball of Earth-sized rock is 4 acts. Melting the core will be 1 act, as well as giving it an atmosphere. Water on the surface would also cost one or two acts, depending on how much.
• A star will be 5 acts, due to its relative atomic simplicity despite it's gargantuan size. Moving a star could take upwards of 3 acts. Conventional stars are as such expensive, and should be created with caution.
  
• Simple bodies and plants would be a mere one act. Comes with plant or basic animal intelligence.
• Larger, more complex bodies could be two or three acts. Can come with 'intelligent animal' intelligence.
• Special abilities such as psionics and extreme environment survivability cost acts based on the ability.
• Raising a race to sapience would cost an additional 2 acts.
  
• Artifacts' abilities are scaled based on how many acts you pour into them. Artifacts with multiple abilities should therefore have more acts put into them to ensure all abilities function as powerfully as you intend.
• Heroes can also be given powers at the cost of acts. This is basically the same as with artifacts.

Signups:
Simply fill out the form.

God: Name of God
Appearance: To other Gods. Most Gods should be able to change this however they want for free, though other Gods will still recognize them of course.
Spheres: Three. (or one, for Spirits who want to join from the start as a Spirit)
Class: God
Info: Optional stuff about your God.

Spirit: Name of Spirit
Appearance: To other Gods and Spirits. Your appearance will be a nonphysical presence, but you will be able to move about at will and modify it to a limited extent.
Spheres: Pick one.
Class: Spirit
Info: Optional stuff about your Spirit.

Players:
I have received some reserves already, and I will pick and choose the Gods who can start as Gods from the signups based on who I think will have good levels of commitment. The Spirit 'lite' players can PM me once the game begins properly, which should be tomorrow if traditional MSPAF sign-up speeds hold.

[Anomaly]

God: Razdor
Appearance: Bluh bluh, old picture which almost certainly could use a redrawing.

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Spheres: Fire, Chaos, Destruction
Class: God
Info: Razdor, the chaos god. Enjoys nothing more than spreading chaos, screwing with other gods' plans and just generally making a big mess of things. Conniving, untrustable, and an overall bastard. Loves setting things on fire, gleefully topples meticulous setups on a whim. In essence, not the kind of guy that most anyone would want to deal with. If you don't want everything going up in smoke, it's probably a good idea to keep him away, or perhaps make a deal with him if you're lucky.

[AProcrastinatingWriter]

God: Gurrath
Appearance: A red eye surrounded by constantly flowing dust. The dust flows downward in the shape of a man.
Spheres: Earth (As in stone, rock, sand, etc.), Gateways, and Fate
Class:God...if at all possible.
Info: Calculating and corrosive, this great being of the Hourglass's Sands seeks nothing but to create, then destroy, as decreed at the beginning of eternity by the Sole One Gurrath Answers To. The full scope of both of these assignments shall occur with the full stretch of this universe's time...or at least, he believes it shall.

-Everywhere Gurrath walks that is not already solid Earth is replaced with solid Earth.
-Gurrath has no gender, but prefers to be called 'he'.
-Gurrath believes everything is predestined in every universe, and also believes the only way to escape this sad fact is to be the one controlling Fate. Which, luckily for him, he does.
-Gurrath enjoys ice cream. He does not like people knowing this, however.
-Current archenemy: Razdor, for his tendency to topple big schemes billions upon billions of years in the making!!!...no, no...calm down, Gurrath. Calm down. It's not like Razdor knows you're upset. Or cares. Calm down.

[Supernerd]

I decided to re-use my god from Godhood 2. Assuming you don't mind. Godhood 2 didn't last all that long.

God: Trecariel
Appearance: Has two different forms. One is fairly humanoid in appearance with long colorless hair, the other resembles a massive flower bud that has not yet bloomed.
Spheres: Death, Souls, Karma
Class: God
Info: A god that collects and judges souls of mortals and rules over the afterlife. He reincarnates the souls of the dead back into newborn mortals beings which causes them to retain traits from previous lives, and the souls generally are enhanced by the process. After living hundreds or even thousands of lives Trecariel would turn them into beautiful sacred flowers and grow stronger in doing so. In the event that a soul should collect too many impurities then he would instead shatter it and cast it unto oblivion.

[Demonsul]

APW; as long as you don't abuse that turning ground to rock thing by stomping everywhere instead of expending acts to solidify things (although why you'd want to in the first place is kind of odd, so this may not be relevant), it should be fine.

