MAKE ME A GOD!... Please

[Enforcer84]

Re: Gods, Stat!

 

Well' date=' I admit that the writeups for the various gods in [i']The Olympians[/i] weren't always well thought through, and their power level compared to standard superheroes was not as high as their background descriptions implied they should be. OTOH I found that the book did provide some good ideas on the types of powers that the individual gods should have and how to construct them. Their personalities, and how they would react to the modern world, were also well delineated IMHO. And the book did cover the Olympian Twelve plus several other gods, and a few of the mythic heroes.

 

I should point out that The Olympians is available from Hero Games's Online Store for a reasonable $8.95. You can find it here.

 

I do very much agree with you, though, on Aaron Allston's Mythic Greece supplement. It not only delineated the general powers of the Greek gods as they appeared in myth, but described the special abilities of individual gods. Those stats were written for First Edition Fantasy HERO, though, which is a very different animal system-wise from 5E HERO System. The good news is that Aaron posted 4E HERO updates to Mythic Greece on his personal website, freely available, which included the basic stats and powers for the Greek gods. Although these are geared toward a FH campaign they would give you a good idea of what the gods should be able to do, and the differences between 4E and 5E are pretty small.

 

Although Aaron no longer has those updates on his website, I have them in a text file which I'm attaching to this post.

 

Mythic Greece itself can be hard to find, but if you'd be interested you can pick it up from a very good online retailer, Noble Knight Games, here .

 

Speaking of Noble Knight Games, they also have copies of another book that I highly recommend, Mythic Egypt. It's a campaign sourcebook for gaming in the ancient Egypt of myth, dual-statted for Rolemaster and 4E HERO, and it gives stats for all the major gods of the Egyptian pantheon, as a group and individually. IMO these god writeups would take very little revision to adapt them for superhero gaming. The book is rather pricey, but if you need Egyptian god stats fast you should consider it. You could also use them as the basis for Norse gods - the "basic god" template is pretty flexible.

 

Now, let me think of every other place I've seen gods written up in HERO System. I wouldn't necessarily recommend spending money on any of these just for the few writeups that might be useful to you, but if you have access to them they could benefit you. Some of these have already been mentioned:

 

Digital Hero #31 features a very good writeup for a superhero-level Herakles;

 

Conquerors, Killers and Crooks includes a villain, Anubis, who's essentially an avatar of an Egyptian god. There are good ideas for Egyptian-flavored divine powers there. CKC also has writeups for two Chinese gods, Lei Kung and Guan Di;

 

Arcane Adversaries presents the Aztec god Tezcatlipoca, a very good example of a high-powered god;

 

From Fourth Edition Champs books, Champions Presents gives you a pretty interesting and well-designed Thor writeup, while the first edition of Champions Universe stats up the awesome frost giant Ymir. Pyramid in the Sky (which is also in the Online Store) presents a version of Ra who is an immortal mutant rather than a true mythic god, but has a good set of "solar" powers. (I'd suggest checking Noble Knight if you'd like to purchase the others.)

 

I hope this was of some help.

That helps me alot!

[Acroyear II]

Gods, Stat!

 

 

 

Well, I admit that the writeups for the various gods in The Olympians weren't always well thought through, and their power level compared to standard superheroes was not as high as their background descriptions implied they should be. OTOH I found that the book did provide some good ideas on the types of powers that the individual gods should have and how to construct them. Their personalities, and how they would react to the modern world, were also well delineated IMHO. And the book did cover the Olympian Twelve plus several other gods, and a few of the mythic heroes.

 

I should point out that The Olympians is available from Hero Games's Online Store for a reasonable $8.95. You can find it here.

 

I do very much agree with you, though, on Aaron Allston's Mythic Greece supplement. It not only delineated the general powers of the Greek gods as they appeared in myth, but described the special abilities of individual gods. Those stats were written for First Edition Fantasy HERO, though, which is a very different animal system-wise from 5E HERO System. The good news is that Aaron posted 4E HERO updates to Mythic Greece on his personal website, freely available, which included the basic stats and powers for the Greek gods. Although these are geared toward a FH campaign they would give you a good idea of what the gods should be able to do, and the differences between 4E and 5E are pretty small.

 

Although Aaron no longer has those updates on his website, I have them in a text file which I'm attaching to this post.

 

Mythic Greece itself can be hard to find, but if you'd be interested you can pick it up from a very good online retailer, Noble Knight Games, here .

 

Speaking of Noble Knight Games, they also have copies of another book that I highly recommend, Mythic Egypt. It's a campaign sourcebook for gaming in the ancient Egypt of myth, dual-statted for Rolemaster and 4E HERO, and it gives stats for all the major gods of the Egyptian pantheon, as a group and individually. IMO these god writeups would take very little revision to adapt them for superhero gaming. The book is rather pricey, but if you need Egyptian god stats fast you should consider it. You could also use them as the basis for Norse gods - the "basic god" template is pretty flexible.

