#god characters

Person C, who is literally a God:

Person C: So not only does my existence completely obliterate your cockamamy religion,

Person C: But you have the nerve to have a human officiate your wedding

"..what does this mean."

"That is the noise of a feline. I have heard this is a common greeting among humans."

"That is idiotic. I will not be doing that."

◦ MC is the daughter of the god of fire and the goddess of water

◦ They both died when the mother interrupted a ritual the father was doing to try and get rid of an ancient enemy who would destroy their family

◦ The ritual made it look like the father was going to sacrifice/kill their infant daughter (it was really to lure the enemy)

◦ The goddess of water loved her husband, but she could not let him kill their daughter, so with tears in her eyes, she shot torrents of water at her husband, hoping to douse his flame. The god of fire tried to stop her, pleading with her to just let him explain, but she was too distressed. Then the ancient enemy ( I think it was one of their fathers if not some other important god) struck them both down. Their bodies disappeared and it looked to all the world that they had killed each other. 

◦ The daughter knew the truth. She is smarter than she appears and has a much greater memory than she should.

◦ The daughter was taken by the Water goddess’s servant to be raised in the water temple ( as she had been when her mother was alive), but some were angry at her for being the daughter of fire and causing the death of their beloved goddess. As a result, someone tried to drown her as an infant.

◦ After that, she was taken in by her older half brothers at the fire temple. They were sons of the Fire God before he fell in love with the Water Goddess but didn’t hold any grudge against their little sister since they knew it wasn’t her fault. Others in the fire temple didn’t feel that way and subtly abused her in ways her brothers wouldn’t notice. The other children (possibly fire spirits or something like that since the Sons and Daughter of the God of Fire are the only children he’s ever had) would burn her under the guise of playing games like catch or tag (as she gets older, fire stops burning her because of her heritage, but not when she was young and still mostly had the energy of the Water Goddess in her), her care taker (because her brothers were busy during the day) neglected her and really didn’t teach her anything and always punished her for asking for more than she was given “Are you not grateful for what you have already received, you greedy little welp!?”

◦ She ended up spending most of her time outside the temple, mostly in the forest behind it, exploring. Here she came across Miss Yuna the black bear, protector of the forest on the other side of the river. She watched one time as Miss Yuna (though she didn’t know she had a name or could talk at this point) came to her side of the river and got too close to Miss Song Bird’s nest and got her eye pecked out.

◦ At first the two were weary of each other because the daughter was aware that wild animals were dangerous (why she always stuck to the path that lead down to the rivers edge and didn’t really travel far beyond it) and Miss Yuna was weary of humans, not to mention she had cubs to look after (eventually; the cubs happen later). Miss Yuna eventually approached the girl (about 5 or 6) when she noticed she was always playing alone at the river’s edge and sometimes played with fire (though  the girl always kept the fire away from the forest’s edge). When the cubs came, they made a deal that the girl would leave the river whenever the cubs were around and go explore somewhere else

◦ Eventually (@ about 7), the girl wandered up the nearby mountain (actually a volcano) and was confronted by a man who asked with defensive ferocity what she was doing there. She said that she was just exploring and that she didn’t know anyone lived up there but she’d leave if he wanted him to. The mountain man (as she came to call him) softened at this declaration and allowed her to explore. She found some volcanic glass and asked if she could keep it. The man chuckled and said “sure.” She chipped the rock to a sharp point and turned it into a knife so she could cut and clean fish easier.

◦ When she was making her way down the mountain, she met the mountain forest guardian, a male dear named Anders, who let her pass because the Mountain Man ( the god of mountains and explorers) had accepted her

◦ The girl had been eating fish from the river to compensate her subpar diet provided by her caretaker and had been using fire to cook them

◦ She always gave thanks to the fish for giving her something to eat (after killing them) and prayed that in their next like they could get revenge on whatever hurt them and that if that something was her, she would understand. She learned later that she could talk to water creatures when she learned to swim and put her head underwater. She wasn’t really anymore guilty than before because she already knew that they were intelligent creatures, she just got more insults in her life, which she didn’t really mind since she had been insulted and taunted most of her life.

