Playing "Before the Flood"

[Andrew Martin]

Played "Beyond the Flood" last night. The world was the GM's fantasy world after previous adventuring characters had made great changes. We played the new gods that had taken up the reins, along with some survivors of the old gods. We started off with Darkness all around, and the player who stated "Let there be Light!" got the Light domain. Because it was a medieval fantasy world, we added the GM's races of Kenku (bird race), Nubbin (adventurous halfling) and Feral (cat people), along with Elves and Dwarves.

Most players ended up with three gods each, typically one of each aligned to Light, Shade or Darkness (Good, Neutral or Light). Death and the Afterlife got a total of four gods assigned to it, with a lot of bureaucracy to the situation. Basically two gods to handle collecting the dead, one to judge them and another to handle the afterlife, with lots of exceptions in between.

We didn't use index cards, instead just writing gods down on the one sheet of paper each. I think this was a mistake of ours as later the complexities of the arrangements between gods grew quite complex. Just simply recording the details of gods and their domain and associations is quite involved. So it's better to use cards as it states in the game.

We included boons, banes and geas by the gods. For example, Ester, my god of love, youth and healing grants the boon of healing according to your love. If your love is true for a person, you can true heal that person with a kiss. Another player's god, with the domains of Kenku, Air, Flight, Bird, & Clouds, granted the power of Flight in exchange for the geas of aiding birds and never eating the meat of birds.

Also, some gods made alliances with each other, letting the other god's followers access their powers, and vice versa.

Our player characters included:
* a paladin of Law, armed with a blade of judgement that slew the unlawful and didn't harm the unjust (made by our munchkin player);
* two teenagers in love with each other, both worshippers of Ester;
* Priest of the plague god, suppurating with plague and disease, with strange god powers;
* Soldier of Untuul and his pet cat;
* Dwarf warrior smith;
* and several others (which I can't recall at the moment).

Also, we found it best if gods stuck to their agreements and deals with other gods, no matter what. Gods gave powers to followers in exchange for geas like never do ___________; or give wealth; or guard my followers and so on. Basically, PC gods gave powers in exchange for more power in a related domain; or allowed use in exchange.

The game was great fun. I plan to run the Before the Flood for my own fantasy game later today, to build on the existing fantasy cosmology.

Gods didn't make dice rolls at all. And it was nice integrating gods with mortals. We didn't get around to describing guises or homes. Some players managed to work out Holy symbols for their PC priests.

[furashgf]

Where did you find the rules for this game?

[Andrew Martin]

Where did you find the rules for this game?

Before the Flood: http://www.septemberquestion.org/lumpley/flood.html.

[lumpley]

Know what's cool?  People you've never met playing your games.  Thanks!

-Vincent

(Coming soon, my website will have an actual link to the game on it.  Imagine!)