Godbound general /gbg/

Really wanted to run a game of this, but I'm crap at in-depth political intrigue, and combat just does not seem like it's the highlight of the system. Fun character gen, but I stumble across the rest.

Also, just what the honest fuck is the setting supposed to be? Post-apoc modern magitech?

If I took Divine Wrath as a gift, it says to commit effort til the end of the scene. Does that mean that I can use Divine Wrath once, or once I have effort committed, I can use it over and over during the same scene?

Just use Cinder Words instead of Voice of the Winds and spend your action just lazing about.

I'd like to raise a point about the hit rates, though. I've yet to see anyone quantify WHY 50/50 hit rates against over-level enemies is a terrible thing, it's only been asserted without providing any reasoning. A first level melee oriented Godbound will kill a group of 2 HD mooks in a few rounds, regardless.

Furthermore, ff they're many and tough enough to be a danger to you, burning through your effort to kill a few of them faster seems more dangerous for you than saving the Effort for use on Nine Iron Walls.

You have to commit effort every time you use it, so when all your effort is already committed, you can't use it anymore.

Only one modern nation in the sample setting, but Arcem is kind of a kitchen sink of not!countries.

Really? What's the point of using smite attacks aside from decimating super lower level enemies en mass? Blah.

Divine Wrath is single target anyway, and deals massive guaranteed damage, save for defensive dispelling it.

So unless you want high powered automatic damage, no reason to use smiting gifts? Sorry if I seem stupid. Only yesterday did I read the book. It looks very interesting, but I can't understand some of the mechanics. Like, combat seems like really wishy washy - either you hit or you don't, unless you have stuff that gives you auto hits or something.

Sounds reasonable to me. The low starting power level of Godbound characters is one of my issues with the game, and a hit bonus would do a bit to fix that (even if it's applied to everything).

Another thing I think needs balancing is the damage output of powerful NPCs compared to Godbound. It seems like they're designed to be boss monsters, which is fine when that's their role, but I can imagine games running into issues if they're used as allies. If you're not using the deluxe rules, Mark of the Prophet (which everyone gets at level 6) lets you turn your high priest into a Lesser Eldritch, which can make four 1d10 straight attacks total per round. Even the standard major mortal heroes get four attacks per round, albeit with standard damage, and both have access to Gifts. Compared to the Godbound default of one standard attack per round, that seems a bit strong for potential minions, even if they have much lower hit dice.

But I haven't actually played the game so this is all armchair theorizing. Maybe (hopefully) I'm missing something and the disparity isn't as bad as it seems.

Well, yes? I don't understand the confusion. Like in most RPGs, frankly, you hit or you don't. The mechanical foundation is Basic D&D, so that's no surprise.

I figure it's probably fine for your gods to have some actually capable mortal champions. They don't get the sheer breadth and depth of power godbound do.

Eh, it just seems like even a low level godbound should be able to automatically kill lower level enemies easily without the question of "hit or no hit." But then again, that's what the fray die is for. Anyway, my question was answered, thank you!

I have an oddly elaborate backstory for a dude who became Godbound as a result of getting a monster heart implanted in his chest. Endurance Health Might, with just all the HP ever.

I'd write the backstory, but basically refer to any anime where the main character gets mortally wounded in the first/flashback episode. It's not that original. I was going to go with the Raktine Confederacy, since it's already got Witcher-ish monster hunters. I guess that makes this character a Claymore, seeing as they're basically anime Witchers.

On the topic of Godbound backstories, who else has a concept for where the Godbound actually come from? The game leaves it deliberately vague, but that doesn't mean that there couldn't be a definitive answer for a given campaign.

Question about the Smite keyword: When a character uses one, are they unable to use any Smite ability until the round after next, or are they only restricted from using that same power again? For example, could a character alternate Divine Wrath and Corona of Fury? The wording seems unclear to me.

