/gbg/ - Godbound General

Anything break if you yank out that effort rule? Seems kinda stupid, honestly.

It's your game to houserule, it'd make Godbound god mech warriors

I'd make it either a generic or Artifice-specific gift, personally. Probably a greater gift, at that, since it makes Godwalkers a lot more powerful for Godbound, and Godbound pilots become extremely powerful.

What said. If Godwalkers are a straight power-up, then it makes sense for them to be used in every fight whenever they're available. Can't have a climactic fight on foot unless you've got your justification ready for why no-one brought their tank.

That said, if you want that, do it. Also, there is a Godwalker Chakra Engine called the Cinnabar Field Reactor, which I've typed out because holy fuck the names in this section, and which lets the pilot spend effort on the walker's auto-saves. Maybe there's a better version of that, if you want to only have a subset of walkers capable of acting like a second skin.

In any case, if you're having difficulty with the rule feeling arbitrary, think of Godwalkers as Evas. They're their own thing, with their own energies, practically alive. A Godbound can fuse with one, but not wear it.

There are a few more abstract rules like that in the game that I've come up with in-game explanations for to de-abstract them. The save penalties for heavy armour, for instance. The game doesn't specify why some armor gives a penalty to spirit saves instead of evasion or hardiness, so I've decided the reason is that angels are dicks. It's well established that angels are dicks in this setting, and one of the ways in which they are dicks is that they put a curse on all iron in the entire world. Steel weapons were used against angels, so iron and steel items attract bad luck and curses. That's fine in a sword, because of what you use a sword for, but less so for armor. You can wear bronze if you're concerned about curses, but if you want the same protection that steel plate offers you'll need to make it heavier and harder to move around in. Needless to say, a Godbound of Artifice can smelt the curse out of the iron, possibly by glaring at it until it flees in shame.

>Iron Eclipse
Pretty much the apex of the utility Godwalker. I do love them for that. Who doesn't want a comfy as fuck flying palace?

Okaaay, so~! Question.

According to the book, you can empower people, like making healers for a vilage that can use a healing gift of yours.

Given how the book reads, that seems like it should be Impossible, buuut Crawford stated that its difficulty is related to the abilities OF THE GODBOUND USING IT.

So what would you rate this dominion project as?

Elaborate on the nature of the change, is it granting these villagers gift level healing abilities or will it make them proficient in more conventional healing.

Either way I'd recommend looking over the section on empowering mortals again. It becomes evident with a thorough reading.

Since we're all having a comfy discussion of the actual game here, I'm kinda afraid to bring it up. What did Godbound don't deserve a troll OP?

It's a pretty non offensive game in my opinion. Rules light OSR game with GM fiat but plenty of guidelines anyway. There's more GM tools and advice than other OSR games.

no one knows

Veeky Forums is at critical hate capacity and people hate things that are the similar but a little different.

Impossible. My read on it is that making mortals supernatural, like say imbuing them with gifts, is always Impossible.

I interpret Godbound's abilities affecting difficulty to mean that your Word or Fact choice affects the kinds of things you can attempt. Health Word Godbound will make those supernatural healers with a simple Impossible project and one major challenge. Fertility Godbound can deal with healing but it's not their major purpose. Impossible project with many major challenges. Knowledge Godbound can't stretch their Word like that, but they can make an Improbable change to turn their subjects into the best mundane doctors ever.

This is rather more helpful then just "go read again". Thank you.

Why can't Godwalkers be a straight upgrade but resource intensive/requiring repairs or maintenance.

Because nothing makes you seem more godlike than fighting giant robots on foot! Although, Godwalkers are fucking expensive and high maintenance by default anyway. Buffing them won't break anything. Treating them as an Artifact and allowing Godbound gift use is a quick and easy way to turn them OP.

So, favorite Words?

I think Artifice or Heath is mine.

Deception. Ruses are always fun, and if I'm reading the Word right, seeing through them is nearly impossible even for beings that don't believe everything you say by default. And your illusions aren't just convincing, they're perfect. As long as nobody touches them anyway.

One of these days I ought to play a character who lies his way through absolutely everything. What could go wrong?

Knowledge is a close second.