[Rufus]

God: Lance
Appearance:

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Spheres: Entertainment, Recreation, Comfort
Class: God
Info: Lance is a God of entertainment and soft living, meaning he acts the same way. If a situation breaks out he's rather try to fix the situation with a game or some "Chillaxing time". He is very kind hearted, and it is very difficult to get him to go to war. This often leads him to being thought of as spineless or even weak-minded. But that's not true, he just doesn't like disrupting the flow of things, even if that means taking a little shit from others.
His favorite game is Croquet, and is seen as a divine game by his followers. He even wields a almighty Croquet Mallet in the rare event somebody needs a quick smiting or two.

[AProcrastinatingWriter]

APW; as long as you don't abuse that turning ground to rock thing by stomping everywhere instead of expending acts to solidify things (although why you'd want to in the first place is kind of odd, so this may not be relevant), it should be fine.

I admit I was kind of hoping I could create a planet by spending the first ten turns stomping around because A) it would be cool, and B) it would, indeed, not cost acts (and would be mitigated by the extreme amount of time it took)...but then I realized that was a pretty stupid idea, even if it did make for a cool creation story. So, yeah, nothing like that's gonna happen.

...I will pay for Acts, but I may occasionally say he walks to create instead of blah blah blah to create while paying for the acts he walks for, just because I still kind of like the concept. AND NOW, OFF TO DO HOMEWORK! Because in real life I am not a god, I am a college student.

[Demonsul]

Feel free to play out your creations however you choose. I always find myself making allusions to weaving spacetime in Godhood 3, and in Godhood 4 I was always forging stuff. great stuff.

[Pharmacy]

God: Lippmann
Appearance:

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Basically a dude who looks like a cross between a priest and a business man, add a couple eyes and mouths for METAPHYSICAL SYMBOLISM because he is a God and all that shit. He also has sharp teeth and his blood is a highlighter yellow. Be careful not to let him bleed or drool over you because his godly fluids can send anyone into horrible trips to the psychedelic realm.

Also you know the "suit" he is wearing? That is actually part of his body (his tie and eyescarf are removable, but they teleport back to him always if someone takes it too far away). That's right. Every time he walks around, he is streaking nude all over this plane of reality. Don't worry. There isn't any dangly bits for us to show.

Spheres: Civilization (that includes society, economics, religion, etc)/Justice/Science

Class: God

Info:
Some entities work for Good, Evil, Law, Chaos, Love and other fluffy vague metaphysical values. Lippmann isn't the kind of God to care for these stupid abstract concepts. After all, you can't preach what you can't put into practice. Fortunately for Lippmann, he has the tools just for that.

[oidip]

God: Elemento
Appearance: Will add later.
Spheres: Wind, Water, Plants
Class: God
Info: Will add later.

[chimericWilder]

I've played in every instance of godhood and demi godhood except GH4 and Rufus' take on demi godhood. I've observed each and every one of them be struck by the curse.
I CANNOT LET SUCH A PROMISE PAST ME. I AM RESERVING.

[chimericWilder]

God: Lord Shadoath
Appearance:

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Spheres: Despair, Destruction, Shadow
Class: God
Info: Lord Shadoath is an agent of destruction and the subversion of all that is good, probably serving another, higher power. Little more is known.

[Protoman]

Since im not likely to ever get into godhood 3, i'll happily join this.


Character Name: The Operator
Appearance: Tall in legs, rather than torso. Able to extend, create, and destroy his limbs as he pleases. Humanoid; Faceless, in a black suit and red tie.

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(picture not by me)
Spheres: Illusion, Concealment, Terror.
Class: God
Additional Info: A predator, this mysterious figure stalks his prey, not through terrifying noises or jerking attacks. Nay, the terror this being causes stems entirely from his strange form, his ability to always be around the next corner, and his constant silence, accompanied by his outstretched arms.

Many have fallen victim to insanity at the hands of this entity. Their terror has changed him from whatever he started as into a true deity. He ventures into this new universe for one goal, the goal his travels have led up to. He will create a new world, shape it, mold it. He will design every facet of it, as well as its beings. He will use the tools he has gained from the millions of minds he has broken to accomplish his one true goal.

He will create the ARK.

[The_Codfish]

I like APW's idea, so I decided to do something similar.

Protoman: Your character reminds me of Slenderman.