I'm not sure either, but the intention behind the Smite keyword was to prevent players from using the same move every round, so it's down to your judgement as to whether alternating between two different Smite powers is sufficiently varied.

Character can use just one smite power every other round.

Solo monsters in general in this game have a bit of a glass cannon thing going on. Most of them seem to be significantly stronger than the Godbound, simply so that they can deal damage on a scale a Godbound would consider threatening.

It's like the opposite of what happens in JRPGs; in those, the heroes always have a tiny fraction of the HP that the boss monsters have, and therefore deal enough damage to destroy themselves several times over with every attack. Godbound are built like the bosses of those games, lots of HP and relatively low damage output.

It is indeed quite wise to house rule Cinnabar Sparks and Cinnabar Conflagrations. It is completely degenerate that a character can devote a single Fact to being a Cinnabar Order archmaster to become capable of summoning such powerful creatures.

I am soon to play an ascended fox Godbound of Artifice, Knowledge, and Journeying who had earned their Godbound ascension by being intelligent enough to follow an instruction manual and build a raft to travel away from their isolated home island.

Cinder Words is more Effort-intensive than Voice of the Winds and does not come with that gift's noncombat utility, so it makes for somewhat less effective an army-slayer than the old version of the build.

>I've yet to see anyone quantify WHY 50/50 hit rates against over-level enemies is a terrible thing
Whiffing against 2 HD "veterans" with AC 5 to 3 and 3 HD "elite soldiers" with AC 4 is hardly entertaining for a level 1 Godbound.

forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?773601-Sine-Nomine-Godbound-Staff-Pick&p=20073265#post20073265

According to Kevin Crawford, "one Smite action of any kind every other round."

...

Godbound ERP with 2hu as player when, Planefag?

>According to Kevin Crawford, "one Smite action of any kind every other round."
Makes sense. That was my best guess given the wording, but it's a little vague. Thanks for the link and confirmation.

For an Enki-esque god of civilization, what Words would you guys suggest?

I was thinking of going with Artifice, Command, and either Knowledge or Wealth. What do you think?

Take Knowledge.

Wealth is somewhat redundant with Artifice. The two do not have as much synergy as you would think, because Artifice can, by default, use any materials to create any object, even swords from dirt or heavy armor from grass. See here: forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?773601-Sine-Nomine-Godbound-Staff-Pick&p=19988626#post19988626

Wealth does not even help a Theotechnician: plus.google.com/109542481433257987536/posts/2g4q5w9SaCu

Thanks!

Would there be a better choice than Knowledge?

Wealth lets you conjure useful things such as food, drink, and horses though, in addition to letting you economically sabotage or embolden Factions. It'd be pretty handy if you want to ensure your people have literally everything they could ever want.

Wealth conjures such luxuries only for your immediate companions, however, going by the definition of "companions" in page 26.

Using Wealth to directly improve factions is also heavily Effort-intensive. It is something to be done only by the higher levels.

For direct faction improvement, it is better to take Fertility solely for Unending Abundance, which is a fire-and-forget source of prosperity: plus.google.com/109542481433257987536/posts/3EActuB3Rdb

You could also place Unending Abundance and Ender of Plagues in an 8 Dominion, 1 Effort artifact and take it at character creation as a Fact.

Do you have any other suggestions?

I'm going for a god of civilization, but beyond that I'm not sure.

Command seems a given, but you tell me.

Fertility (solely for Unending Abundance, assuming you are not just taking that via artifact), Knowledge, and Passion seem like your best choices.

Passion allows you to spread cultural memes with ease.

/gbg/, I'm going to hit level 3 soon and my character
Is deciding to build an artifact to boost his godly swagger but it's a struggle to pick between a few different ideas I have, but I wonder what you ideas you guys would have with the Words Fire,Might, and Endurance bound?
We have an Artifice God in the party, but this relic is going to be personal piece of gear, so he's going to go through the hassle of making it solo.

Not Command?

Not Artifice?

