Conceptualizing the 'Gods & Monsters' Sandbox, Part 5

"In the fork where two rivers join to make a third, there sits the grandest achievement of human civilization: the first city, where for the first time a select class of people can rise above the everyday struggle to survive and style themselves as rulers. Wealth flows here, driven by trade, and pools in the hands of those who seize it. Following the wealth come the bright-eyed seekers from the outlying villages, swelling the city’s population and squabbling over what resources they can claim. The first city could become the template for a great civilization or a disastrous footnote in history—you’ll find out which in the tales you tell."

-Gods & Monsters

Sunset on Babylon

To me there is only a single source of inspiration on what 'The First City' would be like and that inspiration is drawn entirely from the Mesopotamian. Cities such as Ur, Uruk and Babylon and, of course, the one and the only and one of my favorite mythological tale: the Epic of Gilgamesh. Thus, under this singular vision and inspiration, the First City is ruled by a God-King who represent all the key elements of a founding of civilization. He's Gilgamesh mixed with reconstructed Sky-Gods and Hammurabi.

Annamuk, the City-Father

Fall of Gilgamesh

This is what Annamuk is: He's old, powerful and wise (maybe?) but he's had a wild streak and rowdy youth. His journey is more or less complete. Gods don't age, but this is a God worshiped as a part-human hero, which has made him more mortal. He has gone from being a powerful but uncontrollable young man to a learned sovereign and in his old age he's wise, if a bit lazy and distant: a side-effect of the complacency of civilization and old age.

Should a player wish to be the god of the First City, then Annamuk dies when the game begin, passing to the underworld. He doesn't really die, but his mantle of mortality make him journey to the underworld as his nature changes. This is similar to the way Osiris become the god of the dead.

Rumors about Annamuk:

• Having become a god of civilization, he's now weakened when outside the First City and weapons made from wood from the deepest, wildest groves can kill him.
• Annamuk is lonely in his old age, his companions of old long-gone. He has sworn off a wife and believe himself to be too old but should he be given a divine child to raise as his son, it may not only bring back joy to his old heart but lead him to pass on to the afterlife (as previously noted).
• Annamuk is not the only God to be tied to the First City. He wasn't even the first. There were (and are) older spirits which existed in the tribal land and villages before it became the First City. Changed by mortal belief and direct action, as humans changed nature around them. Some say the oldest spirits resent and fear him.

Conceptualizing the 'Gods & Monsters' Sandbox, Part 4

All things die. That is their fate. For birth to exist their must death. I could go on with the faux-poetic stuff but I won't so lets state the obvious: the Underworld is where dead things go. In Gods & Monsters it is not described in the Region section but rather fleshed out in the premade adventure. Its so iconic to all mythologies that I just had to make it a major feature of the world.

Underworld by jbrown67

The Underworld of the G&M Sandbox is enormous and may as well be a world on its own. It exist under the earth and is a real, physical and tangible place which mortal and gods alike can simply travel to by going down openings in the earth or down dark, haunted caves. It also function as what we'd call the Underdark in D&D, a concept I can hardly claim to have invented as many, many others have used a similar concept. The levels of the underworld closest to the surface are relatively normal places, being underground caves where corpses are left. Going deeper lead to enormous (and freaky) caves with rivers of lava, feces or tears. Deeper still are massive fractal tombs made from the fossilized bones of the oldest gods. There are domains here, where gods who have died (or become gods of the dead) rule over spirit courts. Earth elementals and similar creatures live inside the earth, too.

So who or what 'lives' down there? To recap:

• Dead humans, who exist as both corporeal and incorporeal undead. These are less soul-sucking monsters and more ancestral spirits who retain (some of) their skills and memories.
• The Gods of the Dead. Think Osiris-like figures. These are gods who have become so associated with death that their mantle made them 'dead'. Alternatively they willingly became Gods of the Dead.
• Shapeless things and shadow monsters which are allergic to the light. They come out to the surface to feed during eclipses.
• Living shadows which are the opposite of all living things. They may be 'demons' but the word has not been invented yet. The shadows are functionally similar to the Uncreated of the Godbound core book and have similar abilities, such as The Black Consumption and The Cold Breath.

Why would anyone go there? Well...

