Starting with a near-traditional RPOL "God Game", players will develop a universe from scratch over several aeons. Once a deep and compelling setting is created, the players will then craft characters using a more formal d20 system (such as Mutants and Masterminds, due to its wide breadth of possibilities) and play through a semi-sandbox campaign within their creation.

The twist? Characters in this second phase will be created using three narrative concepts of the players choosing, inspired from the results of ACTS made over the course of the first phase of the game. However: only one of those concepts can be from a result of their own gods ACTS, while the other two must be inspired by the ACTS of other gods/players.

The goal is for the players/gods to craft a setting full of monsters, cultures, creeds, and concepts that are interesting to more than just themselves!


Having played several God Games over the years, I've always been taken by the depth of the creative worlds that can be generated by such games. As an artist and a writer, I'm always impressed by the results of these games, and I've always been left wishing I could explore these worlds on a more human scale, and find out what sorts of amazing stories we could tell in them!


I've been running an ongoing Pathfinder game for over three years now, and played in dozens more. Beyond that, I've played in almost every edition of DnD, and many of the other spin-off rules such as d20 Modern and Mutants and Masterminds. I understand the basic math governing d20 systems on an almost instinctual level, so I'm confident that I could provide players with interesting and fun challenges no matter what mish-mash of rules that our exotic setting forces us to devise!

For character creation, I'm leaning more toward Mutants and Masterminds. Not because I believe the story we tell will be super-heroic, but because the system is broad and flexible enough to account for almost any genre or combination of exotic concepts that a God Game might turn out. Also, the rules are easily accessible online for anyone who might not already have the system.


To put it bluntly: I'm just not confident that I can run a compelling freeform game. I like having a structure. It helps me as a DM, and I believe it helps my players stay focused and avoid mistrust among themselves and between them and their DM. Narrative conflicts are moderated by design, leaving me free to focus on preventing more meta-level issues, and on telling a fun story!


Due to the somewhat ambitious and exotic nature of this game idea, I'm hoping that the response this post demonstrates that there's sufficient interest in the concept to start laying the groundwork for a more formal players-wanted process. I already have a small number of interested possible players among people that I currently game with, but in order to really get this game going, I'll need at least twice their number in awesome, creative, and excited applicants!

As long as it's M&M, I'm very interested in this concept.

I've often thought, once I found the right group of people on rpol, with the right mix of energy, talent, creativity, and consistency, that it was destiny to then pursue something so ambitious, so all-encompassing, so broad and deep in scope, that it would make all of my roleplaying prior to that training for this one, final act of art. The kind that would be satisfying enough in all ways that I would probably just give up roleplaying once it had run its course (if it could, this is the sort of thing that defies a real ending in all the ways I'm usually leery about) and go devote all my time to gardening.

Is this that? Have I put too much pressure and expectation on you? Or have I not put enough? Will other people read this and think I'm a crazy person?

Well, I guess we'll find out.

In reply to brother_1 (msg # 2):

I'm definitely leaning toward M&M for the character portion! I'm also open to lots of other possibilities though, especially at this early stage.

I'm not terribly fond of M&M but the rest of the concept definitely interests me. I especially like the different things that could be done with it.

There's actually an advertisement for the game currently running in the players: wanted thread. The application window closes on Wednesday, so there's plenty of time to get an RTJ in if you're interested.

Based on feedback from people who have applied so far, the second phase of the game will likely use M&M, but for now the focus is on the God Game portion, with no requirement that people stick around for the campaign phase.