Fertility and Passion sound more like the purview of a Bacchus-esque god.

How well would a God of Fate with Knowledge, Luck, and Time do?

It depends how you want to lead, Command is the most straightforward and it's an AMAZING Word.

You could take Passions and control them emotionally, it's more subtle in its use but potentially more effective/volatile.
Fertility will grow your civilization, and likely soaring birthrates (coupled with a time and knowledge go bound this shit goes down a to flash bred army situation,don't ask).
Those two could be useful as well as many more.

How well in what capacity?

I guess I'm wondering how they'd all fit together, or if you'd choose different Words for the concept?

I am suggesting these as third Word choices.

I would go with Artifice, Command, and Knowledge for a civilization god myself.

Oh! Thank you!

Id recommend the Fate Word for a Godbound of Fate. It's in the bonus content of the PDF.
Knowledge and Time share some small overlap but they do different things.

Knowledge will allow you to make informed and accurate choices and have shit tons of...knowledge.
Time will allow you to get some looks into future events and let you "redo" actions, with Effort spent. It'll give some ability to make it so a future event can take place as well and tons of shit when miracles get involved, and dominion.

Fate is available only to Undestined by default.

>A Godbound of Civilization with the Words of Artifice, Command, and Knowledge.

We will build cities in a day.
(Men would cower at the sight!)
We will build towers to the heavens.
(Man was not built for such a height!)
We will be heroes!
(We will BUILD heroes!)

>Wealth conjures such luxuries only for your immediate companions, however, going by the definition of "companions" in page 26.

Ever-Sufficient Provenance provides countless mundane animals that Artifice cannot replicate, and can produce cattle to be slaughtered for as many as 100 men per level of the Godbound. Wither the Purse is a way to attack the economic Features of other Factions, as is The Golden God's Hand.

It *is* super gay that Fertility's Withering Curse and Unending Abundance are so permanent compared to what Wealth can perform, though. For a Godbound that wants to mess with Factions, Fertility's Effort economy works on such a low-cost scale that it's practically non-existent. Faction turns are usually measured in Months, which means a Wealth Demigod who wanted to really mess with various Faction finances would have to keep Effort committed for entire months of game time, whereas a Fertility Demigod could blight an entire country's food supply with a Gift that merely asks for an Effort to be committed for a Scene, or for a day to bless a Faction with a Feature permanently.

I don't like it.

Yes, which is why Fertility is what you actually want for downtime purposes.

Birth Blessing also has no range limitation, so with a day or two on hand, a Godbound could fine-tune the birth rates of an entire city.

All right, smartpants.

What would the most overpowered three-Word combination be?

For what purpose?

How about, one build for combat and one for general utility?

Assuming a level 1 character and no Facts for artifacts, it is difficult to go wrong with the long-distance sniping build here: Otherwise, it is easy to think of various "packages" for starting characters to mix and match.

"I want basic combat competence" package: Bow Word, Bolt of Invincible Skill (lesser), Rain of Sorrow (greater).

"I want to build things" package: Artifice Word, Ten Thousand Tools (lesser), Perpetual Perfection (greater).

"I want to mind control people" package: Command Word, A Thousand Loyal Troops (lesser), Thrall-Making Shout (greater)

"I want to ruse people" package: Deception Word, Liar's Flawless Grace (lesser), Impenetrable Deceit (greater)

"I want to make the land and the people fertile" package: Fertility Word, Birth Blessing (lesser), Unending Abundance (greater).

"I want to take the party anywhere" package: Journeying Word, Know the Path (lesser), The Path of Racing Dawn (greater)

"I want to break mysteries" package: Knowledge Word, The Unveiled Truth (lesser), Irresistible Query (greater)

"I want to rig probabilities" package: Luck Word, Salting Away the Luck (lesser), By Chance (greater)

"I want to emotion control people" package: Passion Word, Banner of Passion (lesser), A Heart Like Clay (greater)

Mix and match as needed.