◦ One time she caught a pretty crab and took it to show Mr. Mountain Man because she thought he might appreciate it and the crab cussed her out the whole way up the mountain. She actually tied it’s pincers shut because it had cut her lip when she first caught it “don’t worry, I promise I’ll put you back exactly where I found you, I just reeeally  wanna show Mr. Mountain Man your pretty shell!” The crab called her a bastard because she was the child of fire and water. Mountain Man was absolutely floored that she thought to bring him anything, even though she didn’t know he was a god, it was the first tribute he’d had in years (people had stopped believing in him a while ago) and while she said he couldn’t keep the crab because she promised to take it back, she offered him to come down with her and release it. Mountain Man, absolutely touched, came down the mountain for the first time in centuries to watch the little 7 year old cut the vine ropes she had tied around the crab’s pincers with her obsidian knife and release it back into the river. Yuna was surprised to see the man and Anders was surprised he left.

◦ The Mountain Man lives in a small temple up in the mountains. It is covered in vines and foliage and the inside looks like a herbalist’s shop. The girl thinks his home is wonderful and cozy and very very nice. The Mountain Man is happy she thinks so, even though he is lonely he always gets a little visit from the girl every week. (Possible funny, when they first met, Mountain Man was thin as sticks and the girl insisted he eat something with her (she brought a lot of food the next time she visited, likely stolen from the temple))

◦ One time she was visiting the mountain temple and there were hunters about. She didn’t know that, but Mr. Anders warned her to stay out of sight. When the hunters got near her, she listened to that advice. As she was running away and they thought she was a wild boar and started shooting at her. She ran wildly, not wanting to go further into the mountain for fear of endangering Mr. Mountain Man (who she thought was just a lonely guy) and Mr. Anders’ herd. She ran down the mountain instead, into the part of the forest she had never been into before and ran into a pack of wolves. She had fallen into their clearing weeping and bleeding and when the Alpha of the pack approached her she started apologizing over and over again, saying that she didn’t know they were there and that she just didn’t want to die or get anyone else hurt, curling in on herself to make herself smaller in the hopes that the wolves wouldn’t eat her because she knew she couldn’t out run them. The Alpha, another protector of the forest took pity on her and, in smelling the scents of both Yuna and Anders on her, scents that marked her as under their protection, decided to take her in and protect her from the hunters. She picked up the little human by the scruff of her robes and brought her into her den with her cubs and told her mate to protect the human cub while she dealt with the hunters: howling, barking and scarring them off, showing them that this is Wolf territory and “get out or you get mauled”

◦ Because it was late in the day, Alpha decided she would let the traumatized girl stay, picked up the child again, who had calmed down a bit but was still crying and hiccuping, and put her down among her cubs and curled around all of them for the night

◦ Alpha brings her back to the temple and tells the staff to keep a better eye on her

◦ The fire temple is on the edge of the forest. There is a trail that leads back to a long river that comes from or around the mountain. The other side of that river is Yuma’s territory. When facing the river with the trail behind you, the mountain is to the left. The forest to the left of the trail is Alpha’s territory. The girl has never explored the rights side of the forest, though she has walked to the right down the river. The right side of the forest is where Mrs. Song Bird lives.

◦ At some point, she comes across some kids playing in the right side of the forest and tells them not to go to Mrs. Song Bird’s area or else they’d get their eyes pecked out. Being older than her (teens or tweens along with some 8-10 year olds, all boys), the kids ignore her advice and go to Mrs. Song Bird’s territory to prove they’re tough. Mrs. Song Bird attacks them and when the kids run away, the girl apologizes to Mrs. Song Bird and says she’ll try to find a way to keep people away. She can’t understand Mrs. Song Bird, but she can tell Mrs. Song Bird doesn’t believe she can do it.

