[Supers]Tell me about your gods

Best Selling RPGs - Available Now @ DriveThruRPG.com
D

drkrash

Legendary Pubber
Joined
Feb 25, 2019
Messages
213
Reaction score
321
In your homebrew supers settings, if you use Greek/Norse/Egyptian/whatever gods in your setting, what are they, exactly, and what do they do?

Are they actual gods? If so, why are they not so godly anymore?
Are they superheroes and supervillains?
Are they extra-dimensional beings or aliens?
Do they interact with the world still? If so, how?

I'm doing some world-building as a pastime in between gaming sessions and I have a lot of ideas for what to do with them, but I wanted to hear other peoples' good ideas. :smile:
 
The gods are AIs... based on orbital satellites but able to appear to the populace in a variety of avatars, but only a couple of them are actively worshiped, and that's by accident, since they try to avoid being recognized while manipulating events.
 
Simlasa said:
The gods are AIs... based on orbital satellites but able to appear to the populace in a variety of avatars, but only a couple of them are actively worshiped, and that's by accident, since they try to avoid being recognized while manipulating events.
Click to expand...
That's basically ASE. Was that intentional?
 
I generally treat them as myths--but allow others to put them in if they choose, as legitimate deities, or just old super-powered aliens. Mostly, I suggest someone use the Empyrean aliens for that--as they're known for doing just that on other worlds.
 
In my superhero games I default to the Terry Pratchett position - all gods exist, but they are created and sustained by humanity's belief in them - the stronger the belief/more followers, the more powerful the God is, and with enough faith they can manifest in the world in the form of avatars. The only exception is the Norse pantheon, as I take it for writ that Ragnarok already happened, and they all died. Thor's hammer and abilities, specifically, were taken on by the Slavic god Perun. The Greco-Roman pantheon, OTOH, I went more Neil Gaiman with, as the "Twilight of the Gods" also happened and after Zues's passing, Athena took over as head of the remaining Pantheon, most of whom are sustained enough by the continued retelling of their stories over the years to maintain a physical presence, but don't have enough active worshippers to exert most Godlike powers, so are essentially just immortals with a few tricks related to their area of influence. Bacchus runs a winery, Athena heads a research library, Apollo is a surfer, etc. Eris is the only one who actually has diety status, after the rise of the Discordian movement from the 60s onward.
 
Edgewise said:
That's basically ASE. Was that intentional?
Click to expand...
Naw... it's stuff I made up long ago. But now I need to go have look at ASE.
EDIT: I think I got the idea from an old issue of Heavy Metal.
 
Last edited:
I'm thinking of just making them ancient beings, as old as the earth or older, but basically just super-powerful alien beings. One of them is one of the Earth's heroes now, and I've used other ones in the game, but I never gave too much thought as to what they actually were.

They've all been Greco-Roman so far. I like the idea above that the Norse "gods" died in a war called Ragnarok.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Banner: The best cosmic horror & Cthulhu Mythos @ DriveThruRPG.com
Back
Top