 

Now, let me think of every other place I've seen gods written up in HERO System. I wouldn't necessarily recommend spending money on any of these just for the few writeups that might be useful to you, but if you have access to them they could benefit you. Some of these have already been mentioned. I'll start with stuff for Fifth Edition:

 

Digital Hero #31 features a very good writeup for a superhero-level Herakles;

 

Conquerors, Killers and Crooks includes a villain, Anubis, who's essentially an avatar of an Egyptian god. There are good ideas for Egyptian-flavored divine powers there. CKC also has writeups for two Chinese gods, Lei Kung and Guan Di;

 

Arcane Adversaries presents the Aztec god Tezcatlipoca, a very good example of a high-powered god;

 

Champions Worlwide gives us an avatar of the Egyptian goddess Ma'at.

 

From Fourth Edition Champs books, Champions Presents gives you a pretty interesting and well-designed Thor writeup, while the first edition of Champions Universe stats up the awesome frost giant Ymir. Pyramid in the Sky (which is also in the Online Store) presents a version of Ra who is an immortal mutant rather than a true mythic god, but has a good set of "solar" powers. One of the adventures in Champions Presents #1 outlines a few of the innua (spirits and gods) of the Inuit. (I'd suggest checking Noble Knight if you'd like to purchase the others.)

 

I hope this was of some help.

 

Lord Liaden,

Any chance you still have the 4th Edition updates for the Greek Gods that Aaron Allston created? The text file you uploaded is no longer attached to your original post, but I would love to see it. I'm planning on using some of the Greek Gods in my next Champions adventure, and those stats would come in very handy.

[Cassandra]

I need help!

 

I'm running a large three-part tournament game at a private convention (ZARCON) in August. The scenario I've concocted (a “DC Crisis†story wherein multiple continuities are collapsing into one) allows all of the players to utilize their favorite PC from any era of Champions play. I’m doing so per the request of the tournament hosts, who asked for a game in which their legendary Champions characters could all be united.

 

Now.... The story goes thus (very abbreviated):

 

One of the legendary Player Characters was an archeologist who found a mask. He unwittingly put it on and became the mischievous Quirk. Quirk has the ability to alter probabilities... I know what you're thinking... "This sounds allot like the movie The Mask"... I thought the same thing too, but then found out that this character was created as far back as 1987 (The movie Mask came out in 1994). The player (who never knew about the underground comic book character The Mask) was furious when Mask came out. Ah well, it's happened to the best of us.

 

Anyhoo... And this is really too coincidental.... The theme of this year's ZARCON is LOKI, God of mischief... Now I ask you, how could I pass up linking the mask to Loki??? Well, I couldn't. So, I did.

 

The set-up: Continuous use of Quirks probability powers (Via the mask) has weakened the barriers that separate time and space making it possible for those barriers to crumble thus creating 1 united universe (despite the probabilities against it being astronomical.) – It’s a tournament 1-shot so I don’t need to go too far into the how’s and why’s…

 

The gods of old, who have been supplanted by science or the belief of the One God, seize the chance to once again become the objects of worship and the rulers of their universe… The first to realize the potential of the situation is the ever-watchful Loki.

 

Loki sets into motion a war between the gods that will end with himself as sole-survivor. The battle between the father gods (Zeus, Odin, Anu, Shang-ti, Ptah, etc) is waged on a level incomprehensible to mere mortals. Their acts of power continuously blanket the sky and shake the earth. In the interim the champions of each pantheon (Thor, Hercules, Marduk, Chao Kung Ming, Anhur, and their respective pantheons) wage war on the prime material plane. They plow through the city streets of New York, crash into the monuments of Washington DC and destroy everything that is unfortunate enough to get in their way.

 

Meanwhile, Loki, ever the schemer, has discovered that in his absence Man has bread his own gods… superheroes. Loki then bends his will towards tricking the superheroes into dispatching those pantheons that have survived the initial Armageddon.

 

The surviving pantheons will be the Greek and Egyptian gods. Why? ‘Cuz I says so! Heh ;-)

 

So, when the heroes join the fray the surviving gods will already be exhausted due to their climactic battles. Beneath the feet of the remaining Greek gods will lay such European gods as the Celts and Norse (a deception, to be sure). The Egyptians will have spent themselves dispatching Mediterranean and Eastern mythos such as the Chinese, Mycenaean and Babylonian gods.