• Raising a mortal from the dead is not an easy task, especially once the window of miracles and gifts afforded by the Death Word have experienced.
• Alternatively, the Word of Death may only be available to Gods who have journey to the Underworld and become part of it. One may only claim dominion over death by becoming one with it.
• Sometimes you just want to slay some monster.
• Alternatively, the Underworld is the perfect place if one wish to forcibly imprison enemy gods and vicious monsters.

Finally, while in the Underworld, a God may use miracles to forcibly disgorge a Size 1 Faction of undead to perform a task, one which can even take place outside of the Underworld. The task must be related to the Word used, so using Sword or Bow would summon an army while a less combat-oriented Word could summon a whole community of workers with skills loosely related to the Word. However, once raised in such way, these beings remain active and outside the control of the God unless they are forcibly bound through some other mean.

Conceptualizing the 'Gods & Monsters' Sandbox, Part 3

Now its time to pull back from the divine matters, briefly, to focus on the more 'ground level' matters of the world of God(bound) & Monsters: the daily lives of its mortal inhabitants. This is important, as it is easy to forget that most NPC encountered will be mortals and not gods and that for all the power gods may wield, the most important people in the world are the mortals. Should I call them 'humans'? Maybe, maybe not, but I'll get back to this idea later on.

Rockfield People, by Phoebe Herring.

In many ways, the people of this nameless world (maybe its just called 'The World'?) are very much inspired by the neolithic and early bronze age people. The vast majority of them are still tribal. Agriculture has arisen (Possibly thanks to the gods...or did the humans create the gods of agriculture? Food for thought) but communities remain starkly primitive even compared to the most rugged of fantasy settings, relying still on animal hides, stones and mud for their dwellings. Clothes aren't much different. Bronze is the main innovation when it come to weaponry and armor, but it is not a universally-shared discovery as the most far-out regions still rely on bone and stones. This isn't too much of an issue for player characters, however, being Gods but it does affect the threat level of mortal opponents a little bit.

The main cultural inspiration for these humans, especially those around the First City (more on that later), are the Mesopotamian with the rest of the world being a loose, somewhat anachronistic mixture of various bronze age and stone age cultures. Historical accuracy is not important or relevant here, after all and this isn't Earth anyway (or is it?): rather, having cool locales with exotic people encountering equally exotic gods is far more important. Still, setting up the basics for what life is like is quite important in 'nailing down' the aesthetic and function of a setting.

The naming convention of the more civilized folks draw inspiration from the Mesopotamian too, with hints of other ancient languages such as Tamil and Sanskrit. Their names sound like Akum, Themud or Midha. The people from the open plains, or the jungles or the ocean coast draw upon different inspiration filtered through a fantasy lens. Its not uncommon for people to have very simple names meaning simple things like 'grass', 'sun' or 'three' (being the third child to reach adulthood, for example).

Mammoth in Blizzard by deskridge.

Megafauna such as mammoths still exist and so do dinosaurs, or at least dinosaur-esque beasts. This is in complete disregard to science but science is hardly a factor in myths, which are full of wondrous and impossible beasts. These creatures are a dying breed, however, safe for the massive megafauna to the furthest north where humans dare not go. Some beasts are not ordinary animals, but rather some form of divine creature or living phenomena, more rampaging abomination or gigantic kaiju than animal: some are the spawn of gods, some are former gods (who became monsters) while others simply are a fact of life. They exist because they do, embodying some primal element to nature.

Character God of Nature, by Alessandro Tedesco

But where did this world come from? From nothing, clearly. A nothing made into something by Thought and Word, which signaled the beginning of What Is. To the people of this world, this is a fact of life, an accepted truth (even if the details invariably deviate from story to story in a myriad ways): after all, Gods, Monsters and Spirits walk the land. Most people live in a region with one or more associated spirits and most likely worship them in some form. These beings need not be the original creator or inhabitants of that region. In fact they most probably aren't, as the 'first gods' and primordial entities which shaped the earliest world are long gone or beyond human perception, having faded from active reality as they became the very flesh and bone of creation. Or so some story go, at any rate.

The gods have helped shaped the world but humans have shaped the gods too. They are increasingly more like humans and less like true, faceless primordial forces. The chaos of creation which birthed them is solidified into thoughts, ideas, concepts and archetypes which inform the god's identity.