This is good stuff!

Thank you!

Civilization God-guy here again.

So, what about Fertility instead of Knowledge? That would corner the three pillars, wouldn't it? Artifice for industry, Command for military, and Fertility for agriculture?

Yes, that should work. Assuming you cannot just take an artifact for Unending Abundance, my starting loadout would be:

Artifice: Ten Thousand Tools (lesser), Perpetual Perfection (greater)
Command: A Thousand Loyal Troops (lesser)
Fertility: Unending Abundance (greater)

Note that Godbound opens up a rather unusual downtime build in the form of the Journeying Word, Know The Path (lesser), The Exodus Road (greater), and The Path of Racing Dawn (greater). This 5-point package allows you and your entire nation's people to fly around the world at 100 miles per hour without need for food or sleep. You could circumvent most agricultural needs this way, effectively feeding your people simply by flying around in the sky with them; they will still need food when they finally settle down.

Hrmn. Perhaps it was the character's creation of an artifact of Unending Abundance that triggered his apotheosis into a Godbound?

If your GM allows you to start with an 8-Dominion artifact, your loadout could be as follows:

Artifice: Ten Thousand Tools (lesser), Perpetual Perfection (greater)
Command: A Thousand Loyal Troops (lesser)
Knowledge: The Omniscient Scholar (greater)

8 Dominion artifact: 1 Effort, Ender of Plagues (lesser), Unending Abundance (greater)

If you wish to be especially cheesy, you could compensate for your lack of combat investments by dedicating a Fact to Cinnabar Order archmastery and summoning 8 HD Cinnabar Conflagrations.

This dude is turning into fantasy-Moses.

Wouldn't the Knowledge Word grant you the highest possible understanding of agriculture, which you could pass down to your disciples and thereby ensure that your lands farms are almost always green and fertile?

Would you suggest investing in Invincible Iron General?

Because between Artifice and Command I'm seeing an army of faultless warriors equipped with mass-produced magical weapons and armor and invigorated by the divine touch of their god.

Maybe so.

Remember that for all Influence and Dominion purposes, "plausible" means "plausible relative to the Godbound":

plus.google.com/ NicholasGoodman/posts/Ewzvvrjx4bG

Take Invincible Iron General only once you actually have an army on hand, possibly by level 2 or 3.

Ah, sensible.

And use A Thousand Loyal Troops beforehand to bind kings to your will, so that you HAVE an army to begin with.

>Using the Omniscient Scholar, the Godbound knows everything that there is to know about agriculture.
>Using Ten Thousand Tools, the Godbound creates vast acres of farmland and keeps them green and fertile with an enormous system of aqueducts.
>With Perpetual Perfection, this farmland would be immaculate and immune to natural decay.
>Because the farmland was created 'naturally,' having been built by the Godbound and not just summoned, it requires no upkeep on his part, just maintenance by his mortal servants.
>The Godbound has A Thousand Loyal Troops, resulting in a potentially limitless number of disciples.

Jesus Christ.

He could rebuild Babylon in a day.

In a week, he could make Babylon look like a child's sandcastle.

>Invincible Iron General

Sounds like Knowledge or Fertility Influence usage to me.

I think my stupidest Invincible Iron General build looks like this;

>Death/Health/Command
>Withholding the Mercy, Burning Vitality, Guards! Seize Him!, and Invincible Iron General

So what you get here is a general that keeps his army members alive for at least one round beyond their actual death, can Commit Effort for the Day to revive them, and then keep them alive for a second actual death for another round. You can repeat this for as much Effort as you possess. Also they gain big morale, hit die, and to-hit bonuses just for you being around.

Remember that you can devote Facts to establishing yourself as being a militarily relevant character, such as the general of a faction. We're in GM-ruling territory here, but there's plenty of precedence given in pg11 on the faction-relevant Fact your character should have.

