Surely, Thor doth not stand alone! (gods among heroes)

[Hermit]

We've all had concept clones in our group, be it a spider-man rip off, a supes look alike, what have you. Nothing wrong with that

Thor, I'm sure, is no exception.

 

So, who's allowed a "God among heroes" concept in their games? Or played one? What points were used, etc? And which gods did you try?

 

I have a high level JLA type NPC group in my Champs universe, one of whom is Gwydion, of the Welsh fame. The fact that Gwydions legendary home was the mikly way makes the floating satilite base that much more amusing. Gwydion is not a brick type at all, rather I went with the 'master magician' 'trickster' 'Shapeshifter' and "Lord of Fantasy" bit... which makes him mostly a Mystic/Metamorph.

 

I read one source that he was often trying to teach mankind to think outside the box, and decided he was on their side. From there I marvelized a lot (read as, just went wherever I felt froggy). At the cost of a great deal of power, he became partially human, a demi god if you will. Another part of this is the tragic loss of his son Llew.

 

Now, the old gods (and not just from his parthenon) have returned, and he finds himself having to keep them in check.

 

SOOO...

Any thunder gods, Lords of Light, Tricksters in flesh out there?

[Acroyear]

My character Omega Man was the embodiment of the Egyptian Pantheon (think Captain Marvel/Shazam style). Unfortunately, since he rarely used any of the "evil" powers... the overflowing energies created some bad guys.

 

But it's always funny when the Super Whitebread character goes "I'll use my poison breath" or "I'll cast my gaze of death upon him" and the other players are just dumbstruck.

 

He probably doesn't count as much since he wasn't the/a god, himself.

 

So we had this one guy, Touchstone or some stupid name... who was a lesser greek god who was cast out. He tried to make himself in the patron god of lost children or something, so was trying to earn himself make into the good graces of Olympus by superheroing. His career kind of ended when he pushed an attack (a hefty magic spear) to impale a 11 year old mutant kid who was, essentially, a small time burglar to get by (because he was homeless). Why he felt the need to throw, like, 5-6d6 killing at a kid whose power was "I can talk to animals" essentially is beyond me.

 

I believe we also had Nemesis in our number at one time, as well. Don't remember much else beyond the detect: vulnerability type powers.

[mattingly]

A HERO newbie joined my group, so I created him a sort of Dwarven Thor. He was the dwarven god of lightning, and had a magical battle axe, armor, and shield, and a helm that allowed him to communicate in all tongues.

 

Being a dwarf, I also gave him small stature (and +2 DCV), which combined with his +4 DCV shield, made him a hard to hit brick.

 

And with the lightning powers, apart from the usual blasts, he also could teleport (speed of lightning). His most unusual ability was to feel electricity (detect through the touch group -- it felt warm or cold to him), which is a very interesting and useful sense to have. Especially since he knew nothing of modern culture.

[Nuadha]

"From Findias was brought the Sword of Nuada; no man would escape from it when it was drawn from its scabbard. There was no resisting it."

--Lebor Gabala Erenn

 

No suprise here, but I've been thinking of building a character of Nuadha of the Silver Arm (aka Noden and Nuada) from Celtic Mythology. I would base him off of the time in the myth when he still had the Silver Arm. I was thinking that he would have healing abilities, extra STR with the limitaion "left (off) arm only," a high PRE, a magic sword with several advantages including affects desol and huge levels to OCV that are only usable with the magical sword and all-around great physical/combat ability.

 

Well...I've actually been thinking of running a whole fantasy game set during the time of the Tuatha de Danaan where players would play heroes/gods of Irish Myth...something akin to playing a game set in Marvel's Asgard during the times of the actual myths. I don't know if it will ever happen but I love the idea.

[Darren Watts]

One of my personal characters (and now a member of the Sentinels in the Champions Universe) is Beowulf, the actual monster-slayer and King of the Geats, who shares his existence with a somewhat nerdy college student who read the wrong mystical runes one day. He has a nasty sword, "the hand-grip of forty men" and gobs of combat maneuvers and general toughness.

