Carpe Blogiem: Sometimes the Call Comes Back

Welp, here I am again looking for some new players – my B-Team is pretty solid, but my C-Team remains cursed. Luckily, I’m starting up a new campaign come Mayish so here we go again.

Expectations

I’ve got 2-3 slots open for C-Team, here are the requirements:

  • The ability to play weekly and regularly from 4pm EST to 8pm EST on Sundays.
  • Have both webcam and mic and able use them without too much noise or visual interference. This isn’t really negotiable.
  • Use Discord (it’s where we plan campaigns, talk about in between sessions game stuff, and generally hangout. It’s also where we meet to play using Discord’s video and audio so lack of this is a non-starter.
  • Submit to a intake interview over video to determine combability with current players.
  • GURPS game mastery is a plus, but not required.
  • Previous RPG experience is a plus, but not required.
  • Ability to write a decent back story within the campaign frame.
  • Ability to play with others in a team environment.
  • Capable of reading all campaign materials (which are not inconsequential for this particular campaign).
  • Willing to create a Wiki entry in the campaign wiki and upkeep it for your character.
  • Ability to use Roll20.
  • Be okay with being recorded for my private YouTube channel – I rewatch past sessions when I need to and you have access to these as well if you were to miss a session, had to go early, etc.
  • Be okay with using a private mailing list for the group.
  • Be okay with having/signing an NDA in regards to what you might see in my group (I vet a lot of my work through my players who are top notch for such things.)

That’s it. If this sounds like you and you like what you see below, send me an email.

Campaign Goals/Starting Place

Players will take the roles of demigods and godlings in a supernatural world that wants to use them, just wants them, or wants them dead. Every Interval the Clash is begun. The Battle is a time when pantheons jockey for their chosen demigods and godlings to kill others, consume the divine spark of their foe, and become gods themselves. Every thousand years the “Grand” clash occurs with thirteen spots for godhead open compared to the measly three of a “typical” Clash. PCs start out making allies who can help carry them to the top, but must be on the lookout for treachery and high-handed enemies who wish nothing more than to become gods.

Campaign Premise

Here’s the campaign premise from the setting bible:

No one is sure who created who first: the gods created man in all their various myths and legends or that the myths and legends were created by man. But ever since there has been men there have been gods to rule above while man ruled below. Man gave power to the gods through believe, sacrifice, and subservice. This power was called “aethera” and was the manifestation of faith itself. It was what gave the gods their power. It was what fueled their immortality and invincibility.

Gods of the sky to hurl bolts of lightning and quake the heavens with thunder. Gods of the land to call the beasts and pray for a bountiful harvest. Gods of the sea to pray for a good catch and calm waters. Gods of the underworld ferrying the souls of the dead. A thousand times a thousand gods. Each individual god capable of being uplifted by the prayers of man and each god capable of answering the calls of their worshippers. They also interbreed with mortals and gods alike creating demigods (the half mortal) and godlings (lesser divinities) who increased their power on the mortal plane simply by being there. These semi-divine beings were not subject to the rules the gods had established between one another and wars between pantheons broke out. It was discovered during these wars that deities and semi-divine beings could harvest aethera from the dead and dying among the divine. More so, demigods, godlings, and even special mortals could ascend and become gods themselves. Once this was known the war between pantheons suddenly took on a whole new dimension. The offspring of the gods began to fight to become gods themselves and the Earth was torn asunder for want of power.

Eventually, the various warring pantheons came together and put their differences aside as they realized if they continued it might result in total destruction of the planet. Thus the Compact was created: ascended beings would stay in their respective planes of existence and only visit the mortal plane when specifically called by their followers and even then had to wear mortal flesh. The Compact also codified the making of new gods through a Rite of Ascension: demigods, mortals, and godlings would have to fight and kill one another and take the aethera of their fellows to become gods or start a cult to ascend. At first, this was a free for all, but eventually the Compact was modified so that only every hundred years (or so) the semi-divine could ascend and only a limited number of spots were available. The survivors of the Rite of Ascension typically became mortal as their aethera was torn from them, cursed to mortality by their brethren. Moreover, every thousand years the Compact allowed the gods to come to earth to help, manipulate, cajole, etc. their offspring without being summoned. It is during this “grand” Rite that the gods themselves could be challenged and they could challenge others. For a while, all was well with the pantheons abiding the compact, but this didn’t last. Their worshippers found new gods to worship (science and monotheism to name a few). Humanity became rational and less reliant on faith and so the gods hid themselves behind the curtains of the new world they found themselves in. They subsisted on the few true believers that remained and reinvented themselves dozens of times to cull the energy from disparate places and belief. But every 100 years the Rite took place and others joined their ranks already hungry for the scraps of faith that were too few to be shared around.

But the gods (that could) eventually adapted to the new age. They took new things like cars, computers, electricity, social media, and even the Internet into their portfolios and became trendsetters, rock stars, and celebrities. The sheer power of faith that others had in their “new gods” sometimes accidently ascended them without them ever knowing what they could be. (Elvis Presley is one such example, as he became the god of Rock and Roll.) More strangely, sometimes new deities would just appear from nothing because of the belief others had in them.

With everything that’s happening along with the Grand Rite of Ascension taking place there are more new gods than ever and soon they might change the face of the Earth with the power they are able to wield in this new era.

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