I can't really say for favorite words just yet. But Fertility was surprisingly brutal with some of its powers (I'm just HANDING OUT MISCARRIAGES, BUH-BYE BLOODLINE!!!)

Also Passion seems to have a whole bunch of cool emotion controlling powers that are horrifying when you think about it.

Same reason Godbound can't use +3 swords or similar. The thing that makes you awesome is you, not your gear or circumstances. At least, that's the principle they mention in the book.

I tend to play magic-using swordfighters in RPGs, but I think the best word, rather than my favourite word, is Health. If you want to be a Godbound rather than a less specific superpowered RPG character, then the ability to cure crippling conditions with a glance or bring people back from the dead is the way you prove you're a walking miracle rather than yet another dangerous magic person.

It worked for Jesus Christ.

Dionysus would be TERRIFYING in Godbound.

He'd be Fertility, Journeying, and Passion.

As I recall, he and his revelers were pretty terrifying to begin with.

His most famous followers, the Maenads, were basically barbarian berserker bitches that got drunk, got laid, and then murdered for days.

So, perhaps someone with a bit of actual play experience can help me out.

I want to run a game where the players all start with one Word, and can only gain access to other Words after defeating rival Godbound and prying that word from their cold dead body. The idea is that each word only has one true host at a time, and that if a player wants someone else's word they'll have to beat them up and take it. Its my hope this will help make each major battle unique and give that 'gotta collect them all' drive to the campaign.

I'm concerned about balance and the character creation being limited though. How powerful is a starting Godbound with only one word? How would you feel about playing a lower powered Godbound? Should I be giving them something like a bonus fact or whatever to help compensate? Am I being no fun?

First, I love the Highlander-style concept, although I feel like the Godbound of Sword is going to have little difficulty taking the Fertility or Wealth Godbound's power.

>How powerful is a starting Godbound with only one word?
Do they still get six Gifts for that word? If so, probably about the same. That said, as certain hat-wearing people have rightly pointed out, some Gifts have difficulty functioning on their own. If you have Sword and only Sword, you're missing out on options to close the gap and actually use it.

>Should I be giving them something like a bonus fact or whatever to help compensate?
Not to compensate for power, but to give players more room to express a character concept straight away, you might want to let them take one or more talents from the mortals section. If you wanted to be an invincible bandit king, and you didn't get to start with Command, Bow and Deception all at the start, you might feel better about your character if he had Bow and the Expert Thief talent than if he just had Bow.

I feel like you could do some really interesting things if you gave every Godbound one Word, like three Talents, and one of the Totally Not SMAs from the back of the book, and let them roll with that. That lets guys who draw the short straw actually matter and turns the game into a kind of Wuxia Highlander Adventure, which sounds fucking awesome.

>the Totally Not SMAs
I really like the concept for those. And they fit with this setting's metaphysics, like the sorcery that lets you exempt yourself from a natural law or the general theme of the laws of reality slowly breaking down.

There was something like that in Baldur's Gate, wasn't there? A plot hook where all the metal in an area is breaking down because of divine law being in peril. I didn't play it, because I fucking hate RPGs that make me control multiple characters at the same time, but from what I've heard it sounds like a decent plot hook to bring a group of Godbound together.

I think it was more a vial of poison than divine law breaking down. Somebody was poisoning the metal to destroy it.

The Totally Not SMAs are really well-done, yeah. I kinda wanna run an Exalted game but at the same time I could make a much, much better setting than Exalted. I had one for a Norse post-Ragnarok setting, where it was Fist of the North Star + Shin Megami Tensei + Norse Mythology, and the Godbound were the new gods in literal fact.

Really? The version I heard was that it'd effect items you were carrying before you knew what was causing it.

In any case, I was imagining something like a giant floating obelisk repeatedly slamming into the ground, each time it goes off permanently damaging and weakening anything metal within a large enough radius that all the PCs can start trying to converge on it. It'd be angels that set it up, because as has been established, angels are dicks. I'm sure there are some PCs belligerent enough to ignore that scale of a plot hook, but when everything from the gold in your pocket to the iron in your blood is corroding away, I'd feel pretty righteous in telling their players to make a less self-absorbed character. Even a perfect sandbox has to start somewhere, and I don't think the Bethesda approach works here.

Might a best

FIREEEEEEE