Darksiders Godbound Campaign

Bumping to keep this alive till I get home from BattleTech.

Threshold, Tormented Door
Summoned as part of the Maker’s tithe to fight in the End War, until very recently this entity had been used to block a reasonably large passage into a demon's lair. Awoken by a blast from a magical horn by the demon merchant Vulgrim, Threshold now works for him in order to pay off its debt. As it grows stronger it is beginning to remember more about how it came to be captured and even something about a past life as a Maker...

ATTRIBUTES Score Mod check (21-attrib.)
Strength 19 +4 2
Dexterity 14 1 7
Constitution 18 +3 3
Wisdom 16 +2 5
Intelligence 13 +1 8
Charisma 13 +1 8

FACTS:
#1 – Maker Construct.
#2 – Originally a warrior, has spent an eon blocking a doorway for demons.
#3 – Currently owned by the Demon Vulgrim

WORDS & GIFTS:
Earth (Str/con 16/18): Obduracy of Stone (1), Stonespeaker (1)
Endurance (con 16/18): Elemental Scorn - Heat (1), Unbreakable (2)
Might (str 19): Shoulders as Wide as the World (1)

ARMOUR: None AC: 3
WEAPONS: Enormous Fists (Heavy 1d10 STR)
HIT POINTS: 11
EFFORT: 2
INFLUENCE: 2

Bit of a puzzler this, some Words allow you to boost your attributes so that “less than 16 becomes 16” and “16 becomes 18” – does this stack if you take, as I’ve done here, Words that only improve one or two Attributes? I’m assuming they do, so this guy went from 8 > 16 Con thanks to Earth then 16 > 18 thanks to Endurance as the concept here was to try for HUGENESS. If it doesn’t work like that might as well change one of those to be something different.

I'm still going through it myself, but yeah, like says it seems pretty similar to 2e D&D (which I admit I've only got passing familiarity with thanks to Baldur's Gate). I like the Facts system for the simplicity with which you can add aspects to the world, so if you want to be, say, an angel and get bonuses to doing angelic things all you have to do is write "Am Angel" as one of your facts. I really like the Gifts too.

>does "less than 16 becomes 16" and "16 become 18" stack
As far as I can tell, yes. Yes it does. Doesn't really matter for NPCs, but if you're using PC stat distribution then yeah.

>No problem, your character examples have actually helped understand the system better and how character creation works.

I'm using them to get to grips with the character system too. Its quite a good exercise. I only realised after I'd done the first one that each Word gives some bonuses as well as access to gifts, so the Spider could do with some tweaking. We live and learn!

Found some of the concept artist Paul Richard's portfolio as well, which people might find helpful as inspiration
autodestruct.com/concept.htm
I can't link it because the system thinks I'm trying to spam it, but if you search for "autodestructdigital" and then search the top result blog for "Darksiders 2" you'll find a tonne of content that I've not seen before.

The system really hates that particular website, but there's some really good content which I haven't seen before.

I'll have a look for my copies of the art books tomorrow, see if there's anything particularly interesting.

Excellent! There's at least a couple of other Words that can stack up like that, if you feel so inclined.

These were for the City of the Dead. Presumably they developed into the ship palace / leviathan chariot.

The reason I went with all 4 of the horsemen being summoned and accused of kickstarting the end war was for multiple reasons.
Having all of them on the run means that the GM can have them in his game as much or little as they want.
Having them potentially scatter themselves for evasion purposes makes so that the GM can justify them appearing individually (or 2, 3, or even all 4 of them) as a challenge or foil for the group.
The player group could go through similar adventures effectively replacing the horsemen.
>Finding the destroyer and punishing those behind the end war.
>Finding a way to restore humanity.
>Recapturing the escaped 7 deadly sins.
>Whatever the hell strife winds up doing.

This guy is missing 3 facts.

Do both the characters in need tweaking due to the bonuses fro their bound words?

New version of with added to it.

...

Whoops, sorry about that.

Zephris facts:
FACTS:
#1 (Origin) – Demon.
#2 (Past Career) – A knight of Samael.
#3 (Relationship)– Stripped of all rank, hates The Destroyer.