 

I usually play him somewhat for laughs, and took much of his personality from the Thor that appeared in the Incredible Hulk movie. He's fascinated by things like showers ("Hot water that pours down from an opening in the wall! Truly this is an age of miracles!"), and uses his knife to slice the tops off entire six-packs of "this weak ale you call Coors." dw

[mattingly]

the Thor that appeared in the Incredible Hulk movie.

 

Mr. McGee: (tracking down Dr. banner) "I'm looking for a man--"

Thor: "--AND YOU HAVE FOUND ONE!"

[RDU Neil]

The gods of old have returned in my Champions campaign... but off the top of my head, only twice have actual Gods been played as PCs. Originally, a player wanted to play Ra, of the Egyptian mythos, and created a basic energy blaster, light and heat guy. No big deal, we were immature in our gaming concepts, and he was only played once.

 

Later, Storn wanted to play an Egyptian type, and ended up with Osiris... the god himself, but bound to a mortal shell, so seriously depleted in power. (Standard 275-300 starting point level.) This Osiris would transform between a historian/doctor type and his God form, where he was still the doctor, but would occasionally slip with lines like "I guard the doorway to the next realm! I am the judge!" and stuff like that, scarying the doctor personality quite a bit. I reintroduced Ra, at that point an NPC, but fully powered up, who chided Osiris for hiding in a mortal frame. The doctor never believed he was the real Osiris.

 

Osiris later died, during the Destroyer Wars, battling Gigaton to a standstill and collapsing a mountain on them both... killing himself and stoppign Gigaton. He was first casualty of the Destroyer Wars... and Storn and I have often talked about bringing him back, as Osiris has a history of dying, and being reconstituted... granted missing a crucial piece of his anatomy, but we won't go there...

 

... maybe.

 

For the gods, I've used the suite of powers introduced in the Greek Pantheon supplement, since I think it fits most "old pantheon gods" which could shapeshift, etc. I don't think any real "god" in that sense is less than 1000 points, but often they are not just pure power. They have dozens of abilities and powers and knowledges, and a PC of 500 pts or so, might be able to challenge them in combat. Demi-gods are another issue, and I would build them on the same point base at super heroes.

 

In fact... one undercurrent going on in my game, is that in this new age of heroes, we are really seeing the birth of new gods, to rival the old gods. This has really come about now that some major PCs are over 500 pts, and climbing. Still, they have a LONG way to go.

[Blue]

"Muse" is technically a goddess (descended from Zeus and Mnemosyne), Real Name Calliope. She has lurked around for thousands of years inspiring artists of all kinds and seducing with her wiles. Most of her powers were mind control based and used to "influence" people rather than control them.

 

She is Missing In Action in the game (for dramatic purposes).

[lemming]

I once wrote up a god character for a game.

He was an obscure god from a pantheon that lost a war with another pantheon ages ago and he was in hiding for many, many years.

 

He finally came out of hiding when all these supers were around figuring he could blend in.

 

As a gag, I kept having him change his orgin, but using classic bits.

"I was found an alien spaceship and the dying pilot gave me this ring"

"I was bit by a radioactive beetle"

etc...

 

He also had a minor transform that was always on, area effect that would get people to "worship" him. (A god aura as it was). It worked fine on normals, but naturally my teammates were always annoyed that even though he wasn't the team leader, everyone treated him like he was...

[Prometheus]

Well...

 

Prometheus is either:

 

1) The reincarnation of the titan of greek myth, who uses his titanic might, amazing intellect, and powers of foresight to fight evil.

 

Or

 

2) A time travelling scientist from the far flung future, who- having penetrated the Promethean Barrier that separates the past, present, and future- was granted tremendous power. His own era ravaged by a Super/Human war, he uses his powers for the Greater Good, in the hope that his example might help prevent the terrible war in the future.

 

It depends on who you ask.