>It might be a bond of blood, as your kinsmen are still loyal to you back in your home city. This fact might shape your present interactions, granting you bonuses to influence friendly allies or a deep knowledge of the vile cult that you’ve fought for years. It might also allow you to automatically call on contacts or allies in the organization, though not all might be able to help.

It's pretty awesome, isn't it?

There aren't a lot of games where I'd consider making a crafter, but this game with its theme combined with how little the game makes you jump through hoops in order to be a good crafter is definitely one of them.

Just the basic Artifice word power with no additional gifts is more ability than most RPGs are willing to give the most dedicated crafter. It's like the Batman utility belt; if you need a thing, you can make it, with the limits being "is it real?" and "can a person lift it?" You could throw a Godbound of Artifice into a ravine and they'd have made a parachute out of their own beard before they hit the ground.

Found the dungeon world fag

Haven't played Dungeon World. What's the reference here?

DW typically has three or four levels of success/failure, as opposed to two, and generally gives the player some amount of choice in each case.

Illusion of choice, actually, as everything in DW ends in a semifail of sorts; you never truely suceed, ever.

A choice of what kind of failure.

2hu. I'm the reasonable guy who argued with you way too much. I brought up the Voice of the Wind combo.

My suggestion to you, rather than inventing a bunch of house rules would be to play a different game. Also, please kindly take a trip or something so I can safely filter out your posts.

Thanks.

>Wasting time arguing with 2hu
>Reasonable

if you get the 7-9 partial success then yeah there's some hitch, but on the 10+ it's usually a total success with no downsides

With Hack and Slash, you hit the dude and don't get hit back, Defy Danger, you totally avoid/resist/whatever whatever it was you were avoiding, Spellcasting, your spell goes off without needing to pick a penalty and so on and so forth.

So has anyone ran Exalted with this? I know the deluxe edition's themed godbound has "Solar's with the serial numbers filled off" as one of the examples but I'm curious to hear how the rest of Creation's fluff and such meshed with the game.

>I'm the saltfag who is very irrationally angry over game discussion
>I perceive the most blatantly obvious non-2hufag poster as 2hu because he had the gall to besmirch my waifu game

Jesus.

I know the Sponsored by Nobody podcast has been running Exalted with this if podcasts are your thing.

They started off with Ex3, saw the huge rules related problems they kept running into, and switched to an early version of the Godbound rules some episodes in.

I haven't run it, but I think the point of greatest friction between Godbound's rules and Exalted's setting is going to be sorcery. Sorcery is a big part of the Exalted setting, and it takes into account the things that characters can and cannot do with it. The iconic Exalted spells would need to be ported into Godbound to preserve that. In particular, you'd need a spell to summon demons.

That said, Godbound Sorcery is already fairly similar to Exalted Sorcery in the broad strokes. 3 tiers of spells, notDragonbloods can only use the first tier. And low magic works perfectly well for Thaumaturgy a la 2e. (3e makes Thaumaturgy a talent rather than a learned form of magic that mortals can access, Low Magic is the second.)

atrusilk.podbean.com/e/exalted-offtopic-why-3rd-edition-failed-why-godbound-succeeded/
Found it. Sounds like it might be worth a look, although I wouldn't call Exalted 3e a failure. I think overall it succeeded in what it was trying to do, with varying levels of finesse. For better and worse, it wanted to be the 600 page monster that it is.

Saltfag was another individual who was fairly psychotic and determined to insult everyone who disagreed with them.
I pointed out as 2hu because they're selling one of the same houserules as 2hu, and additionally seems to be posting a 2hu image. It appears to be something from 2hu anyay, from someone who's never seen 2hu.

Plus I recommended that 2hu play a different game because they feel that the game is inherently broken. That recommendation is given in good nature, being that 2hu was not satisfied with the mechanics of the game, as they did not meet with their expectations.

Asking them to namefag as Colette or 2hu perhaps is strictly salt, because I'm just not enjoying seeing their posts any longer.