You could probably be more specific with some of these facts, so #1 could be "Demon in Samael's Host" and #2 "Blood Knight and Guardian of Shadow's Edge" to add more detail to the setting and to the character. Depends on what the GM and player want to do, I suppose.

With all these characters I've been having one eye on them being able to work together, probably with Vulgrim as a patron. The Demon needs allies, the Spider needs information that Vulgrim is willing to trade for, The Maker is pretty neutral but will go along with anybody willing to help stick it to one faction of Demons, the Ghost wants access to Vulgrim's dimensional tunnels to get home, and the Warden is literally owned by Vulgrim (and was woken up by the thing he sells to War in DS1). Trying to come up with an Angel to round out the major faction representatives, and its proving a little tricky to justify.

Sycorax the Spider could do with a bit more optimisation, but seems fine. Murias the Maker looks fine but I think at 18 Str he has a Atr Mod of +3 not +4. I wish I could find a modifiable character sheet, it would be a lot easier than trying to do this on a Word Doc.

Also, and this is clearly just me being a thicko, but could someone help with Saving Throws? I'm still not quite following what I'm supposed to be writing down in Base and Mods. I did one and it didn't look right at all.

>saving throws
I don't get it either, but nobody says you need to follow the exact format of the character sheet in the book. Just write down the final save, or save with armor/without armor, if the character has armor save penalties.

...

Yeah I redid the abilities again, was still thinking 3rd-5th ed D&D rules for ability modifiers.
So for saves, Hardiness is 15 minus to higher modifier from either Strength or Constitution, example Ossifrage has a Str 13 (+1) / Con16 (+2), so Hardiness would be based off his Con for a saving throw of 13. On a d20 you must roll that number or higher to make your save, every time you level up all your saves get a -1 (so his Hardiness at level 2 would be 12. Evasion is based off of Dex / Int, and Spirit is based off of Wis / Cha. Hope that helps some.

That's very helpful, thank you. I realised that I'd somehow missed the "modifier" bit of the instructions, so I kept trying to subtract the whole attribute from 15 which led to some very wonky results

NAME: Cleon, Prophet of Corruption
GOAL: Spread the Corruption far and wide
When earth fell, the Prophet suffered more than most because he survived he initial onslaught. In the ruins of his former life, surrounded by the broken bodies of his family and friends and cowering in fear as the hordes of hell and the hosts of heaven did battle, something broke within him, and in his pain and madness he cried out for salvation. Something very old and very unpleasant heard him...

ATTRIBUTES Score Mod check
Strength 13 +1 8
Dexterity 13 +1 8
Constitution 10 0 11
Wisdom 16 +2 5
Intelligence 14 +1 7
Charisma 18 +3 3

SAVING THROWS
Base Mod Armour Penalty Final Save
Hardiness 15 1 n/a 14
Evasion 15 1 n/a 14
Spirit 15 3 n/a 12

FACTS:
#1 (Origin) – Was once human who lost everything in the Apocalypse
#2 (Former Career) – Deeply and obviously changed by contact with Corruption
#3 (Relationship) – One of the few Servants of Corruption on Earth

WORDS & GIFTS:
Command: Know the Inner Truth (1), The Soldier’s Faithful Heart (1)
Passion: Infectious Passion (2)
Sea (with GM permission Corruption Goo is used in place of water): Body of Water (1), Living Torrent (1)

ARMOUR: None AC: 2
WEAPONS: Corrupt Axe (Medium, 1d8 STR), Crystal flechettes (ranged, 1d6 Dex)
HIT POINTS: 8
EFFORT: 2
INFLUENCE: 2

Its not really a realm as such, but don't forget the Tree of Life/Death appears somewhere on every world but Earth. There was also apparently a shadow realm that a lot of the Lord of Bones enemies escaped to called Ysilik where "Sisters Sightless spun there webs" and a being called Achidna ruled. I don't know if that's related to the Shadow Realm that War could go to in DS1 that was like a grey version of the real world. Maybe its part of the shadowside version of the Dead Plains?

