Gods and their servants

Here's how Gods work in the open table game I run for my students. Also, a God Soother class and three Cultists (Sun, Life and Death, and Moon). This is somewhat inspired by my previous religion post, but it is tailored more to this world.

Gods:

• Gods govern domains of the physical world: the larger their domains, the bigger their power.
• Domains are not so much aspects of human life, as they are places, conditions or things in the world. 'A river', 'anything the moonlight touches', and 'decaying matter' are all examples of domains.
• Gods are beings of order: they want the world to be more of the same, specifically more like them. Therefore: all Gods strive to increase their domains until they assimilate the world.

Yet another magic system: Chaotic Spells and Strange Charms

Finding a magic system that does what I want is difficult. Not in the least because what I want from a magic system differs constantly depending on the sort of game I am (considering) playing.

However, one consistent ask that I have of magic is that it makes sense in the world, at least to me. So very gamey takes on magic, though they might be fun to play with, don't do it for me personally. 

Other than 'making sense in the world' I wanted the magic for this game to feel like a genuine force of nature, rather than vague innate power. I think it worked pretty well, but we'll see when I test it at the open table game I run for my students if it actually works in practice. 

Some more twisted vanilla: Ranger, Paladin, Witch/Druid

After doing the fighter, thief and wizard last post, I'll share the ranger, paladin and witch classes I made as well. These have been quite fun to work on, and I hope to expand the organisations/classes based on some ideas I still have lying around somewhere as well as based on input from my students on what they want to play.

Wilderness Warden

The natural order is under constant threat. It is up to us to maintain it and root out the chaos that would undo it.

Gear: Hunting bow, quiver of 20 arrows, a waterproof cloak, a fishing rod, and a hunting knife.
Duty: You must present a trophy of a chaotic being you got rid of at each Equinox Moot.  
Stipulation: You are not allowed to upset the natural order under any circumstance.
Rituals: When you take up the responsibility of the Wardens of the Wilds you are inducted in one of the following rituals to aid you in your duty. Those who make a major contribution to the efforts of the Wardens are allowed to participate in a ritual they haven’t yet experienced.

Vanilla classes with a twist: Fighter, Thief, Wizard

At the school I teach at, I run weekly games for students. This year, I want to run an open table game set in a slightly gonzo fantasy world, where an ancient empire has suddenly fallen into decline. Power is fragmented, and seemingly up for grabs. Alongside local governments various organisations are vying for power. 

Here's three such organisations for the classic three: variations on Fighters, Thieves  and Wizards (format inspired by unions from bastionland, the GLoG from goblinpunch, and materialist progression from adventures buffo.) 

Condemned Conscript

Your lives were forfeit the moment you went down the path of crime. Only through facing death can your humanity be redeemed.

Gear: A helmet, a spear, a shield and a pouch of blood red berries.
Duty: Answer the call when the Vanguard is deployed in war.
Stipulation: You must wear a noose around your neck while you are serving your sentence.
Rituals: After you are convicted to serve in the Condemned Vanguard your fellow convicts will put you through one of the following rituals. Those that serve another campaign, willingly or as punishment for a crime, will be put through a ritual they have not gone through before.

Autopsy Report: Looking back at my first GLoG hack

Back when I initially started this blog I was working on a GLoG hack for the table I played with at the time. It is somewhat finished, but barely playtested and the few people that did play it seemed to hate it. 

Moreover, this is from before I realised you don't actually need rules for everything, so despite aiming for 'elegant design' it is a rather convoluted mess of rules I thought I'd need because they were so prevalent in other systems, rules I wanted to add because I thought they were missing from 5e and a bunch of systems and mechanics stolen from other blogs merely because they looked interesting.

For these reasons, I don't like looking back at it, it makes me cringe. However, every once in a while when I need an example of something I like, I find myself returning to stuff I wrote for this game and finding that the thing I remembered liking still holds up decently well. So I figured I'd do myself a favour and try to extract everything I like about it, so I won't have to dig through that mess in the future anymore. 

Free Kriegsspieling the GLoG: A tale of Language, Barbarians and Popcorn

If you just want to see the current version of Free Laws of Kriegsspiel (FLoK) CLICK HERE. 

The rest of this post is more or less an attempt to map the influences that must have somehow caused this idea that came to me. This isn't a historical retelling, none of this was in my mind when the very first version of this popped into my head the other day. However, I do not believe myself (or anyone for that matter) to be wholly original, so these ideas probably influenced me in some way or other. After all:

Religion, Socializing and Gods

A while ago I contributed to a thing in the GLoG community. This is that thing revamped. 

If you just want to read the rules I would use without the acompanying musings go to the bottom of the post.

This (as well as the original thing) is heavily inspired by Arnold Kemp's post Fixing Religion.