 

Enter the heroes… They are meant to WIN against the battered and bruised gods they face. (Don’t worry, they needn’t beat down gods… My story’s more sophisticated than that.)

 

Then, when all other pantheons are dispatched, Loki unveils the few Norse brethren he’s cloaked with feigned death and faces the heroes for the supremacy of the new universe…

 

(Actually, the game is much more complicated than this… but the main story holds true)

 

Here’s where I need your help… PLEASE!!!

 

I need help building Greek, Norse (especially Loki) and Egyptian gods:

 

Greek:

Aphrodite is Goddess of Love, Beauty, and Passion. She is vain and jealous, and frequently takes vengeance on those who claim to be more beautiful than she.

 

Apollo, God of the Sun

 

Ares, God of War, opposed to Athena, who represents a very different aspect of war. Ares' province is battle lust and the love of killing.

 

Artemis, Goddess of the Hunt.

 

Dionysus is God of Wine. He represents the fact that wine induces both happiness and madness, and so is associated with joy, pleasure, and camaraderie, but also with savage bloodthirsty senseless violence.

 

Hades, the God of the Underworld and Death. He has complete power over the element of earth and most things made from it.

 

Hecate, The Goddess of Magic is worshipped by magic users of all kinds.

 

Heracles is a demigod in the truest sense. This son of Zeus and a mortal woman is not generally worshipped--he doesn't trust magic, and avoids clerics.

 

Hermes is God of Thieves, Liars, Gamblers, and Arbitrators. He is known for his speed, and his clerics must all be able to run long distances. They are also noted arbitrators. Although he is the messenger of the gods, he is a greater god himself.

 

Nike is Goddess of Victory.

 

Egyptian:

Ra, the Sun God who keeps peace between the gods

 

Anhur is the chaotic good God of War worshipped by warriors.

 

Anubis, Guardian of the Dead.

 

Bes is the God of Luck. If he is really pleased with the degree of risk undertaken by one of his worshippers, he may grant a luck stone as a gift.

 

Geb, also known as Seb or Qeb, is God of the Earth

 

Horus the Avenger, son of Osiris.

 

Isis is Goddess of Magic and Fertility worshipped by those involved with magic. (In Egyptian mythology, Isis is also Mourner for the Dead. According to the myth, her husband Osiris was killed, conferring upon her this distinction.)

 

Osiris is God of Nature and the Dead. Second only to Ra, he rules the pantheon in the absence of its usual head.

 

Seker, God of Light. He is worshipped by any who worship light.

 

Set is God of Evil and the Night who opposes Osiris and Horus at every turn. His wife Nepthys left him when he turned to evil.

 

Shu, God of the Sky

 

Tefnut is the Goddess of Storms and Flowing Water. She is Shu's sister.

 

Thoth is a greater god, God of Knowledge and has complete knowledge of all things magical.

 

Norse:

Aegir is God of Storms and the Sea

 

Balder is the God of Beauty, known to some as "Charisma".

 

Forseti, the Peacemaker, is God of Justice, the son of Balder. He never lies.

 

Frey is God of Sunshine and the Elves. This greater god also controls all storms and calms as a weather god.

 

Heimdall is the Bright God is Guardian of the Bifrost Bridge and is the sworn enemy of Loki.

 

Hel, the Goddess of Death. She causes diseases of all sorts.

 

Loki is the God of Mischief, Strife, and Fire. The other gods tolerate him because he is Odin's brother and has saved the gods in the distant past, but is considered most likely to betray the gods. Yah, you can bet your socks on that one! ;-)

 

Magni, God of Strength, son of Thor.

 

Modi, God of Courage and Berserk Rage. Also a son of Thor.

 

Sif is Goddess of Excellence and Skill in Battle and wife of Thor.

 

Thor is God of Thunder.

 

Tyr, God of War and Law.

 

Uller is the God of Hunting, Archery, and winter.

 

Vidaris the God of Strength and Silence and son of Odin. He is known for his silence and his opposition to evil.

 

 

PLEASE… there are sooo many of you out there who are GREAT at character creation… Please help me make one or two (or more).

 

REAL POINT TOTAL: 350-750... You make the call!

 

A few thoughts

 

First, The Scenario reminds me of Kingdom Come.

 

Second, Every Superhero on Earth is going to get involved way before the "Gods" exhaust themselves.  Millions of innocent people would have been killed before that point.

 

Third, The Military will enter the battle as well, and if they "Gods" prove too tough for conventional forces then you'll see the real possibility of Nuclear Weapons being used.

 

Fourth, Isn't Quirk the key to all this.  Take him out and the "Gods" go back home.  And couldn't a powerful superhero or two point that out.  Do the "Gods" like being manipulated into battling earth other?  