Optimised Sycorax, added Zephris' facts, add entry for Cleon.

I like the idea of repurposing the water gifts to represent corruption goo.

It seemed the most appropriate fit. Unless you started somewhere covered in the stuff some of the Gifts would be almost useless to begin with, but if you were to allow the Prophet to spread corruption using Influence and Dominion you could become very powerful quite quickly.

You'd have to do something similar to make Ice powers, I think. There's loads of undead like Argul that need them, but as far as I can tell the easiest way to model them is to take the Fire and change it slightly so master of the Furnace could be

Master of the Glacier/ On Turn
Commit Effort. Shape and mold all Ice within sight, growing or collapsing it as you wish. As an action, trap an unattended, inanimate
object within sight on in solid ice. Objects larger than a wagon can be trapped only in part

While Burning Rebuke could be

Frozen Scorn / On Turn
Commit Effort. Every foe that attacks you while afraid or reluctant suffers your Fray die in frost damage before each attack is resolved, even
if they have more hit dice than you or make multiple attacks. Normally, only mindless creatures or remarkably disciplined foes can remain calm enough to avoid the damage. Mobs suffer this damage straight.

I was thinking that too, re-fluffing fire for ice.

Really got to finish writing the background for Sycorax, its a glaring omission considering the others.

There not being a Cold type word honestly puzzles me a little bit, but then I suppose you could fold it into the others. Using the chart on p. 12, I'd suggest using something like this

Fire - Heat, smoke, light, fury and lust
so
Ice - Cold, frost, dark, fear and despair

Fits nicely with Argul's mob and their pretty brute force use of frozen powers. Mix and matching with the other words lets you be a bit more subtle about it.

Some more concept art here
videogamesartwork.com/games/darksiders
videogamesartwork.com/games/darksiders-ii

I am endlessly fascinated by Darksiders. It's like an artificial game, if that makes sense; as if a group of people sat down and agreed, "Tomorrow we are going to begin working on the Next Big Thing and the accompanying marketing blitz has already been ignited." Over night, people were freaking out about the Next Big Thing, Darksiders. And then just as quickly, it died.

And just as quickly as it lived and died, it lived again and suddenly people were asking, "You didn't play Darksiders?! Sure it was mediocre but it was big!"

Yeah it was mediocre, but at the time it was the closest thing I could get to playing a 3D Zelda as someone who always wanted to try it but never owned a console, much less a Nintendo console.

I got through the first level of each game and realized I had better things to do. I don't hate it, but it couldn't get its hooks into me.

What fascinates me is the entire life cycle of birth, life, death, nostalgia, rebirth was simulated in the third of the time of most franchises.

...

Couldn't find any good pictures of the Wicked, but they're the open-skulled zombies with burning holes in their chests from Darksiders 1.

NAME: Wicked L
GOAL: Possess one of the Horseman Strife’s weapons and/or get an invitation to The Crucible.
The Third Kingdom fell during the apocalypse and the dregs have inherited the earth. Bar one or two absurdly hardy survivors, all that remains of Man are the Wicked – mortals who have been so tainted by demonic power saturating the planet that when they die they rise again. Most return as mindless, animalistic creatures, but a rare few manage to hold onto some aspect of their old selves (even if they do tend to be just as homicidal as their peers).
The infamous Wicked K is well known throughout the realms as a swordsman fit to cross blades with the Horsemen themselves. Perhaps one day Wicked L will be spoken of with the same fear and reverence. Or maybe they won’t – using a gun is so unsporting!

ATTRIBUTES Score Mod check (21-attrib.)
Strength 10 0 11
Dexterity 16 +2 5
Constitution 16 +2 5
Wisdom 13 +1 8
Intelligence 13 +1 8
Charisma 14 +1 7

SAVING THROWS
Base Mod Armour Penalty Final Save
Hardiness 13 2 N/A 13
Evasion 13 2 N/A 13
Spirit 14 1 N/A 14

FACTS:
#1 – Wicked (an undying human mutated by demonic power)
#2 – Has fought (or at least shot at) Angels, Demons, humans and other, odder creatures, mostly for sport.
#3 – Constantly underestimated but starting to develop a reputation as a dangerous opponent.

