Literally, the dark ages of the gods. The age is that of their realization that their time is finite and their pantheon will one day come to an end in some cataclysm.

The players role-play gods. But here's the twist. You *want* to lose your godly powers and become mortal, in order to at last truly live. Because the end is coming for your pantheon, and when it does it's likely you will be destroyed. The world will move on and a new pantheon will emerge.

There are the Elder Gods of your pantheon (run by the GM) who you *know* will be the core of the 'sides' taken during this great cataclysm. So, of course you could always try to become more powerful and hopefully survive the impending Twilight of the Gods (or whatever). But you may find yourself aligned with the wrong group and be destroyed anyway.

The risk of course (following the first destiny) is that the weaker your deity power becomes, the easier it is for another god to wipe you out of existence.

Then of course, there are your Champions, Chosen and Disciples, -the mortals who worship (or curse) your name.

I'm working on the setting and background. The system is going to be what I affectionately refer to as the RORE system (Ripped Off Ron Edwards)! Because it uses the (Elfs) director stance when gods interact with mortals.

I can feel that already that the role-play potential will be huge. It could even work as a LARP as you (being a god) could always role-play anytime discussing alliances and so-on with others.

There will be a GM called "The Keeper" who records the destiny of the pantheon within the pages of The Unfinished Book. Which in fact will likely be the GM's rules.

It may be a kind of dark fantasy, with the cataclysm meta-plot (is that the right term?)

But that time wouldn't have to come along for years, not until the Keeper saw it time to retire one or more of the god-characters. So, it all kind of ties up neatly, with a great last event in the destiny of the pantheon.

Anyway, what do you think?
Jeff Diamond

Jeff,

Check out Deux Ex in the Forge library; the author, Conners, has it available as a free download. Your notion is a lot more story-oriented than his, but there's a lot of good stuff there that's on the same wave-length.

Best,
Ron

[ This Message was edited by: Ron Edwards on 2001-04-25 12:09 ]

looks really good another rpg I might offer up is whispering vault in terms of character construction, and the transition between material, and immaterial.
this would be a project I would be very inerested in being a part of