[winterhawk]

I had a player who created Jackal, who was the descendant of Pharoahs and was given a gift by each of the Egytptian Gods. This character inspired me to use a whole slew of gods in the campaign. I established that many gods were not as powerful since they were no longer worshipped, but still inhabited Earth. I drew a lot of inspiration from Matt Wagner's Mage. I used Thor (a big blond guy with a sledgehammer), Hercules (Nemean Lion skin jacket, prone to drunkeness and fits of rage), Raiden (pretty much straight up), Marduuk (homeless guy that travelled between cities), Loki (the ultimate con artist), the 'Smoking Mirror' (the Aztec War God who's true name escapes me at the moment), and of course Set and the Egyptian Pantheon. Ares had two sons: Trevor, the demigod of senseless violence (who turned into one of the campaigns major villains); and Mr. Lung, the God of Gunfire (heavily influenced by Chow Yun Fat/John Woo/Hong Kong Cinema).

 

In another campaign, I played a character called Osirus. He was actually an ancient Egyptian engineer/alchemist who had discovered the Secret of Life and lived for 1000s of years. Influenced by Dr. Doom, he was both a techinical and magical adept.

[Kevin Scrivner]

I briefly ran a character based on the Greek god Pan, goat legs, reed pipe and all. He had a fear-inducing Mind Control attack, an Entangle defined as his piping forcing the listeners to dance, and some Martial Arts moves. I think he was a jazz flutist in his Secret ID.

 

Unfortunately, 250 points didn't give him enough power to impress the campaign's villains (either that or the GM didn't get the concept), and the expense of his mental abilities left only a mediocre martial artist. So he'd usually get pummelled after his Mind Control/Presence Attack failed.

 

Reminds me of a quote I saw on a T-shirt: "I have the body of a god. Unfortunately, it's Buddha."

[Enforcer84]

Olymians

 

I have used two Olympian pantheons and two Asgardian pantheons in the same universe.

 

The Olympians were split when Zeus was alerted to strange technology found by a greek hero. Intrigued by the science but unable to wrap his mind around it magically (and unwilling to admit that he couldn't) he formed a simulcra of himself and dubbed it Jupiter. Jupiter, although created magically was fairly normal. He studied the technology which turned out to be a tracking device. He used it to find a large cache of Progenitor technology. He told Zeus that he would study this technology and use it to help the olympians in their struggles against the Titans, and some of the other countries.

Jupiter lied. He used the technology to give himself vast powers and then created clones of the other gods and demigods. These "new" Olympians sided with the Roman Empire when it tried to take over Greece. The two pantheons fought but the true Olymians' lack of understanding and arrogance towards the upstart "imposters" led to the tide quickly turning.

It was probably the turning point in Zeus' maturity; he had steadily gathered his power, saving it ot strike a crippling blow against Jupiter and rally his Olympians to victory. However, they had fared badly and he realized that if he failed all was lost. So he expended the engergy that he had gathered and wisked his family to safety. To keep them from being followed he had sent them to random places amongst the stars and dimensions. He also sealed off Olympus to the usurpers. The only thing he didn't do was escape. Jupitor imprisoned Zeus and his Pantheon ruled for a few centuries. They went under cover as they realized that the world was turning away from them. However a few notable appearances occured. Mars and Hercules, Minerva and Diana all opperated in the Axis during WWII. They left after Italy changed sides. They tended towards behind the scenes evil and selfishness.

Meanwhile the original Olympians had a hard time of it. Most of them lacked the power to simply return to Earth and they knew they needed to come back en masse or things would get rough for them. Ares spent centuries as a gladiator in a decadent interstellar empire. Aphrodite was enslaved by a cosmic tyrant, Apollo actually found himself as the chef deity of a new civilization. Heracles and his stepmother Hera were stranded together and had to rely on eachother for protection. Hephestus found himself on a scientific space station. He spend centuries there studying science.

Eventually, (and coincedentally in the late 1990's) the various gods, and heroes, those who had survived returned to Earth, bringing their children. They returned with more wisdom, power, and unity than they had enjoyed at the hieght of their Earthly influence and the world was rocked by a rather public series of God on God smack downs. The usurpers have retreated and Olympus has joined an "Interdimensional Parliment" of sorts with some of the other hidden civilizations hoping to keep Earth from the machinations of the "others" they have encountered.

