How Would You Do Human God/Demi God Type Characters

I have had an idea for awhile where the situation would be players playing Human forms of Gods that rely on Faith where the situation that new gods are coming in to take away that Faith(Basically American Gods) So I would like the players to play a these gods.

I was just wondering though how you would get the Human characters to feel god like?

I already kind of think to use the Faith attribute with some Magc attached to it but instead of one way street of advancing to 10 it would work more like Nature in Torchbearer/Mouseguard where it can be Taxed to 0 as well. I would also like the characters to have some Grey Shaded stats though so they feel more supernatural.

How would you hack this? Also would the Lifepaths fit? I don’t really want to hack to much though.

I’d suggest looking at Traits like Fey-Blooded, to get thematic traits from other Stocks (e.g. Essence of the Earth from the Elven Stock).

Also, have a look at things like a (tweaked) version of Loyal, Faith or Believer.

My (poor) recollection from the Magic Burner was that there were a couple of very handy Traits for the (very) high powered approach, in the form of Force of Nature (I think?), which granted concessions in DoW, even if they lost, due to the powerful nature of the entity involved.

I wouldn’t do Faith as that is what the Faithful have. I would use Art Magic to represent each sphere of infulence they have, with advantages/disadvantages based on their pantheon design.

How do you intend to burn characters? Lifepaths seem like they might not be a great fit unless these are relatively ordinary people raised to (demi)godhood.

That aside, I actually wouldn’t use any unusual rules if you’re going for a Greco-Roman style if god. What you really need to do is retune what skills can do, when you Say Yes, and consequences of failure.

For a god, fighting an ordinary mortal isn’t a test. Fighting a dozen might test Spear, but even a failure is a win, just maybe one where your spear breaks under the weight of all those corpses or you take a scratch in the melee. A god can test Sewing to make a thousand ordinary gowns in a day at Ob 3, or make a tunic out of a river and a rainbow at Ob 5.

Once you’ve recalibrated to general scope and expectations of the game I think godhood works fine without using any magic rules. You can think of it as letting every skill act as Sorcery in its domain.

I agree with Mark Watson: there are lots of flavorful traits. Fey Blooded is a great one, as it can give you access to Grief, Greed (great for a god of commerce, thievery, etc.), or Hatred (lots of gods that this works for). Also interesting: Tainted Legacy, which actually appears on the Apt Pupil lifepath in the Codex. That opens up all sorts of traits: consider Lawbreaker, Spirit Nature, The Tongue, or Aura of Fear from the Daemon; Devastator or Mesmerizing Gaze from the Dragon, Gigantic Stature, Tremendous Strength, Tremendous Endurance, or Hands of Stone from the Giant; Serpent Hair from the Ophidia (if you want to be a descendant of Medusa); Shapeshifter, Celestial Sight, or Dissent Parasite (great for some trickster or spiteful gods!) from the Raksha; or Dominant Will from the Vampyr.

Also interesting are pretty much any of the “Aura” traits: Aura of Fear, Aura of Innocence, Aura of Determination, Aura of Malevolence, etc.

This is the crutch of the issue I have with this idea when I have thought about it but I don’t have the time to really hack the lifepath system to a totally different one…so probably the second option would be the easiest to do.

Or they are like Hercules and I create a lifepath that is like Born Demigod or something like that.

The reason why I would like to use Faith is because as I said I really like Nature from Torchbearer and how it represents whether you are to Human or to weird to be adventuring anymore. I kind of would like to do the same but goes with the waxing and waning of Faith.

Instead of making new LPs, the way you couldd Burn Demigods whole-cloth would be to just Burn them as monsters, using human LPs as an aid, not the rules. Design stats for them together.

The problem with Faith in BWG versus Nature in Torchbearer is that it’s not a waxing/waning scale, it goes from base to nine, and then you’re too high to be playable. That said, it would accurately mimic the source of their power, and if you use the rules for believers helping you’ll get a microcosm of Belief=Power. You could further tweak the system by removing the ability for the Faithful to use Faith, or changing their usage, and tweaking Demigod Obs for their “prayers”.

That said, what Wayfarer has said is exactly how I would think of things, and would model really well, for example, Hercules in the myth and modern depictions, as well as the Solar Exalted. Giving a Trait that specifically dealt with their “portfolio” if that wasn’t enough, will round off the edges if you want the Demigods to feel magical as well as superhuman.