WORDS & GIFTS:
Bow: Bolt of Invincible Skill (1), The Seeking Flight (1), The Inexorable Shaft (2)
Endurance: Body of Iron Will (1)
Fire: Firewalker (1)
ARMOUR: Khaki combat trousers (none) AC: 1
WEAPONS: BFG (2H Ranged, 1d8 DEX), Revolver (1H Ranged, 1d6 DEX)
HIT POINTS: 10
EFFORT: 2
INFLUENCE: 2

The Bow Word seems to be pretty ridiculous. You can make a 90s fps character with zero effort if you wanted to, right down to the 100 mile an hour sprint and huge guts.

>Wicked K
I love this guy, he's so silly. I even named the leader of my Mordheim Warband after him.

I found it pretty good as a one-time experience. When I couldn't afford the console, I've watched trough the playtroughs and the cutscenes, and looked great.
I loved the design, how it used up mythical elements, the Horsemans, the Demons, Angels, Samael, Vulgrim, everything. Both stories were interesting enough with plenty characters, painting a very nice setting.

But when I could finally got to play the game, and had to go trough the gameplay portions before I got to the awesome cutscenes with the awesome characters?
Well that was a bit lackluster. I finally understood why the game didn't make it to revered status.

But everything else is still great, and Darksiders 3 could patch up the gameplay weakness.
If only my autism would let me play games with female MCs.

But I understand what you mean, it takes a lot from Zelda, God of War, and the such. If it weren't for it's archaic design (aside from War's maybe), it could be called a total rip-off game by all accounts.

NAME: Nameless Watcher [Sprite, six-eyes, You there!]
GOAL: Spy on Vulgrim, Learn what caused the Apocalypse

In the aftermath of the Apocalypse the fortunes of individuals could rise and fall almost daily. The demon merchant Vulgrim, for example, fell out of favour with the Destroyer quite quickly. It did not take him long to begin making entreaties to the Charred Council for an audience. Eventually they listened.
Neither party will speak of what was discussed that day, but it seems an agreement was reached. One day soon Vulgrim will be called upon to render a service to the Council. In the meantime, and as a token of their mutual respect, a Watcher has been despatched to aid the Merchant in whatever way it can. Of course, both parties know the real reason for the council’s generosity, but a little politeness costs nothing.

ATTRIBUTES Score Mod check (21-attrib.)
Strength 13 +1 8
Dexterity 13 +1 8
Constitution 10 0 11
Wisdom 16 +2 5
Intelligence 14 +1 7
Charisma 16 +2 5

SAVING THROWS
Base Mod Armour Penalty Final Save
Hardiness 14 1 n/a 14
Evasion 14 1 n/a 14
Spirit 13 2 n/a 13

FACTS:
#1 –Watcher
#2 – Bound to serve Vulgrim for his services to the Council
#3 – Instantly identifiable as a servant of the Charred Council, for good or ill.

WORDS & GIFTS:
Command (Cha 16/18): The Soldier’s Faithful Heart (1)
Night: Knives of Night (1), Flesh of Shadows (2)
Sorcery: Perfection of Understanding (1), Adept of the Gate (1)

ARMOUR: Magical manacles (Light) AC: 6 (type-DEX mod)
WEAPONS: Chains (Med 1d8 STR), claw scratch (two-handed 1d10 dex)
HIT POINTS: 8
EFFORT: 2
INFLUENCE: 2

SORCERY:
Barred Gates of Forbiddance:
"By means of an arcane connection the theurge may forbid a subject from entering a particular place."

Sunder the Lesser Spell:
"A single theurgy invocation of the Gate is instantly dispelled along with any number of low magic enchantments within thirty feet of the chosen target point"

Seal of Regnal Dominion
“The theurge draws a sign of pale emerald light in the air before the chosen target, subverting their will to the caster’s own. While under the seal’s effects, the victim is absolutely obedient to the theurge’s commands, even those suicidal or repugnant to it. They will attempt to carry out instructions to the best of their ability and natural intelligence. Animal targets or those that do not share a language with the theurge can only be made to understand single-word commands.”