God: Surkn
Appearance: Surkn appears as a titanic giant with black, charcoal skin. Cracks all over his body reveal an ocean of magma which runs underneath the surface of his skin. He has two suns as eyes, and when he opens his mouth, fire sputters out at the sides. He has a large, grey beard that flows over his chest; points all over it spontaneously combust continuously. He wears a silver manica on his right arm and the fur of a gigantic white fox wrapped around his waist. He has a permanently wrinkled face which is, more often than not, perpetually frowning. He wields a gigantic pillar of flames in his right arm which is actually a sword wreathed in fire.
Spheres: Fire, Creation, War
Class: God
Info: Surkn is neither good nor evil; his only desire is war. He values physical strength, but also appreciates cunning and intelligence. He abhors the act of hurting those too weak to defend their selves; he prefers all battles to be on even ground. He loves bravado and bravery, and will actively reward those who please him.

When Surkn creates something, he uses materials on his body; if he wants to create a land, he takes some dirt from his beard. When he wants an ocean, he spits it out from his mouth. If he wants to create a great wind, he blows it from his nose. When he wants light, he plucks it out from his eyes.

If Surkn ever wishes to destroy something, he uses his sword, the great blade 'Skoll', to burn it away from existence.

[oidip]

God: Elemento
Appearance: Elemento is a treent. However he is not the ungainly knobled tpe we are used to seeing. He is a sleek humanoid shape. In his most common manifestation he is 7ft tall. He has a suit made out of Ivy leaves. It looks nice and you only notice it is made from Ivy if you are close.
Spheres: Wind, Water, Plants
Class: God
Info: He does not like tacky things. If things are worth being done then they are worth doing well. He is a friendly cahp and not overtly bothered with being the most powerful. He enjoys creating gardens or helping other gods. He can get annoyed but will let things roll off his back. He very rarely shows any of this anger. His patience is nigh ultimate.

[AProcrastinatingWriter]

I like APW's idea, so I decided to do something similar.

what have I doooooooone

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Cool character by the way. I doubt my character will hang out with him too much, but if I personally had the opportunity I'd probably hang out with this guy. Not that he'd really care, if I understand his personality correctly, but...

...oh, and quick warning, you are sharing 'Fire' with Razdor. As Lord Shaodath shares 'Destruction'. Could be both a help and a hinderance to all your causes.

[Demonsul]

ENOUGH SIGNUPS

I will now proceed to trawl over the entires to see who to accept. You'll know once I make the in-game thread.

I'll probably just end up accepting everyone and culling the slow-posters, knowing me.

[Supernerd]

How many acts can we have saved up before bad things happen?

[Rufus]

I'm actually happy I wasn't accepted. I don't think Lance is serious enough to cut it as a God. I'd like to apply him as a Spirit, Please.

[Demonsul]

Normally, you'll be able to save up to around twenty acts before your returns start diminishing rapidly. There are no real negative side effects though, just most of the act income you receive will be wasted.

Alright, Rufus. Just PM me the character sheet using the new template in the OP of this thread.

[AProcrastinatingWriter]

Okay, chimerecWilder is better at this than I.

Not necessarily palying the game (I haven't attempted to Act at all, so I don't know about that one way or the other), but he's better at getting his character's basic level of power and what it's all about in a shorter amount of time than I am.

Ah well. Guess I'll keep trying~

[Protoman]

fff. didnt get in.

Guess i gotta keep waiting for that opening in godhood 3 and try and see if i can be a spirit here.

[chimericWilder]

@APW

What? I think its bad, meself. i just keep repeating various synonyms for 'shadow'. I didnt even provide background. I liked yours, though! An introductory story like that certainly sets stuff in perspective, maybe. And more pleasant to read than two lines of 'bluh has entered the universe and does glub'. first post is special, after all. Im rambling am i not?

[AProcrastinatingWriter]

@APW

What? I think its bad, meself. i just keep repeating various synonyms for 'shadow'. I didnt even provide background. I liked yours, though! An introductory story like that certainly sets stuff in perspective, maybe. And more pleasant to read than two lines of 'bluh has entered the universe and does glub'. first post is special, after all. Im rambling am i not?

Yes you are rambling.
Like my story rambled! On and on and on...
...let's compromise. We both agree that even if we don't think so, our own stories are both just as good as each other's. That sounds good to me, how about you?

OH, and later tonight I will be performing my first act. It is DEFINITELY going to be a GAME CHANGER so watch out!

[chimericWilder]

But it was like four lines. And and... oh who am i kidding, I'll accept your compromise