Conceptualizing the 'Gods & Monsters' Sandbox, Part 2

The next logical step is taking a look at the world of Gods & Monsters and determining what's in it and what could be in it and how this could create a Sandbox game. Godbound works a bit differently from the usual D&D-derived sandbox so a new approach is needed. Fortunately for me, I've never actually ran a 'proper' D&D sandbox so I wouldn't even know what a successful one is like, so I have little pre-conceived notions beyond what I've read on the matter.

Now, a hexmap is pretty much pointless for this because a Godbound with the Word of Journeying renders usual exploration and its dangers meaningless, in so much as the mundane dangers are concerned. Rather, its better for me to focus on the key elements of the map and what they represent.

A crude MS Paint map for concept.

The key regions of the world of Gods & Monsters are:

• The Sweeping Plains: Seemingly-endless expanses of open wilderness under the sky, home to countless nomadic tribes and early river civilizations. They can be steppes, savanna or simple plains, among other things.
• The Forest Primeval: Ancient, shadow-covered and dangerous to human life.
• The Rugged Peaks: Vast, impossibly tall and unforgiving mountains. Possibly at the literal edges of the world.
• The Ocean: Beautiful, mysterious, endless, capricious and terrifying.
• The Trackless Desert: The archetypal harsh environment, where things get lost.
• The Cold North: Much like the desert, it is harsh and unforgiving. The northernmost barrier to the world, the end of exploration, the impossible wall with only mystery beyond it.
• The First City: Yes, it's really that. The first city, the birth of civilization. Possibly center of the world. Think (much) more Babylon than Waterdeep.
• The Underworld: Where dead things go. It is a physical place you can visit.

Each location is (and should be) as archetypal as possible. The Cold North wasn't in the original material, but it seemed fitting enough: to me, it represent many things. It represent cold, the enemy of civilization and agriculture. It represent the last frontier, the unapproachable. It is nothing but snow, ice and eventually gigantic pillars and walls of ice which block any and all attempts of at going beyond them. Mammoth can be found in the are spanning the north of the plains to the valleys between mountains going north. Its an area meant to be the late ice age, akin to what Europe was when we still had great snowstorms covering the land and giant mammoths being hunted by early humans.

These ideas are simplistic and archetypal...but that's exactly the point. As for the actual scope and size of the world, that is a good question. Perhaps this ancient, primordial world is not shaped as other worlds are and does not have a truly solidified concept of 'scale', 'size' or 'distance': that way the world is always big enough for whatever I'd need to place in a region. Could mortal minds even wrap themselves around such an idea? Probably not, but this is not a world where logic or reason dominate: only concepts and archetypes.

What each region will need:

• Plot hooks and NPC
• Suitably mythical monsters.
• Ideas on how to make everything fit the theme of the region.
• Tables to generate the tribes living in those locales, such as their culture and organization as well as some oddities and supernatural elements to them, reflecting the strange and allegorical setting.

There is still much work to be done, but the concept is evolving quite well.

Conceptualizing the 'Gods & Monsters' Sandbox, Part 1

This post was written as I actually noted down the concepts and ideas for the campaign pitch. This is as close as one can get to real-time posting, I suppose...

Gods and Monsters may very well be my second favorite thing to come out of FATE. At the risk of sounding like a try hard going "I'm one of you, guys!": I don't like FATE, I mean, conceptually it's okay, its just the storygame equivalent to GURPS in a way. However, after a brief period of love it just came to be that I don't like or even 'get' story games and so I drifted back to older RPG. They are more to my tastes. Regardless of mentality in the story game community, smug mindset of people mocking older RPG and the entire host of needless drama, there have been some FATE books I've truly enjoyed even if I'd never run these settings with FATE. These are Baroque Space Opera, an euro comic-inspired scifi setting which is heavily inspired by the likes of 'The Meta Barons' and 'Gods and Monsters'. This is the one I'll focus on.


"The world of Gods and Monsters is untamed and primeval, and in a certain sense allegorical—it’s the sort of world where the sun is a ball of nuclear fire, a golden chariot, or just that thing where light comes from, depending on which story is being told. The wild places of the world are just more than their modern equivalents: the mountains are more rugged, the forests are darker and more tangled, the ocean is more capricious and full of sea monsters. Human civilization takes the form of scattered villages or nomadic tribes, with the occasional town where the population is dense enough to warrant one, working hard to push back the boundaries of the wilderness and bring more of the world under their control."
-Gods and Monsters

This is from the book itself.