Undefined aren't a thing by default

Hello rpg.net.

I don't get it. Not from there. Sorry.

Feel free to go back to whatever shithole website you crawled out of, then, because you clearly have not lurked here for more than a week. 2hufag has one of the most identifiable posting styles ever, and mixing him up with someone because another random guy posted a touhou picture is pretty clear evidence that you need to lurk the fuck moar.

How workable is the Godbound ruleset for running one on one games a la Scarlet Heroes?

I come from here.

Hello Aspel (resident 2hu nutrider and codg shitposter)

I haven't tried it myself, but I think they'd work well. Even individual Godbound can wield a lot of power, and the system seems like it would play fine without a group. I don't know how Scarlet Heroes handles it, though.

Just make sure you tone down the major foes. Most things in the bestiary could slaughter a Godbound in one round if they're free to focus on a single opponent.

Bump

Can a Godbound build constructs like golems or warforged?

Artifice Godbound could definitively perform such feats, but they would need to spend Dominion. How much you'd need to spend would be determined by the scale involved. If we're talking more in terms of an individual sentient entity instead of a Feature meant to bolster a Faction, pg27 and pg162 have details. Low Magic Theotechnicians can make golems as well.

Awesome!

Note that some low-level minions present a major balance issue in that they can outfight low-level, non-combat-optimized Godbound.

The most flagrant example is the Cinnabar Conflagration, which any Godbound with a Fact for Cinnabar Order archmastery can spontaneously summon and abuse to great effect.

A Sorcery-bonded Godbound with Adept of the Throne can also conjure up an astoundingly powerful golem:
>Summon the Black Iron Servitor
>The theurge uses deep secrets of creation to fabricate a powerful servitor. The creature they create may be formed of any inanimate material they wish or grown from living flesh, and will have twice as many hit dice as the theurge has hit dice or levels, up to a maximum of 20. It is intelligent, utterly loyal to the caster, and has three GM-approved gifts related to its purpose, as suggested by the creator. These powers should be roughly equivalent to short-duration lesser Godbound gifts, albeit not true divine powers, and the creature has 5 points of Effort to fuel them. The servitor is immune to non-magical weapon attacks, and strikes once per round with an attack that always hits and inflicts 1d10 straight damage. It's armor class is 0 and its movement rate is 30'.
>Creating these servitors takes a week of work, and the theurge may not have more than one of them active at any one time.

Load this up with Bolt of Invincible Skill, Defy the Iron, and Nine Iron Walls, and you have a force to be reckoned with.

The 8 HD theotechnical iconodules from the Theotechnicians low magic tradition are less offensive, seeing how they take 2 Wealth and a week to create. They are a little weaker overall than Cinnabar Conflagrations as well.

I'm just looking to create a small army of iron warriors to defend my faction.

Page 131 directly addresses this:
>Creating new beings, building automatons, or gifting people with outright impossible abilities qualifies as an Impossible change, with a x4 difficulty modifier. Monsters or creatures can be built with a maximum hit dice equal to 2 plus half the Godbound’s level, rounded up, or humans can be empowered or altered into creatures of such hit dice. Innate magical powers can be granted; a good guideline is to look at monsters of similar hit dice and pick abilities from them, or give abilities that mimic low magic tradition spells of up to Master level.

That said, this is a murky topic because "plausible," "improbable," and "impossible" are supposed to be relative to a character's capacities, so what might be "impossible" for most Godbound could actually be merely "improbable" for an Artifice-bonded Godbound with Ten Thousand Tools and Perpetual Perfection. See here:
plus.google.com/ NicholasGoodman/posts/Ewzvvrjx4bG

Thanks!

Nigger, 2hu works Aspel into a fucking bloody froth, with him screaming how he should get a blog and fuck off.

Am I just blind or is there not a blank character sheet anywhere in this document?

Do you need one?

A sheet of lined paper is sufficient for me.