Trial of the Gods

Campaign Themes: Fantasy, Random Generation, Heroic Characters, Clash of the Titans, Players as Gods

Description:

The land of Gaein, with its feuding city-states between tall mountain peaks, its ancient ruins amongst the olive groves, its azure seas host to boisterous trade and piracy, is a playing ground for the Gods. From the populations of humble crafters, daring sailors, and scheming politicians, heroes are chosen - and tested. When a cyclops claims a city-state's territory for its own, when a deific curse strikes a noble family, when savage barbarians find a pass through the icy ranges, these are times when true heroes prove their bravery, their god-granted skills, their inhuman cunning... or die. And those who triumph will be celebrated, granted wealth and wine and women, mythologized - until the Gods test their merrit with another horrendous threat.

How's it work?:

Trail of the Gods is a campaign setting in which the adventure ideas are generated by the players. The players will be roleplaying as both their heroes and the Gods who cause havoc upon the land.

The players would start out by designing their Gods. They are not the only Gods that the people of Gaein worship, but soon they will be the most powerful. The only "stats" the Gods would have would be Spheres of Influence. There should be a large list of spheres (war, life, chaos, luck, travel, nature, prophecy, etc), each one with a special ability granted to those who worship the god. At creation, each God would choose one sphere.

The map of Gaein would be divided into a number of territories, each ruled by a city-state. Think of the board for Small World. Each player would choose a single territory. The city-state in this territory now worship them.

Now the players would create their heroes. Each hero should worship the God that the player is roleplaying. The hero gains the special ability of the Sphere of Influence his player chose for the God. This Special Ability is useable once per session- something like re-roll one attack roll, add to damage, take half damage, etc.

Adventures in Trial of the Gods will be randomly generated by the players. At the end of each session, the players will each pull a card from a deck of adventure ideas (example cards: a minotaur / a curse on a noble line / a gateway to hell / a weapon of great power, etc). There are many, many lists of adventure ideas online. A DM could even create a few decks: setting, goal, threat, etc. The players (roleplaying their Gods) and the DM would work together to come up with some flavor for the adventure, and the Gods would then choose which territory they will place the plight in. Behind the scenes (and in between sessions), the DM will fill out the adventure with dungeon maps, traps, monster stats, and such.

In each session, the heroes will go out and play the adventures that their gods have placed as trials. During the adventure, the DM will secretly keep a tally of "heroic deeds" that each hero accomplishes. These might be different depending on the hero- a crafty Odysseus might get a point for ingenious strategy, while a blunt Hercules will get a point for clobberin' something good. At the end of the adventure, the DM will announce which Hero was the most heroic. The God of that hero gains another territory, and another Sphere of Influence.

As a God gains more Spheres of Influence, the hero will gain more special abilities. The hero can still only use one special ability per session- but the variety will add to his survivability.

If a God wishes to take the territory of another God (something that will inevitably occur), they can make opposed rolls to battle over the territory. A God can even "bet" his spheres, each one adding one or three or such to the rolls. However, if an attacking God loses the roll, he loses the spheres he has bet. A God can never bet his last sphere.

Now because new adventures are generated randomly at the end of each session- not at the end of each adventure- there could easily be the danger of there being too many new adventures! The DM could easily fix this by limiting the number of new adventures on the map to something like Three or Four.

Examples:

Sebastian has sat down at the first session of Trial of the Gods. He decides to create a God in the mold of Hermes. His God's first Sphere of Influence is Luck. The special ability associated with Luck is "The hero can re-roll an attack roll, saving throw, skill check or ability check." When Sebastian creates a hero, his hero will be able to use this special ability once per session. Sebastian imagines his god as a Trickster type. He decides his god has the head of a fox. He names his god Arimi.

Looking at the map, Sebastian selects a territory that contains a city-state called Vox Hollow in the middle of the Redtail Forest. The people of Vox Hollow now worship Arimi the Fox-Headed Trickster.

Now Sebastian makes his hero. The DM is using the d20 Conan RPG, and Sebastian creates a thief named Semper. Semper worships Arimi as well, and Sebastian decides he was born and raised in Vox Hollow.

The other players make the following Gods:

- Eliza makes Postos, a God of the Anvil
- Mark makes Xero, a God of Knowledge
- Tammy makes Kalamity, a God of Chaos

Each god chose a territory. And here are the players' Heroes:

- Eliza makes Cervil, a prospecting Nomad.
- Mark makes Yetch, a necromantic Scholar.
- Tammy makes Bloody Barbitsi, a crazed Barbarian.

Because this is the first session, the DM has created an adventure. A Sphynx has taken the King of Kojos hostage until her daughter is rescued from the tribal army of barbarians who have captured her. The characters wind up cutting this army to pieces through their first adventure. It is a short adventure, and they complete it in one session. Behind the screen, the DM has been keeping track of heroic feats. For example, at one point Sebastian's character Semper snuck behind a troop of barbarians and caused a distraction that allowed the characters to pass by unharmed. At another point, Yetch used an undead soldier to lead them to the army's camp. Both of these are really cool things, and earn a mark.

At the end of the adventure, the DM announces that Semper earned the most heroic marks. His God chooses another territory, and another Sphere of Influence. Sebastian chooses his territory (adjacent to Vox Hollow), and the Sphere of Trickery. The special ability associated with Trickery is "The character adds his level to a Move Silently, Hide, or Sleight of Hand check." Now, Arimi has two special abilities to choose from, though he can still only use one per session.

Now that it is the end of the session, the players each pull a card from the Adventure deck. They wind up with:

- Sebastian: A Port
- Eliza: Sentient Plants
- Mark: Experiment Gone Wrong
- Tammy: Pirates

Roleplaying their gods, the players decide that this adventure will occur at the Port of Honoros. The people of Honoros were trying to grow crops underwater, and some magical experiment went wrong. The plants are now swarming all over the port, growing over ships and pulling people underwater to drown. To make matters worse, pirates have taken advantage of the chaos! The players place some sort of token on the Honoros territory.

Before the next session, the DM will fill in this adventure with maps, NPC's, monsters, etc.



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