◦ She goes the direction the kids ran  and finds a small trail of trodden grass, like people traveled there often enough for there to be thinned out grass. She decides she’ll build things to the sides of the path so that people are more fascinated by those things than what lies beyond them in the forest. She finds a clearing and decides she’ll build a fake fairy village or a giant monster there. She calls out asking if anyone lives in the clearing (because of her experiences with spirits and forest guardians) and that she plans to build a fake fairy village to draw people away from the deeper forest, so if they like the quiet, tell her now so she could build it somewhere else. The clearing turns out to actually be a creature’s back and it’s head pops up to talk to her. It thanks her for the warning and tells her of another clearing she can use as well as a group of mischievous fairies that it knows that would love the attention she planned to give the village. She thanked him and started building the village. Now that she knew people were going to actually live there, she put a lot more detail than she was going to into the village, making sure all the doors were functional and adding divots in the walls for the fairies to place their things (she also made small lamps out of embers from the Eternal Fire of the temple, small little rocks that would glow for eternity, and some vines and sticks). One of the bolder fairies comes to meet her personally. She gets excited and makes friends. She used her new friend to make sure the fairies would actually fit in the houses and to find out if there was anything else she needed to put in. Her new fairy friend ends up following her around (hiding when they were at her temple home, but still there). When the girl visited the Mountain Man with her fairy friend, he was shocked and concerned for the girl’s safety/well being, because the “mischievous” fairy friend she had made was actually a Dark Fairy, which were known as bad omens and cursed people and generally doing more than just mischief. The girl got confused, because her friend wasn’t bad, they really were just mischievous, sure some of their jokes were a little mean sometimes, but that wasn’t really new to her because of the other temple kids and her friend never was mischievous to her. This puzzles the Mountain God, but he decides to warn her to be weary and tells the Dark Fairy that if they ever hurt the girl, the Mountain Man will make sure they pay. (I imagine the fairy saw what scars the girl had on her (when she was changing), and at such a young age, and how happy she tried to be despite all the pain she obviously went through and decided that they wouldn’t play mean pranks on the little girl. Besides, the one who built them and their tribe a village in the perfect place to torment people deserved a little respect)

◦ She tries to play with some children from the village near by the temple, but it doesn’t really work out for her.

Avalanche, the leader of the celestial gods and oldest sibling.

Vore is one of the younger siblings. He orotects the past and devours it, storing it in himself to keep it protected and not forgotten. His face is also actually a mask.

And he likes to terrorize the mortals.

Two of the foul gods who rejected the heavanly gifts. The great One, his name was forgotten in time (thanks Vore) and Clay, who he sees as a own son and raised him to be a god who writes down the true history.

in my experience in dungeons and dragons things are always crazy. when dnd is by the rules the players are the reason you have to be on your toes as a dungeon master. when your a player the dungeons master is the reason you have to be on the edge. and i can attests to the saying that when the dm smiles or laughs it is never a good thing. it scares the hell out of yo and some dm’s get a kick out of watching players squirm. its a give and take relationship but when the rules are fallowed its always fun.

however when one takes into account the idea of a person god modding then it gets bad. for those that dont know here is a definition of god mod fro dnd

God-modding is taking control of another player’s character during role-play. It’s frowned upon and with good reason: you only control your character and no one else’s.

the sad part is god modding is not just this. god mod can also happen if you do one of the fallowing in many dnd cycles

1: making a character without faults: this means the character can do no wrong in any way and you are constantly arguing with the dm over the rules

2: making a character that is in a sense op (over powered): this can play into level one since when this happens the players normally want to make it so the character has a lot of things the dm doesn't know about making it where the dm has to call out rules and in sense makes the air of the game play uncomfortable. 

but its not just players that can god mod dungeon masters can as well which brings me to example 3.