[Lord Liaden]

Lord Liaden,

Any chance you still have the 4th Edition updates for the Greek Gods that Aaron Allston created? The text file you uploaded is no longer attached to your original post, but I would love to see it. I'm planning on using some of the Greek Gods in my next Champions adventure, and those stats would come in very handy.

 

Done. The actual updated god stats start about 2/3 of the way through the file, with "15.1 CHARACTER STATICSTICS OF THE BASIC GOD" (Aaron's typo, not mine).

[Cassandra]

Done. The actual updated god stats start about 2/3 of the way through the file, with "15.1 CHARACTER STATICSTICS OF THE BASIC GOD" (Aaron's typo, not mine).

 

I have that one.  Artemis and I have the same attitude.

[kahuna's bro]

I have an idea about this

create high powered supers and cast them as mythological gods like stan lee did when he created thor at marvel

by the way ,isn't there  some sort of cosmic law in the champions universe called the ban that keeps the mythical gods from visiting earth so they need avatars of their power  like johnny Hercules?

[Cassandra]

I have an idea about this

create high powered supers and cast them as mythological gods like stan lee did when he created thor at marvel

by the way ,isn't there  some sort of cosmic law in the champions universe called the ban that keeps the mythical gods from visiting earth so they need avatar of their power  like johnny Hercules?

 

I like this idea.  The "Gods" give a human representative power so they can take part in the battle.

[kahuna's bro]

thanks

[Lord Liaden]

I have an idea about this

create high powered supers and cast them as mythological gods like stan lee did when he created thor at marvel

by the way ,isn't there  some sort of cosmic law in the champions universe called the ban that keeps the mythical gods from visiting earth so they need avatar of their power  like johnny Hercules?

 

You have the rough idea. The Ban prevents gods and demons (including those of the modern religions) from manifesting on Earth with their full power. There are several "workarounds" to this restriction, though. Gods can indeed bestow some of their power (and often personality) on mortals to act as their agents. They can also craft avatars, lesser-powered duplicates of themselves, which can function on Earth indefinitely. If there's a direct gate from Earth to the god's dimension, the god can project his full power through the gate as long as he remains on his side. Great ritual sacrifices, or mighty magic artifacts, can allow a god to manifest entirely for a limited time and/or within a restricted area. Finally, gods and demons may mate with mortals to produce a hybrid offspring with supernatural powers, which the god could possess as a vessel for all their might without any restrictions. Examples of all of these can be found in the official Champions Universe.

 

Note that the Ban only applies to those gods created out of human imagination. Outer-dimensional magical entities of godlike power not derived from Mankind, such as Tyrannon, Skarn, and the Kings of Edom, aren't affected by the Ban, although they might have restrictions of their own on how they function outside their home dimensions.

[kahuna's bro]

thank you for clarifying this lord laidin

[Acroyear II]

Done. The actual updated god stats start about 2/3 of the way through the file, with "15.1 CHARACTER STATICSTICS OF THE BASIC GOD" (Aaron's typo, not mine).

 

Thanks, bud!

[Badger]

If you ever create Apollo remember he forgets to wear underwear with his short skirt.  And likes to put female Starfleet officers in outfits that really should end up being wardrobe malfunction disasters.  (plus an irrational hatred of Scotsmen)

 

Sorry, I saw that Star Trek episode the other weekend.

[GoldenAge]

Here's a funny moment… This thread was started 8 years ago. The game I ran was super well received and bolstered my Epic City game to the point that it has yet to falter. Funny enough we've come full circle...

 

The original game was a con adventure. Now, as part of the ongoing campaign, we've finally come to the point that the Walking Gods module fits the campaign perfectly! So, this thread is, once again, totally relevant to my Epic City campaign!!!

What a surprise to see it at the top of my content list. It was like it knew.

[BoloOfEarth]

What are the odds of that happening?  It's almost like some god of mischief took a hand in it...

[megaplayboy]

To make gods "playable" in a supers campaign, three suggestions:

1) Their combat stats should be impressive but not overwhelming. The Greek gods could be bested by mighty heroes and demigods--the superheroes of their age. 

2) Give them a large VPP to represent their general divine power.  They can do almost anything, within limits.

3) Within their own sphere of influence/control, treat this as a plot device or "unstatted power".  If Aphrodite wants two people to fall in love, it's going to happen.  Mother Earth/Gaea can summon giant monsters (her "children") at will--don't worry about costing it out. 

 

I'd also suggest some kind of limitation upon their ability to manifest/maintain their full power on Earth.  Perhaps without the thousands of worshippers they used to have, using their powers at higher than a "casual" level(i.e., more than 50% of full power) is exhausting, and diminishes them until they become weaker and unable to remain.