 

Asgard

With Thor grabed by the Time Travelling supervillain from Champions Pesents #2, Ragnarok did not go as prophesized. There were no survivors. Thor, growing increasingly frustrated and despondant over the fact that he was not by his fellow Asgardians' sides during the final conflict, tended towards moody, melancholy heroism. His powers were slowly waning and he pretty much had decided to simply fade away. Then it happend. His fading powers began returning. He wasn't sure why at first but his actions had brought his name back to the fore and with rememberance came a resurgence of his abilities. He also found that his personal power had been tapped to create weapons of power for later warriors. He "reclaimed" that power by absorbing it from the hammer of StormHammer and Germania.

 

Then Yimir awoke. Thor travelled with a bunch of heroes to Antarctica to put a stop to the Ice Giant King before he could wreak havoc on the world again. Afterwards he discovered all the 'New' Asgardians entombed in the icey layers of the Antarctic. Freeing them he took them to Asgard to rebuild.

This worked okay for a while, but Thor began being troubled by dreams. Realizing that his destiny could not be avoided he and the New Asgardians conducted a mystic ritual that sent them all back to the time just before Ragnarok.

 

Almost as soon as they disappeared a new group of Asgardians appeared. This group, led by the survivors of Ragnarok: Vidar, Magni, Modi, and Thrud, and others took their place in the modern world.

 

 

They are not pleased with the false Odin and his Operation Ragnarok (see thread about hombrew organizations if you are interested in them...)

[bcholmes]

Re: Surely, Thor doth not stand alone! (gods among heroes)

Originally posted by Hermit So, who's allowed a "God among heroes" concept in their games? Or played one? What points were used, etc? And which gods did you try?

One of my favourite campaign concepts was a game in which we were all descendants from Greek gods. I played a daughter of Poseidon. Someone else was a professional gambler related to the goddess of luck. Another person was related to Hermes. It was a short-lived campaign, but a memorable one.

[Doug McCrae]

My long time PC, Dog Girl, wed the Norse god, Magni, and became a deity by marriage. After that she called herself God Girl.

[Lord Liaden]

I once used a fairly blatant rip-off of Thor for a game which travelled to South America. The PCs encountered an avatar of the Inca storm god "Thunder", who wielded an enchanted club and a sling which hurled "ball lightning". The character used essentially the same origin (and same picture) as the villain Maul in Enemies for Hire - archaeologist finds enchanted club in a cave in the Peruvian Andes - except that Thunder was of heroic bent.

 

I've recently redefined the character as a villain, and incorporated him into a group called The Ravagers who work for pay for Latin American organized criminals, dictators, revolutionaries and the like. They're also blatant anti-Avengers, each one patterned after one of the classic Avengers but using names and motifs drawn from their region. The roster includes: Andes, brick with growth powers; Golden Man, powered-armor wearer; Killer Bee, with shrinking and insect powers; Atlatl, who uses that traditional Aztec spear-thrower with gimmicked projectiles; and the Cartel Commando, trained soldier with enhanced physical abilities gained from a refined derivative of cocaine.

[Supreme]

Interesting... I've never played a "god" and neither have I ever seen anyone else play one. We've all played characters with powers that were borrowed, stolen, or given from the gods, but never the god itself. I notice from the other postings that this tends to be the way it is in other campaigns too. There are a couple of Thor-types, but the majority seem to be Captain Marvel types.

[Doug McCrae]

Lord Liaden: I really like your 'Amazonian Avengers'

[Doug McCrae]

Originally posted by Supreme

Interesting... I've never played a "god" and neither have I ever seen anyone else play one. We've all played characters with powers that were borrowed, stolen, or given from the gods, but never the god itself. I notice from the other postings that this tends to be the way it is in other campaigns too. There are a couple of Thor-types, but the majority seem to be Captain Marvel types.

Archetype over Original.

[st barbara]

I also don't think that I have ever used a god either as a played character or as an N P C. True my two characters are named after a saint ("St Barbara", patron of miners, engineers, architects and munitions workers) and an angel ("Zianor", defined in Gustav Davidson's "A Dictionary Of Angels" as "An angel invoked in the conjuration of inks and colours") The first is a flying energy blaster type, the second is an illusionist with desolid and a visible "T K Hand"). I guess the closest I came to using a god is when I named a greek heroine "Tisiphone" after one of the Furies of Greek mythology. Gods in comics can be either too powerful (as "Thor" has sometimes been, leading to a high powered campaign if they are common) or seriously underpowered compared to the way they appear in mythology(which doesn't really satidfy anyone)

[Crimson-Hawk]

Originally posted by mattingly

Mr. McGee: (tracking down Dr. banner) "I'm looking for a man--"

Thor: "--AND YOU HAVE FOUND ONE!"

