I've had an itch to play Godbound recently, but I've never quite connected with its default setting. It's certainly not bad by any stretch of the imagination. It's quite clever in the way it subverts many fantasy stereotypes while playing others straight and providing a diverse kitchen-sink setting to play in. I've just never latched onto any particular corner of it the way I have with something like Exalted (the game that got me into Godbound back in the day). Recently, though, I've been toying with some ideas that I think might come together well to make for an interesting adventure.
For those unfamiliar, one of the popular settings for Dungeons & Dragons is the forgotten realms, and during one historical event known as
The Time of Troubles, the overgod AO cast all the gods into the material plane, stripping them of their divinity and forcing them to walk amongst the mortal followers they had grown so detached from. Basically, their scheming and power-hungry machinations as well as their general disregard for the wellbeing of their faithful earned them a stern talking to. I thought this general setting, at least in broad strokes, would actually make a fantastic setup for a game of Godbound!
I wouldn't be sticking strictly to canon, but rather following it in broad strokes so that we could use the familiar backdrop of Faerun and major locales like Baldur's Gate or Waterdeep (with some room for players to tweak/rewrite their little corners of it). Player characters could be mortals who, for one reason or another, earned a bit of divine spark in contention as the gods fell, or even actual divinities now brought down to mortal and trying to earn their way back into divine grace. What would follow would be high powered adventures in the typical Godbound sense as the players accumulated power, influence, and followers, all while trying to avoid (or defeat) other power-hungry proto-divinities.
The following questions arise for me:
- Is there any interest in a game like this? People can be particular about their RPGs, and Godbound isn't one of the larger ones, so I need to know there are people interested in playing it away from its default setting.
- Is a canon setting like Faerun the best choice, or would it be better to make it a "generic d&d fantasy world"? Faerun with the serials numbers filed off with room for expies and inspiration from materials like Overlord and other similar series and books?
- What other things should I keep in mind? I've played a bit of Godbound at my own table, but not here on RPol. Is there anything I should watch out for?