The Trumpet of Far Utterance:
“When cast, the invocation summons a gauzy image of the target and a five-foot radius echo of their surroundings. A similar phantasm of the caster appears in the target’s proximity. Caster and target may speak to each other through these phantasms, and a single inanimate object no more than ten pounds in weight may be passed between the two.”

Who here went through the old Godbound threads on the archive and read through 2hu's sperging over the (legit) flaws of Godbound?

You sir are damn machine. The amount of characters you have in a couple of days is damn impressive. Especially since each have been different and interesting. Some can be used as pre-made player characters or helpful NPCs. Others could be antagonists. Good stuff.

I kinda want to now.

>archive
No need since I was in those threads, it was useful information.

Its really good fun! I like trying to use a different set of Words each time to fit a variety of party role while still trying to keep it conceivable that they could all work together.

Still planning to do an Angel, assuming the thread survives, then maybe some normal humans or something that uses the Health and Fertility words (Griever-spawn, maybe?). And write Sycorax's blurb. He/She/It's might actually be my favourite of all of them, because the thought of a spider the size of a pig with a huge, dribbling maw full of fangs that makes up at least half of its body weight being a candidate for party face makes me giggle.

Me too. It was so unexpected the first time he popped up!

Have you got a link, or should I be looking on Sup/tg/ or 4plebs?

>Its really good fun!

Cocaine smoking is fun, does that mean you should do it? In the middle of an RPG I thought it would be fun to get up and pull down my trousers and take a fat fucking shit all over the gaming table, burying my friend's miniatures under a torrent of fecal matter. That would have been amazingly fun! But did I do it? No. because "fun" is the reasoning of a fucking child. If you base whether or not you do something off of whether or not it is "fun" then you are a mental infant who is not fit to live in adult society.

Similarly, when you do things in an RPG because they are "fun" you are being a fucking asshole. "Well I'm going to destroy the believably of this campaign by letting Jonathan fly to the goddamn moon on his Jump check because he got a NATuRAL TWENTY and if anything else happens, well, that would be against the spirit of the game, which is to have FUN, right guys? Even if we are fucking over the entire story and destroying the point of playing an RPG, it's okay, because as long as we are having FUN with it, that makes it a good thing, right?"

That is what you sound like.

Jesus tapdancing Christ on a cracker. What the fuck is wrong with having fun with in a RPG or having fun with a character concept? Can some individuals ideas of fun be disruptive at the table? Sure, but for me that is the point of RPGs, for everyone have fun above all else. I tend to GM more than play and my primary goal is that my player enjoy the game. I try to cater to their play styles. Adjust difficulty or even the results die rolls depending how I know my players react to the game. Also to adjust campaigns to suit play styles, I don't try to force murderhobos into a political intrigue game, or shove deep immersion role-players into hard as balls rouge-like dungeon crawls. If everyone isn't having fun then why bother playing?

Jeez, what crawled down your butt and died?

...

My stab at a Heroic Human character.

Dean, The Hunter
GOAL: Survive the Apocalypse, find any other surviving humans, kill as many Demons as he can.

Everyone is dead, family, friends, strangers he passed by on street. As he has seen, he is the last. Now armed with the ability to kill Demons, he plans to avenge humanity as much as he can. But there might be a chance his little brother Sam is still out there. If true he must find him and any other potential survivors. For the first time since the end he has a real reason to live.

