[Actual Play] Enemy Gods

[Sammael99]

The players / characters :

Ana : Fierce huntress with a melifluous voice by day, God of War by night.

Saryon : Hunter-philosopher with a love for Justice by day and God of Wisdom by night.

Ilias : Best mariner in the whole of Shanri by day and Goddess of Love by night.

Keres : Zen-like monk with vision of the future by day and God of Justice by night.

Myrmid : Renowned warrior and general (and woman's man) by day and Goddess of the Hearth by night.

Me : GM by day and God of Fortune by night (just coz' I can)

That's right, in Enemy Gods, players play both their Hero and one of the Gods. The former act, the latter influence.

The story in a nutshell !

The heroes all have a debt towards King Medeus. King Medeus happens to have razed a temple of the Goddess of Love in a military campaign, and ever since he's been struck with a wasting disease that leave shim unable to lead his armies. His sworn enemy, Emerion, Prince of the Thurmenids, is threatening to conquer Medeus' kingdom.

Medeus sends the characters post-haste to the Island of Phalos where lies the greatest Temple to the Goddess of Love. They will bring with them 50 immaculate white bulls that will be sacrificed there in the hope that the Goddess will lift her curse. The hitch : Emerion seems to have preempted the move : the Thurmenid army controls Phalos and two heroes have been sent to assist them : Zadeus the Scralet, favoured of the God of War and Rheseos the Furtive...

The heroes navigate the three ships carrying the bulls towards Phalos and first face a storm sent by the God of Fortune (just because he can). . ilias' marine talents and a small intervention by the Goddess of Love make this no more than a small hurdle in their path. A few days later they sail in sight of Phalos only to find that the only harbor is under the control of Thurmenid ships. Ilias speaks with the seaigulls and learns of a discreet creek on the other side of the island. They sail there and maneuver their ships to safety.

Once landed the heroes have to work out a way to unload the bulls. Ilias and Myrmid head up the task and chop down trees to build a gangplank. Meanwhile, the rest of the heroes explore the Island. They find out that a 500-men garrison surrounds the Temple, and that the fastest itinerary to get the bulls up there (the Temple is located near the centre of the Island) goes through two villages.

The God of War sends a vision to Zadeus so that he will understand that the enemies he has been told to expect have secretly landed, but Zadeus is not renowned for his capacity for introspection. He misunderstands the dream and dismisses it.

At night, the heroes try to work out a plan. Myrmid suggests slaughtering all the inhabitants of the villages they go through, which should buy enough time to reach the Temple before undue attention is drawn. He then suggests decimating the garrison, entering the Temple and slaughtering the bulls. His plan isn't chosen, though, and in the end the heroes work on something very different.

Over several days, Ana, Saryon and Keres travel all over the Island and sow the seeds of rebellion against the Thurmenid invaders. The voice and natural aura of Ana as well as assistance from the Goddess of Love and the God of Wisdom (and despite opposition by the Gods of War and the Goddess of the Hearth) make her the de facto leader of this rebellion. On the third night after the landing, a protest is organised to take place around the Temple of the Goddess of Love.

Meanwhile, Ilias arms the now empty boats as best he can and raids the Phalos harbour where several of the Thurmenid ships are set afire. As expected, a furious Zadeus arms the rest of his fleet and sails in pursuit. Ilias manages to evade his wrath until night falls, and uses his exceptional talents to head back to Phalos despite obscurity.

As night falls, several thousand inhabitants of Phalos converge towards the Temple to find out that the garrison has been reinforced. Among the protestors are our heroes, each herding a little over a dozen bulls that have been sullied with mud and soot. The garrison has a tough job containing the crowd. As the Heroes near the Temple entrance, they realise that the portal is blocked by a 40-50 soldiers unit.

At that very moment, a man emerges over the crowd and starts haranguing. It is Rheseos the Furtive. "The leaders of this rebellion are lying to you!", he says. 'We are not here to oppress you, and if we were we would have slaughtered you already. They are not here to help you! Do you know who they work for? King Medeus, who is well known for having ordered the razing of Temples of the Goddess of Love. They cannot be trusted !" The Goddess of the Hearth (who hates the slutty upstart that is the Goddess of Love) inspires his speech, but as the crowd wavers, Ana climbs on the large back of one of the bulls and responds to Rheseos.

