Greetings. Please forgive this being my first post - I rack up many views of threads but few posts.

For some time I have had the idea of a divine RPG setting floating about in my head; only recently have I and a colleague begun to put pen to paper. The general premise, in brief, is this: Players are divine creatures created to fight a threat that no longer exists, and must now figure out what their role shall be.

To cut straight to the question, I want to know whether my concept is "interesting enough" to be seriously developed. Having read the articles on Fantasy Heartbreakers and of the RPG Cliches found at Critical Miss and elsewhere, I do not want to fall in with a possible crowd of "Modern-Day Occult/Divine Heartbreakers" or some other terrible conglomerate of cliches. Nor do I want a game that appears as nothing more than a patchwork quilt of "anti-cliches" purely for the sake of being different.

I think my idea is unique enough to be found interesting and intriguing by others, but I guess I want to have that examined by a source less biased than am I. I know that, either way, there has been a general response in other threads that "if you really enjoy it, you should develop it" and I intend to either way. However, there would be a big difference between a system that I would use for my own gaming groups and something that I intended to seriously develop.

Please let me first provide a still-brief-but-expanded history of the game-world. The higher power behind the existence of humanity was challenged by an outside force. To combat this threat, Eidolon were created - humans that have passed away only to be reincarnated as one of ten archetypes with various powers over aspects of human existence. During this conflict, the higher power was dealt a blow that caused it to be dispersed amongst all humans and Eidolon, giving both groups free will and the Eidolon limited immortality. Imbued with these gifts, the Eidolon were able to overcome this outside threat and return order to the world. However, these creatures then found themselves still existing in the world - immortal, powerful, and without direction from upon high. The game is then about how these creatures, appearing human and yet decidely not, decide to find their "niche" in Earth, be it by pursuing simple happiness, destorying evil in any forms, or even trying their hands at running the world.

There's more to it than that, but you get the drift. Here are what I view as the strong points of this concept:
1. This is NOT a game of modern horror. If all modern-day games can be classified as a "World of X", then I see this as a World of Hope. PCs are finding themselves "strangers in a strange land,' actually being free to live a life of more than just combat. As a corollary, as humans contain within them the essence of a higher power, they are NOT cattle and should not be needlessly harmed.
2. Unique, low-carnage powers. Only one direct damage power exists in the 70 powers that I have written, and most powers are activated at-will (no points, no charges, etc.) but have a particular drawback to using them (i.e, invulnerable but cannot move; can fly but very vulnerable when doing so)

Drawbacks:
1. Archetypes. These don't imply behaviors, loyalties, or anything else as does the classic splat. Instead, they more like races, defining a physiology, intrinsic powers, and nothing more. However, they are rather discrete groups and so may be viewed by some as splats still.
2. Myths - Most of the archetypes are based on myths. These are obscure myths (i.e. the myth of the Auraka, or Polynesian "God of Death") but are still myths nonetheless. I know that a classic cliche is "Most people think that X are just a myth. They do exist in secret, amongst other humans who have no idea!" However, these myths really aren't that well known in the first place. (also, while humans do not generally know about these Eidolon, they are NOT behind every or even many conspiracies in the world)

As I'm still working on setting, I am not remotely close to having a mechanics system at the moment, so nothing to say about that.

Most importantly, I want to say that my development of this has not been "let's take genre/system X and add Y to it" or "since Z is a cliche, let's do the complete opposite." I have developed this idea based on what I personally think is interesting and meaningful to me, and have specifically avoided reading most relevant modern-day games until after I had the majority of this concept down. (The only modern-day games I had even read any of prior to this were Spycraft and Unknown Armies, most of my interests in other genres until not long ago)

So please, let me know if you think this concept would be interesting as a game, and would appeal to people who are not me (most everyone) If you have any critiques, suggestions, or other cliches I should be looking out for, you would get a friend for life.

Thanks for reading,
-Scott

bifevo wrote: So please, let me know if you think this concept would be interesting as a game, and would appeal to people who are not me (most everyone) If you have any critiques, suggestions, or other cliches I should be looking out for, you would get a friend for life.

Very interesting concept. Let's hear more.

Hi!

bifevo wrote: The general premise, in brief, is this: Players are divine creatures created to fight a threat that no longer exists, and must now figure out what their role shall be.

There's more to it than that, but you get the drift. Here are what I view as the strong points of this concept:
1. This is NOT a game of modern horror. If all modern-day games can be classified as a "World of X", then I see this as a World of Hope. PCs are finding themselves "strangers in a strange land,' actually being free to live a life of more than just combat. As a corollary, as humans contain within them the essence of a higher power, they are NOT cattle and should not be needlessly harmed.

2. Unique, low-carnage powers. Only one direct damage power exists in the 70 powers that I have written, and most powers are activated at-will (no points, no charges, etc.) but have a particular drawback to using them (i.e, invulnerable but cannot move; can fly but very vulnerable when doing so)

Hi and welcome! (I lived in Columbia '91-'99, good to meet you.)

bifevo wrote: Players are divine creatures created to fight a threat that no longer exists, and must now figure out what their role shall be.

You've got a really good start. So it's with some surprise and guilt that I feel I have to lay down on you: Mike's Standard Rant #6: Concepts are a Dime a Dozen

Note, this is my subltle way of saying that you should proceed. Or, rather, ask something other than "Do you think this would be interesting?"

Mike

Thank you everyone who replied, your comments were most useful, and I appreciate them all. After reading through everything, my colleague and I have decided to sit on the idea for a bit and do other things, as concepts are "a dime a dozen" but it's solid design that make games great.

So this forum will hear about this concept again, but not for some time. Some individual comments follow:

Tom & Chris: I agree that custom powers are neat, but I'm not sure I want to make this a framework for a supers game. I could always just use HERO rules though for the powers and then players could tweak as wanted.

Mike: My goodness, that link was most informative! (I already referred someone else to it on RPG.net) So feel no guilt, or that you are laying anything down on me. And when this returns, it'll do so with better questions as well. Thanks!

-Scott

bifevo wrote: ...there would be a big difference between a system that I would use for my own gaming groups and something that I intended to seriously develop...

Scott,

One of the things you might consider is that you're taking an age-old, real-world problem and throwing in the mystical and mythical. You're approaching a very real problem by way of fictional content. Frankly, I consider that incredibly cool.

Governments constantly face the problem of what to do with soldiers after a war. Look at Africa, and the multi-generational wars there which left soldiers who had grown up as such since they were children -- and now have no fighting to do. Ex-soldiers were a major factor in medieval crime, especially banditry. Look at America, at our vets from the Vietnam war, or what happened to our returning soldiers after World War I.

In the case of your game, there is no government -- just the soldiers themselves, and each of them has to find a purpose, a self-created meaning to their existance outside of life as soldier, and what they desire may even conflict with what the events of their creation made them.

Erick: Although I certainly agree with you, my main thoughts behind developing for personal use vs. publishing are more detailed in a thread split covered in the Publication forum: Designing for personal use vs. for publication

greyorm: That's an interesting aspect of it - something I frankly hadn't realized. I'm going to have to go do some reading on just what did happen in those situations...