Gods and Monsters immediately tickles my fancy for mythology, as if previous posts hadn't made this clear by now. It ticks all the right boxes to be an appealing concept (aside from being made for FATE): it's a primordial world with gods made to be a vast canvas waiting to be filled with strange tales, myths, monsters and epics (in the classical sense). Its a very solid high concept for a Godbound game.

But what are the 'rules' and concepts to Gods and Monsters which would make it different enough from a typical Godbound game? What does it bring to the table? What are it's key elements?

• The World is Young: This is a world barely in its infancy, just past the cosmic creation. This is markedly different from the ancient, decaying and broken world of Godbound.
• The World is Allegorical: Rather than the crumbling ruins of theotechnical (read: god-stuff magitek) world, with rewritten natural laws and complex technologies and sorcery reshaping or having reshaped it, the 'weirdness' of the G&M world is because its simply more symbolic.
• Regions with Clear Cut Themes: This is partially tied to its storygame roots, but the regions of the world are given certain aspects and themes, like how the plains are 'vast and open'. These are all 'high concepts' to a region, almost like a platonic ideal. I like that. I'm keeping this.
• Gods were never human: This is one of the clear difference between Godbound and Gods and Monsters. The Gods of G&M are described as 'a locus of power that wears a form and walks the world'. This mean Gods aren't simply mortals and immortal beings bounded to a Word of Creation, they may very be a reflection or embodiment of the Word of Creation. Of course, many gods can and will assume human characteristics, but this is not required.
• Gods can become Monsters: A god which lose itself in its power become a Monster. Given these are Word-bound beings of great power which can shape the world just as much as a Pantheon, we could narrow it down to them serving a role similar to the Angels and Parasite Gods. However, this will also mean we need a system to represent the risk a God has of turning into a Monster. Is this 100% necessary? How much should it take? I'm not sure yet, so its entirely possible to assume this is optional and that playable Gods simply don't turn into monsters. Decisions, decisions...
• Gods are Immortal ...maybe?: By default, the Gods of G&M are immortal and always have a mean of coming back. I don't think this is entirely needed and is a bit more of a storygame concept. However, given how easily a Godbound can become immune to mundane dangers, this doesn't need specific rules: a few miracles or gifts can turn a bronze sword to the gut from death to 'ow'. They would certainly be ageless and immune to mundane problems such as sickness, which would certainly be a massive danger in such a primitive world.
• Everything Else isn't worth mentioning: The game has a lot of rules and how to handle a God changing things. These aren't really important, since Godbound already has all that. No need to reinvent the wheel here.

As I type this, I've spent the last ten minutes re-reading key parts of the book to make sure I had everything nailed down. I still do, so good, now I can proceed in fleshing out the concept. Keep in mind this is less of an edited post and more of a train of thought turned into a post.

Now is there any concepts in Godbound I'd need to establish within his kind of setting to make the two merge seamlessly? Well, Godbound has its Celestial Engines but I believe those don't necessarily need to be ridden of. Given how young and primordial this world is, how vast and filled with pure wonder and power that its engines of creation may as well just be actual, physical parts of the world itself. This mean harvesting Celestial Shards requires breaking and/or remolding of parts of the world, permanently changing it. The idea is crazy and destructive, filled with potential so I like it! I'll keep it. Perhaps there are other, smaller fonts of power to tap into but these probably take far more time to harvest and acquire and maybe they yield less shards.

But what about character creation? This is worth considering, after all. The G&M book associate Geas to a God's mantle. Their concept is their sense of self. Well, that is fairly easy to translate to Godbound as it include actual part of their sheet: their choice of Words and Facts. So far so good. 

• Perhaps players should choose a Consuming Temptation or Taboo Behavior? Or there could be some drawbacks a God(bound) choose which reflect some fundamental aspect of their nature which limits them.
• Should Artifice not be a Word to keep that Bronze Age feel? Perhaps its invention, as a Word, would be a major setting milestone.
• What about Sorcery? This one too could perhaps not exist, as odds are not even Low Magic would exist.

All in all, surprisingly little need to change between these two games conceptually, despite how the two are byproducts of two completely different mindset of game design.