Godbound

2hu are you still around? I intend to run a Godbound game that takes inspiration from Dawn of Worlds and Civilization.

One thing I plan to do is have Godbound PCs start at level 4, and make it so PCs benefit from +weapons/armor. That should hopefully minimize the issue of Mortals being better than combat Godbound.

Shape Mundane Land/Climate: 8 Dominion
Shape Fantastic Land/Climate: 16 Dominion
Create Mundane Fauna/Flora: 8 Dominion
Create Fantastic Fauna/Flora: 16 Dominion
Create Sentient Race: See text.
Create/Imbue Empowered Individual: 8 Dominion.

Create Sentient Race: Creates a Sentient race of 100,000 people with enough genetic diversity to avoid inbreeding. 2 Dominion

Attributes:
-2 to any attribute. -x6
-1 to any attribute: -x4
+1 to any attribute: +x4
+2 to any attribute: +x6

Hit Dice: Races can have a maximum of 2 hit dice plus half the Godbound's level, rounded up. Every extra Hit Dice increases the cost of the race by [X].
1HD: Free
Saving Throw: +2 for +2 to a saving throw (Hardiness, Evasion and Spirit)

Racial Traits:

Arctic Adaptation: Ignore environmental cold and see heat as if with infrared vision out to your normal sight range. +x2
Desert Adaptation: Ignore environmental heat and cold, drink once a month, and ignore flames smaller than a bonfire. +x2
Void Adaptation: You don't need to eat, breathe, or drink so long as you get sun. You ignore deep space conditions. +x8
Water Adaptation: You can breathe, see, and move freely in water, and ignore the sea's cold and pressure. +x2
Lifespan: Adults at 25% listed age, Middle-Age at 50%
40: -x1
70: Free
110: +x1
160: +x2
240: +x3
360: +x4
Light Blindness: Your race takes -1 to attack rolls and -1 to Perception checks when in bright light, such as sunlight. Being abruptly exposed to bright light causes Blindness for 1 round. -x1
Darkvision: Your Race can see in the dark, up to 120 feet. +x1
Natural Armor: +x1, per -1AC from 9, up to 3 AC. This does not stack with worn armor.
Natural Weapon: Choose between a retractable natural weapon that does 1d8, or an unconcealable one that does 1d10. +x4
Winged: Your Race has wings, allowing them to fly with a movement rate of 40 feet. +x1

I started a new Godbound campaign last week, and so far it has been a blast.

The PCs took Beast/Bow/Sword, Passion/Command/Fire and Luck/Time/Deception.

>peasants in the Raktine Confederacy
>home village was burned down by patrians
>PCs are the only survivors
>the 2 years-old daughter of the passion GB is not among the bodies
>missingpersonquest.jpg
>track back the patrians to a dulimbian camp
>a lich brainwashed the captains of both regiments into obeying her
>Deception GB pretends to be a vissian ambassador to get into the camp
>brainwashed dulimbian captain gets suspicious
>Luck GB diverts a migration of carnivorous lizards through the camp
>while everyone is panicking, they delve into the lich's lair
>daughter is about to be sacrificed
>PCs all roll to hit
>fail, fail, fumble
>lich skewers the girl and concludes ritual
>night road opens
>Time GB reweaves the past: the Bow GB's first attack now succeeded
>the ritual was never completed, the girl is unscathed
>angry lich raises 8d8 skeletons from the ground
>Sword GB gets killed by brainwashed patrician captain
>nope, enters Divine Fury mode
>Fire GB grabs the girl and her comrades
>jump through the flame of one of the candles around the pentacle
>get out through a brazier in the camp above
>camp is still swarmed by carnivorous lizards
>Beast GB commands the lizards to run into the lich's crypt
>Divine Fury ends, he loses consciousness
>PCs run away to the nearest town, half-dead, no more effort
>MFW

>PCs all roll to hit
>fail, fail, fumble

>PCs run away to the nearest town, half-dead, no more effort

This is Godbound in a nutshell, isn't it.

OP here. I was also thinking about placing a limit on how many Utility Words (Artifice, Command, Knowledge, Sorcery, Fertility, Wealth, Health) you can have. That, or making the Words more expensive. Or nerfing them in some slight ways while buffing Combat Words.

The game is going to be roughly Stone Age, so someone with the Artifice Word will be limited to stone age technology until his civ unlocks more technology.

Artifice will be able to still create golems/constructs. But you will need facilities, resources and to unlock magic/technology to do it. In comparison, someone with Bow/Sword can turn a ragtag group into a crack military unit.

Wealth is also slightly nerfed in that you need to discover those resources first.

I don't know how to fix the fact Sword is inferior to Bow. I'm already going to be statting out my own weapons and equipment. I'm also thinking of implementing this house rule:
10-15: 4 damage
6-20: 5 damage
21-30: 6 damage
31-40: 7 damage
and so on

I think one interpretation that could help a lot (and from what I found when I looked in the book, it's not contradicted in it), is that melee attacks are done in melee range and ranged attacks at range, i.e. even if you're firing a bow in melee, that's still a melee attack and the bow word doesn't apply.

Well I'm going to apply a penalty to firing into melee at least, when using full-sized ranged weapons like a rifle or bow.

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