Annoying Gods in games :)

Well, tonight the group attacked the main group of Priests and the Statue of the Kuo-toa Goddess, and part-way through encountered a group of giant lobsters.

And then a half dozen Gods showed up, with lobster bibs, a huge tub of melted butter, and expectant expressions on their faces - they wanted steamed lobster. :)

After destroying the Statue (and disrupting the priests powers), the group started to flee. Though one (the leader) stayed for a minute and fireballed the water near some of the lobsters, sending up a bit of steam to quick-cook some lobsters for the Gods. :)

So I was just wondering. Do any of you use deities as NPCs in your games? Or have annoying but humerous Gods or other powerful peoples who don't go around threatening people (well, not with instant death) or cure all their ails and whims... but just enjoy occasionally popping in and annoying them?

How do you handle those situations? :)

Rob, you know who
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Annoying Gods in games :)

On Sun, 13 February 2000, "Robert A. Howard" wrote:

> 
> So I was just wondering. Do any of you use deities as NPCs in your games? Or have annoying but humerous Gods or other powerful peoples who don't go around threatening people (well, not with instant death) or cure all their ails and whims... but just enjoy occasionally popping in and annoying them?
> 
> How do you handle those situations? :)
> 
The last time I actually had gods in a game was when the players were pretty much on their level - then, they got to hang out with the gods - kinda like Xena and Hercules do. 
Although, if you play Paranoia, the Computer is pretty much god there - and it can be pretty annoying, as well as humorous.

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Annoying Gods in games :)

> From: Robert A. Howard 
> >So I was just wondering. Do any of you use deities as NPCs in your games?
> Or have annoying but humerous Gods or other powerful peoples who don't go
> around threatening people (well, not with instant death) or cure all their
> ails and whims... but just enjoy occasionally popping in and
> annoying them?

I tend to use gods as NPC's occasionally.  It only really comes into effect
when there are priests / paladins around however.  I play that gods powers
are directly proportionate to the number of worshippers they have.
Therefore, the more worshippers, the more powerful the god.  Gods normally
don't interfere, expect when they are being insulted, annoyed, or their
followers disobey etc.  And by this I mean MAJOR annoyances.

ie - I had in my party a N priest of the war god, as well as a CE
Anti-Paladin who also worshipped the war god.  They came across a major war
between two factions.  And then they decided to leave, since they didn't
want to get involved.  The priests powers started fluctuating wildly, and
the anti-pal seemed to become an arrow-attractor :)

Another incident was when one PC decided to argue with the priest of a
storm-god that god's don't exist.  He finally changed his opinion around the
4th divine lightning bolt.

The best was when the pc's met a person who was the ONLY worshipper for a
god.  (yes, blatant theft from a terry pratchett novel,but it was fun!)

Brad

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Annoying Gods in games :)

At 11:42 PM 2/13/00 -0600, Robert A. Howard wrote:
>
>So I was just wondering. Do any of you use deities as NPCs in your games? Or 
>have annoying but humerous Gods or other powerful peoples who don't go 
>around threatening people (well, not with instant death) or cure all their 
>ails and whims... but just enjoy occasionally popping in and annoying them?
>
>How do you handle those situations? :)
>
For me, the answer is "it depends upon the world".  I like to have the
ultra-powerful beings step down once in a while and cause trouble.  But its
not appropriate in all worlds.

In Elendar, the place is designed around the four primary gods, and all
their children, being interfering nosy little brats.  

["Deb..."]  

Okay, maybe not brats.  But interfering and nosy, definitely.  The four
gods have been known to appear in dreams, in person, as avatars that no one
else knows is there... and affect life in any number of ways.  This isn't
always for the best of the characters.  What Mirya (the goddess of mystery
and magic) thinks is good for you might not quite jibe with what *you*
think.  And what about Aylia, goddess of pain and healing?  *chuckles*

The thing is, if the gods are going to appear, and interact, then they MUST
be fallable.  If the god is an NPC and works *with* the party, there must
be a reason why they don't just do everything for them.  And if they work
against, there must be a reason why the NPCs can win.

My group is familiar with what they call "the rules".  Any encounter with a
superior being usually means they are pawns in some game and the people
playing (ie, the gods) can't tell them everything about it because it is
against "the rules".  It seems to work out well.

Hells, in AoW, the gods were so well-known that one character ended up
falling in love and doing her damnedest to be with Mirya... and managed to
find the one loophole and how to do it and be with her for good (people
can't become gods in that world... nor do gods become quite human in all
aspects).

D.
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