3: letting a player make a character that breaks the rules of the game

lets have a example of this. say a character is in there right to something and they go through with the deed. as such away from others you have another person try to raise the character such as a mage or wizard doing the work of a cleric. any dnd player will tell you that this isn't possible. in some dnd and other games a game master can make exceptions but only if they find a item that can cause it or even having a player quest to find a way to fix this. but when a game master lets you make a player that goes against any forms of rules in right the rest of the players have a right to call them out on it. 

god modding if anything is one of the worse things that can happen in a dnd game. one of the ways that this can go about is by putting limits on a character. in example of this ill use two characters i built for a dnd game im currently running. these characters are in a jest named npc’s they are select to this world but have limitations and faults like a pc character would but to a more extreme leash. the characters are simply called inn keeper and cook. both of these two are brothers one year apart, immortal but can still be killed in human form but must revert to god form until they regenerate a form over a course of so many months, and sons of Loki who are gods in their own right that have taken human form. why they chose so the party has yet to find out. they run a chain of inns that has copies of themselves running it and they at all times know what is going on in all the inns at that time. as a result only the real versions can leave the inn but copies have to stay int he tavern at all times not setting foot outside the border of the tavern. 

although they have good powers if used they level the surrounding area and are banished from a area completely. and on top of that they can not give the party to much help they only give a item tell them what it does and leaves the party to pick if they keep it and figure out how to use it for there task. or they leave it and find another way around it. if they chose the later they have to make a deal for it. in this way yes its a safe form of god modding as it make a puzzle for the players as some things they give them might not help them on this quest and is needed for a new on further down the line or is just something that they trade off not thinking and can be needed again at a later date. 

by making your players think on what they need to do it becomes less a god mod and more of a divine puzzle. one friend of mine finds that goddmodding in some games can be helpful for a dm but he also says that i can be harmful as well. “when you god mod as a character you have to make sure your players know ahead of time this character can god mod his rolls. i figured out a way around it though to make it so that its less god modding and more of the character is using the idea of warped probability. sort of like that alien guy from MIB 3.” in some ways i can see what he means building a character that can see many outcomes is a good idea but at the same time that comes as flaws. a character might not be able to know which reality he is in unless he asks the players. the players have a reason to either tell him or not. if they do he knows which of about 50 ideas of how combat will go but at the same time if not their in the world of about 269 scenarios that they lose. by using this i can see how he has made goddmodding hard for a character the gm is controlling but at the same time more trouble for the dm by having to think ahead of time and have a file cabinet of doom.

but dont think that god modding is just for in game it can be out of game as well. as a way of keeping up with my players and helping them with rolls i have a rule that when rolling for stats i must be present. this is because i have seen many games where a player was able to roll away from the game and it was completely unfair to the others they had a over kill of points that didn't seem to add up even to the dm. when i do this i make it a point to let my players know its nothing against them its just i want to make sure to keep the playing field fair. no one excluded for this not even me and my players often watch me roll stats so they can see im not cheating and that im playing fair by them. they never know when some things will be used so it keeps them guessing as to who it is they are going to fight. this creates a excitement for me and players alike as i dig in my files and pull npc sheets. 

i got this idea from another freind who had this to say on the subject. “we used to let others roll what they wanted and the dm did aswell. one game though we realized that 3 of out 8 players where some what cheating. they used what is known as cheater die and soon we where not allowed to roll unless we where at the guys house and using his dice to roll so he knew we had non cheater dice. that worked ok for about a year but then they got wise and if thy rolled one thing they lied on the sheets. some things never added up and sure you could say that it was just luck until we saw the sheets. we had a bit of a accident in the house we played in when a water pipe burst over the winter and when the family got home we found some of the dnd stuff got in the water. so we all went over to chip in at different times of the day to help clean out and try and salvage things. on the work from dnd we found things that really made us mad.”