"Look who's talking !", she says in her rapturous voice. "A Thurmenid, send by Prince Emerion to grab your land and your crops, to subjugate your wives and your children, to hinder your commerce and discourage the Pilgrims of the Love Goddess ! Can he be trusted?" The Goddess of Love, the God of Wisdom and the God of Justice back her speech, and the crowd hangs onto her every word. "Do you know why Medeus sends us ? For penitence, he wants to sacrifice these fifty immaculate Bulls. He is asking the Goddess for forgiveness. Who are these men to deny him the chance? Does the Goddess herself not teach that love must prevail ?"

The debate rages, but it is soon apparent that the flame lit by the Goddess of Love in Ana's heart is the strongest. Soon the Thurmenid soldiers look at each other, wondering why they would stop what is obviously an emissary of the Goddess to access the Temple. Rheseos tries to fight the tide but he is soon brought down by angry protesters, and our heroes move to enter the Temple. The doors swing open and from inside the Priestesses emerge, naked and armed with sacrificial knives, ready to do the Goddess' Glory.

As the population shouts its joy and victory, all present are struck by a miraculous vision (sent by the God of Wisdom) that lets them understand that in all things dialog is better than violence.


I'm tired now, it's late, I'll post my opinions on the game and how it went tomorrow.

[urbwar]

Nice report. I like how the characters did their best to avoid violence, which I am sure ticked off the god of War. The speeches, backed by different Gods, definitely sounds like fun.

Did the Gods debate who to back during that part of the session? Or did they just forgo a conclave, and choose sides?

[Sammael99]

Nice report. I like how the characters did their best to avoid violence, which I am sure ticked off the god of War. The speeches, backed by different Gods, definitely sounds like fun.

Did the Gods debate who to back during that part of the session? Or did they just forgo a conclave, and choose sides?

They chose sides.

During the whole game, there was only one conclave, to debate Authority over the Isle of Phalos which the Goddess of Love tried to assert, and the God of War and the Goddess of the Hearth contested. The Goddess of Love won that vote.

I'll post my feelings about the game and system later today.

[Sammael99]

The stuff I liked :


The concept, obviously. The idea of bickering gods influencing the lives and deeds of heroic mortals is a staple of myth, yet no role-playing game had addressed the issue with such flair and elegance so far
A mechanic that allows gods to really influence the actions of mortals
the accumulative spiral in combat, and also the versatility of the combat system which allowed me to handle the debate as a combat even though the rules didn't specify you could
very open backgrounds that allow for inventive character creation (Saryon had Wolf at 3 both for combat, senses and any other use of the empathy with his Wolf, and Keres had visions at 3 which allowed him to add the dice to significant tests when it made sense for him to have had a vision about it)
Players describing their advantages to boost the die rolls.


The stuff I didn't like so much :

The default game world, that didn't feel very epic and felt too much like a classic fantasy world. The players had trouble building up epic characters after reading the world description
The difficulty for players to enter a God's character, especially predefined. Essentially, it meant that apart from the Goddess of Love and the God of War in the above story, they had little motivation one way or another. I guess this evolves with time, but it's an issue nonetheless.
A side aspect of this, which is the absent God syndrome. First of all it can really shaft a player whose concept revolves around a specific deity not present around the table, and second, the relationships between the gods that are incomplete with some of them missing.


I also love the curse/hubris mechanic, but it didn't come up in the playtest.


All in all, I feel that Enemy Gods is a great concept that doesn't quite deliver its potential. It needed some more playtesting, proofreading and thought to be perfect. It's still a damn good game (and cheap too) and can be worked into something great with a little tweaking and a custom setting.

[David J Prokopetz]

Sounds pretty nifty, but...

The Great Temple of Love is on the Isle of Phalos?

Hmmm. :p

[Sammael99]

Sounds pretty nifty, but...

The Great Temple of Love is on the Isle of Phalos?

Hmmm. :p

Yep. And that was deliberate, too !

[David J Prokopetz]

Did your players catch it, or are they guttermind-impaired?

[Sammael99]

Did your players catch it, or are they guttermind-impaired?

Oh no, they cought it, but they were nice anough to laugh and then move on ;)

That's what you get for playing with "mature" players.

Not ?!