Attributes Score Mod Check Saves
Strength 10 +0 11
Dexterity 16 +2 5 Evasion 13
Constitution 13 +1 8 Hardiness 14
Intelligence 13 +1 8
Wisdom 14 +1 7 Spirit 14
Charisma 8 -1 13

FACTS:
#1 – Human
#2 – Special Forces Commando, Now possibly the last living human
#3 – Trying to find out what happened to his brother Sam
#4 – Merchant Demon named Vulgrim has sold Dean the secret to killing demons, the price? Seeing a picture of Sam

TALENTS: Hardened Combatant (Attack bonus equals level), Sacred Steel (Attacks count as magic, +1 hit/damage vs Demons)
ARMOUR: Patchwork Survival Gear (Light) AC: 5
WEAPONS: Sniper Rifle (Ranged 1d10 + Dex Mod), Survival Knife (Melee 1d6 + Dex Mod)
HIT POINTS: 5
EFFORT: 1

Samuel, The Blademaster
GOAL: Watch over his brother, evade agents of The Lord of Bones sent to bring him back.

He was able to keep his memories and sense of self from The Judicator. He bested Gnashor in the Gilded Arena and won his freedom. Afterwards he was pressed into service as The Master of Blades in the court of the Eternal Throne. Hearing rumors in passing from the Old One merchant Ostergoth that there was a surviving human vaguely matches the description of his brother Dean. He found a to bribe Ostergoth for a Serpent Hole to earth, now he shadows Dean working to keep him safe from the Demons hunting him and even ones pretending to be his allies like Vulgrim.

Attributes Score Mod Check Saves
Strength 8 -1 13
Dexterity 18 +3 3 Evasion 12
Constitution 14 +1 7 Hardiness 14
Intelligence 10 +0 11
Wisdom 13 +1 8
Charisma 13 +1 8 Spirit 14

FACTS:
#1 – Undead
#2 – Former Olympic fencer and decathlete
#3 – Left the bound service to The Lord of Bones to secretly watche over his brother Dean

WORDS & GIFTS:
Alacrity (Dex 16/18): Flickering Advance (1), Walk Between Rain (1)
Death: Scythe Hand (1)
Sword: Unerring Blade (1), Shattering Hand (2)
ARMOUR: None AC: 0
WEAPONS: Dual Blades (Melee 1d10 + Dex Mod), Throwing Knives (Ranged 1d6 + Dex Mod)
HIT POINTS: 9
EFFORT: 2
INFLUENCE: 2

...

I was going to say, looking at the book there were rules for normal humans for people who want to play on hard mode (or really hard mode for common mortals). It looks like its not terribly difficult to port characters and abilities over from other OSR type games, if that's your thing.

Also that's a nice pair of characters you've got there, user. You could play as either and your GM has an instant NPC they can use if they want to but which isn't essential.

NAME: Cassiel, Eden’s Memorialist
GOAL: Find Azrael and return to Heaven with him.
There was once a garden, more beautiful than anything in Creation. It is gone now, and with it The Tree of Life, but there are those who still remember its wonders...
Cassiel, a scholar of Eden, was once counted among the servants of the Archangel Azrael. Following the Archangel’s disappearance in the aftermath of the Apocalypse, Cassiel petitioned to be allowed to go in search of her former master. Her request was granted, but at a heavy price: the gates of the White City will remain forever closed to her unless she can return with his master.

16, 14, 13, 13, 10, and 8
ATTRIBUTES Score Mod check (21-attrib.)
Strength 10 0 11
Dexterity 13 +1 8
Constitution 16 +2 5
Wisdom 14 +1 7
Intelligence 16 +2 5
Charisma 13 +1 8

SAVING THROWS
Base Mod Armour Penalty Final Save
Hardiness 13 2 n/a 13
Evasion 13 2 n/a 13
Spirit 14 1 n/a 14

FACTS:
#1 – Angel.
#2 – A scholar of Eden and Humanity.
#3 – Subordinate of Azrael, not a part of the Hellguard.

WORDS & GIFTS:
Fertility: A second Spring (1), Unending Abundance (2)
Sun: Hope of the Dawn (1), Sunlight Sight(1)
Sky : Sapphire Wings (1)

ARMOUR: Angelic Robes (Light) AC: 6
WEAPONS: Angelic Bolts (1h ranged 1d6 Dex), Chained Book (Light 1d6 Dex)
HIT POINTS: 10
EFFORT: 2
INFLUENCE: 2

...