“we where all friends and we all trusted one another and this was way back int he 90′s. so some of the stuff for dnd that you guys have now is kind of major fancy now but the sheets from back then we guarded as not just a clue to characters but clues to who a person was. we had to look at the sheets to see whos sheet got messed up and we found the normal doodles and all but at the same time on the scratch papers we used to pass notes we found that one had said next time we have to roll for stats we need to say these numbers showed on the die. they where planning ahead of what characters they wanted to build we all did but to lie about a dice roll was hell. we confronted them on our next Friday night game and told them that half the group wanted them out but the rest where on the fence and we where not going to make them choose who to be loyal to. so we made them a alternate. they could stay in game but the dm had to roll the dice for them and they only got one roll. one is still with us but the dm is always next to them to make sure they are not cheating on rolls. i have no clue where the other two jerks are.”

in many ways some might say that this is kind of extreme but in many different game groups this is basic fact. if ne person cheats the whole group comes to question. its up to the game group or even a player to have a choice to stay with he group or disband from them and set out on their own adventure. we have all been Bilbo handed a contract of thorn and company when we look into playing dnd. the character sheet is the contract. you swear to fallow the game rules and to play fair. thats in anything be it rpg or signing contracts to play football. and just like in mainstream sports and in the job market you break the rules you and anyone else with you or associated must also be placed to the same outcome of that. when one player cheats at a sport the whole team is held in the same regard. its just facts of life. and its not just stats that this can be seen with.  

i also make rules as to what races a player can use so that i have time to read up on other races if they where used in a game. so when a player tries to make a character of a unapproved race its still hard to tell them no but i have to stand stonewall on the fairness i try to keep with my players. granted if they want a character to look a select way yes it means that later in the game some things will come up. this brings into the point of should you tell your players or not. would keeping it to yourself as the dungeon master be considered god modding on your part? the answer is no. your the dungeon master keeping the way some what a mystery is a point. yo can chose whether or not to tell players but at the same time you can give out as little or as much if you like. but remember that at times some players might feel like you have it out for them. in many ways players can feel like they get picked on because of character class and this is not true. this is what a friend of mine said about her character. 

“i was playing a bird race. and i picked the look of my character as a peacock man. i didn't want to do a parrot because i didn't want to have people doing the Polly want a cracker stick all the time. i was away for a time before i got to play my character so the party had a good bit of headway ahead of my guy in the game. the dm said he could work me into the next game as the same level as the others so i said sure. while he was setting up stuff while i was leveling my character from a level 3 to a level 6 he asked me if i was ok if we had me show up working at the brothel that the group was entering at the next one since i made mention i wanted my rouge to be kind of like a spy undercover for someone at ne point. i told him that be fine but i didn't realize those words would come back to haunt me.”

“when we started playing he said to me on a text my character was going to make a entrance and he said ‘as the lights fade once more for the next dancer you all hear a man in a booming voice call out. ‘lets hear it for SIR COCK’ and he starts playing the i want to see your peacock song. unknown to the others i had had a bad experience with that song and i had a panic attack right there. i had never told them so in a way i guess it was partly my fault that i didn't tell them but in a way it made me not want to play that campaign again. this was only after one person that joined constantly made the jokes and the dm let them make the jokes of saying the i wanna see your peacock. since then i dont go to that group anymore but i have a different one i play with once a month given my busy time sheets for work”

in a way yes this was kind of a dick move on the dm by letting that happen but at the same time was not so much a sense of god modding but bullying. i made this point as to me it didn't seem like god modding but to others it seems like it. but then they layed this on me as i asked why did the dm let them keep doing that? 