I'm scared, Dave.... really, really scared!

 

I figured I was the only one who could remember that movie even existed. But not only did Darren make a character based on the concept of Thor in that movie, you can quote lines from the movie.

 

As for my entry, I'll point out the the supervillainess Arachne from Meriquai Falls is indeed the Arachne that is spoken of in Greek mythology... She was a weaver whose patterns were so beautiful that she even dared to claim they were more beautiful than the works of the goddess Athena herself. Athena, being a petty and jealous goddess at times, decided to punish Athena by making her the very first spider so that she would weave beautiful patterns for all eternity but have a horrid appearnce physically. The immortal Arachne later learned arcane skills that allowed her to take human form (and even a half-spider form) again if for short periods of time.

 

And technically, Crimson-Hawk himself fits here, since his powers derive from having the totem spirit of the Red-Tailed Hawk within him. But that's neither here nor there.

[Hermit]

Argh. I may have to scrounge and try to get the money for Meriquai Falls.

 

(Heck I even have a player who loves hawks.)

[Dr. Rune]

Re: Surely, Thor doth not stand alone! (gods among heroes)

 

Originally posted by Hermit

We've all had concept clones in our group, be it a spider-man rip off, a supes look alike, what have you. Nothing wrong with that

Thor, I'm sure, is no exception.

 

So, who's allowed a "God among heroes" concept in their games? Or played one? What points were used, etc? And which gods did you try?

 

Hmmmm...interesting topic. In a short lived "Wild Talents" game, I played Saint Elmo (from the Alpha Flight special issue) who was "The Arctic Avatar".....a very fun character

 

In the current Champions campaign that I'm running, the gods of old walk the earth again. Ra was the first to emerge in 1938 after the event that was the cause for superpowers

(which I can't go into now....it's a secret!!) weakened the dimensional borders sufficiently enough to travel through. One of the PCs is running "Magma", the son of Vulcan and Aphrodite who has made it his crusade to try to bring back some of that "old time religion" to the people of Century City. He has the standard "energy blast/force field/ flight" combo and a total disregard for "man's law". The guy playing Magma doesn't know alot about mythology, but it's still a fun character all the same....

 

I'm also introducing some of the Pantheons and have added a Pantheon of the Americas which includes mythological characters such as Paul Bunyan, Uncle Sam and Pecos Bill as well as iconic figures in American history such as George Washington and the "King" himself.....Elvis Presley

[Superskrull]

Originally posted by Crimson-Hawk

I'm scared, Dave.... really, really scared!

 

I figured I was the only one who could remember that movie even existed. But not only did Darren make a character based on the concept of Thor in that movie, you can quote lines from the movie.

 

Y'know, I actually bought The Return of the Incredible Hulk on VHS a few years ago. I understand that it's coming out along with Trial of the Incredible Hulk on one pain-filled DVD in May or so.

[starblaze]

I have a long running character of my wife's who is a valkrie named Isgerd. She was actually turned into a statue by Loki about 1,000 years ago along with her pegasus Tid-Bit. Her spell was actually broken when in the museum she was being displayed in. Some theives had broken in, knocked out the curator and accidentally broke Isgerd free of the spell.

 

She was alot of fun, mostly because she didn't know anything about the world she was in, she could only speak ancient Norwegian and tend to kill opponents. In fact when she first appeared she was called a babe by some of the players and it stuck. Just imagine some big, blonde warrior woman on a huge pegasus warhorse and a big sword. Now imagine her saying "Hullo! I am Isgerd, I am a babe!"

 

Now she is a rich woman who works at a local Bally's as an aerobics/self defense instructor. She got alot of her money putting her Tid-Bit out to stud service. She is also one of the most powerful supers in my game.