Have a couple of Gods, who are players with different abilities. By having
Gods be real people, they can be petty, vindictive, and in general the
meddlesome beings of Greek, Melnibonean, and other religions who really knew
how to stir up trouble. Personally, I'd have past greats of the Olympian world
be elivated to the post of God (I'd vote for Dr. Pain for War God!)
A God would gain power from his followers - the more followers, the more power.
This power would be an actual resource which is tapped to perform miracles, so
maybe "Manna" is a better word for it.
Manna could be used in several ways:
1.) Consecrate - a temple could be concecrated to a given God. This would be
a permanent drain on resources (say 100 follower's worth in the current system,
or maybe 5 PCs), but all miracles in a Temple are 1/2 cost in Manna. A
despoiled temple removes the concecration, but the manna drain is still
incurred (Gods better protect their temples!)
2.) Summoning - Send a number of creatures to the given location or unit. The
creature type is dependant on the God, the number on the amount of Manna spent,
and last for one month.
3.) Clairvoyance - God recieves a month's worth of turn report for the specified
unit or location.
4.) Obscurement - God hides the activities of the given location or unit for
the month
5.) Embodiment - The God's PC (from his PC days) makes an appearance for a
month. Starting location is specifyable by the God. This is the only way for a
God to act in an Obscured location, and once their the location isn't Obscured
for further miracles from this God during his appearance. All other normal PC
activities are available to the God. A God's death should cause a permanent
depletion in Manna.
6.) Investiture - The God can create an artifact. The artifact will give the
possessing unit a bonus in a skill, where both the skill and the amount of
the bonus are selectable, with higher levels incurring higher costs.
Artifacts aren't cumulative with other artifacts. The cost is significant at
creation, but less for maintenance. The artifact becomes inert once the God
ceases to pay the cost. An artifact that is destroyed (desecrated, not just
made inert) permanently deducts it's maintenance cost from the God's monthly
allowance.
What the above does is make Gods into schemers who have some neat toys to
curry favor, but need mortals to do most of the dirywork. Since the pool of
followers is limited, Gods are in competition with each other. Also, since
most of the really good actions of a God can be foiled, deducting permanently
from a God's power, a God will need more followers just to keep up, and
eventually even the most powerful God will become powerless, making room for
a new God to ascend in his place.
Scott Hauck
hauck@cs.washington.edu