[David J Prokopetz]

Lucky you. I could never get away with it in my current group. They'd bust up laughing every time someone said the island's name through the whole session.

[urbwar]

The default game world, that didn't feel very epic and felt too much like a classic fantasy world. The players had trouble building up epic characters after reading the world description


Yeah, I didn't find the default setting that interesting. Hopefully "More Enemy Gods" will change that. Of course, Thirty has to come out first....


The difficulty for players to enter a God's character, especially predefined. Essentially, it meant that apart from the Goddess of Love and the God of War in the above story, they had little motivation one way or another. I guess this evolves with time, but it's an issue nonetheless.


That's been brought up before, iirc.

Someone suggested creating the gods when you create your characters, so the players have a hand in creating both, to give them a better connection with the deities. I believe that alternative should also appear in "More Enemy Gods"


A side aspect of this, which is the absent God syndrome. First of all it can really shaft a player whose concept revolves around a specific deity not present around the table, and second, the relationships between the gods that are incomplete with some of them missing.
[QUOTE=Sammael99]

This part confuses me. Why would you exclude a God that a player has chosen? I would think that if none of the players are portraying that God (if I was running it, I'd make them choose only from the gods of the players first, to be fair to everyone), that the GM has the responsibility to do so, to help maintain some sort of balance.

[QUOTE=Sammael99]
I also love the curse/hubris mechanic, but it didn't come up in the playtest.


That's too bad. That's an interesting mechanic. Speaking of mechanics, how does the base mechanic work in play? Good, bad, indifferent? I'm curious, as I'll be running Cat at the end of the month at Recess here in NYC, and it uses the same base die mechanic.

[Sammael99]

This part confuses me. Why would you exclude a God that a player has chosen? I would think that if none of the players are portraying that God (if I was running it, I'd make them choose only from the gods of the players first, to be fair to everyone), that the GM has the responsibility to do so, to help maintain some sort of balance.


Well that was my point. By default, the game says nothing of what happens to gods in excess of the players.


That's too bad. That's an interesting mechanic. Speaking of mechanics, how does the base mechanic work in play? Good, bad, indifferent? I'm curious, as I'll be running Cat at the end of the month at Recess here in NYC, and it uses the same base die mechanic.

Pretty well, I guess. Although unlike Cat, I believe, EG allows you to roll tons of dice for epic actions, which has a bit of the Exalted feel. The mechanic is simple and intuitive. I need to read Cat, though !

[urbwar]

Well that was my point. By default, the game says nothing of what happens to gods in excess of the players.


I understand that. I just didn't get why, for the sake of balance, you didn't portray any of the left out deities.


Pretty well, I guess. Although unlike Cat, I believe, EG allows you to roll tons of dice for epic actions, which has a bit of the Exalted feel. The mechanic is simple and intuitive. I need to read Cat, though !

Yeah. They use the same base (ie the same die mechanic and the use of advantages), but Enemy Gods adds in the backgrounds, devotion, and the rules for fighting no-names (which are like extras in Exalted).

I really dig how both games use the same basic mechanic, but one is slightly expanded for a more epic feel. I also have Dragon, and it uses the same base die mechanic, but I am not sure what differences it has for that game, as I haven't read the whole thing. Funny enough though, the world seems to be the same (or at least the same name) as the one from EG.

I have enjoyed your AP and comments on the system. I am hoping to run the game sometime this year (maybe for the Gotham Gaming Guild or something else), so your posts have been very informative.

[Sammael99]

Urbwar,

Where can I read about this More Enemy Gods you speak of ?

[urbwar]

Urbwar,

Where can I read about this More Enemy Gods you speak of ?

It was first mentioned here (http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=162957).

It sounds like it will be a great supplement, especially the Lovecraftian fantasy setting.

However, it's been put on hold until Thirty gets released, which I believe has something to do with the Templars. I'll know once it's out, because it's on my list of games to get all ready :p

I'm looking forward to it though, as I think some of the material in it will be useful when running EG (I especially like dunlaing's suggestion for creating Gods, ie leaving their sphere of influence blank to start, and have it develop in play.

Now that Games of Divinity is under 10 bucks on Drivethru, I might just order it, and work up some of the pantheon of Creation for EG. If I can actually set aside time to do so :p