“the players character was meant to be a counter spy at the time one that knew my characters past without doing any work on how they where working. this meant they had like uber magic items that you had to be like a cleric or something to use because of how the items where preset up int he game as they where home brew items. one of our cleric players noticed this looking through the booklet of items the guy gave us as a little home brew guide of his game and when they called the dm out on this the dm got pissed and told us all to get out of his house it was his game and he was gonna run it how he liked it. if we didn't like how he built his world we could get out. so my friend who called him out drove me home and we made our own once a month dnd group. didn't help that they made me the joke pony every day with that character.” 

when this was further explained i realized the hell that some can have with dm’s and the dm playing god of the world. as a dm you are the story teller and the world shaper you wear the faces of monsters and innkeepers. you are the voice of rivals and companions. with a wave of your hand to throw dice you are a force that can calm or strengthen a storm. its a lot of power and at times can go to your head. because of this you have to be careful who is the punching bag and in some ways i have started to experiment with how to not have one person be the punch bag. 

in this sense make a different person a punching bag at the time of game play. this way its fair have a list of a sheet and go in a rotation. after the rotation ends roll a die to see who gets what spot int he line up so that each person gets it. that or you can do it with each encounter person that got most damage taken is out of the running and go for the next one in line. i like to preroll the day before game to see which player gets to be the punching bag and its fun. so far the punching bag has yet to be used as encounters in my game seem to be solved mostly by verbal conflict but even then sometimes the players make one another punching bags and i dont have to do a thing. 

so what can we take from the collection of stories and observations i have done. in some ways yes god modding can be helpful but only if used in the right way for select npc’s such as gods or demigods but you must always remember that you have to put major bars up on them to keep them in check. going in and god modding a player character however is never a good thing and can be bad for you as a player or dungeon master. and can and times be fun but know it is dangerous as many times you might lose those you have fun with if your not careful.

[[Listen, y’all.  Ziya-mun here to bring a roleplaying etiquette lesson out to all you fine young cats and kittens in the audience, very specifically in regards to god or god-like characters.  For reference, I have 10+ years of roleplaying experience, both in forums and out, and have played my fair share of god characters before ol’ Ziya here.

It boils down to two very big, very basic roleplaying no-no’s.  God-mod(d)ing and powerplay.

God-mod(d)ing is where you imbue your characters with invincibility and powers that cannot be matched by other, more regularly endowed characters for the sake of constantly having the upper hand, and very often is not discussed with other muns before interaction.  This, too, encompasses such things as controlling another person’s character and acting upon another’s character without their consent or prior knowledge.

Powerplay goes hand-in-hand with the above, where one embues their characters with more strength/powers/etc than anyone else to make sure they can never be beaten.

With god characters, these things tend to be a give-in.  Gods are, by nature, invincible, immortal, almighty beings.  And that makes them

Absolutely No Fun To Play With.

Nobody wants to play second fiddle to someone else all the time.  Nobody wants to know they are utterly, completely outclassed all the time.  What fun is that for the other mun?

That is why the key to roleplaying a god or god-like character in public is to remember a few simple rules:

Never take actions on another character without their explicit consent.

(In fact, it is polite to approach the mun and ask for an rp first anyhow.  Not every mun is cool with a drive-by roleplay.)

When interacting with someone new, or entering a scene where one’s powers will be utilized, always run the character’s powers by the other rper.  You can have a few hard ‘must always have/uses’ but the others should be negotiable, and if the other mun expresses discomfort in you utilizing these powers, either opt out of using them for the roleplay/with that person, or do not engage in a roleplay.

ALSO it is a very good idea to have a list of your character’s powers readily available either on your blog or someplace you can easily copypaste it to your partners.

It is generally also polite to play a powered-down version of that character publicly.  That way, all new rpers will have a chance to approach without you instantly turning on the high-beams and reading their souls, or whatever the trend is these days.

There are sites easily google-able that contain full, very thorough lists of roleplaying etiquette that all roleplayers SIMPLY MUST read before engaging with others, but I do hope this helps those playing god-characters for the first (or third) time understand how to do so that is both fun for everyone and doesn’t make you look like a god-moding walnut.