Looking for a godling civ builder game

[Tavarokk]

The premise being that a primitive society migration settles a stretch of previously sparsely or entirely unpopulated wilderness, and local major spirits start picking up humanoid traits and worshippers. Players would then control said spirits, influencing the surrounding mortals via their actions rather than via direct micro-management. A culture-raising sim, essentially.

I imagine it'd be turn-based, with a basic system involving an allocation of time and power per turn and a benchmark for how much time and/or power various actions generally take. Also, as part of the premise, PCs would be familiar with each other from before the migration and at least grudgingly allied, to preclude drama.

Anyone ever considered running something like that?

[Remiel]

I'm intrigued.

[RedPhoenix]

I tried to run a game like this many years ago. It didn’t get a lot of interest and died out due to low activity. Love the concept though.

[Tavarokk]

I tried to run a game like this many years ago. It didn’t get a lot of interest and died out due to low activity. Love the concept though.

The one attempt I got to play on a different forum collapsed due to a combination of misbalancing which made most divine actions a net loss and players spawning too far apart relative to their ability to interact. Was quite favourably recieved before that, though.

[Rafael]

I also love these types of games. The idea intrigues me as well, just needs a specific type of structure to play around. Not many of those around that I know of.

[Lustful Bride]

While I'm not really looking to play a group game of this, you all might like to use the Godbound system for this. It comes with the very idea of playing as Godly beings and has a system for gaining worshippers and managing your own afterlife. It even has a Free Edition you can download.  Its fairly simple (At least I think it is) so it should be easy for you to play.

I wish I could help with the settlement/civilization building and management but there aren't that many game systems which do that. My own personal experience has only been a hack/crossover of Houses Of The Blooded. But that might take some getting used to and some work to make it mix with Godbound, if you all choose to use it.

Hope this at least helps inspire new searches for you all. I wish you the best of luck in your game. :)

[Outcast]

New Gods of Mankind was designed with almost exactly this scenario in mind.

In summary: Fate recognises as a new god any entity that acquires 100 dedicated worshippers.  Demon, nature-spirit, deceased ancestor... whatever you were in origin, you can become a god - and have to cope with your new responsibilities and the perils of now being dependent upon Belief to keep you in existence...

[RedPhoenix]

New Gods of Mankind was designed with almost exactly this scenario in mind.

In summary: Fate recognises as a new god any entity that acquires 100 dedicated worshippers.  Demon, nature-spirit, deceased ancestor... whatever you were in origin, you can become a god - and have to cope with your new responsibilities and the perils of now being dependent upon Belief to keep you in existence...

Googling says there was a free version of these rules but all I found were dead links. You wouldn't happen to know where one could get it?

[Outcast]

Unfortunately the publisher (Dark Skull Studios) no longer seems to maintain a website, and I can't see the books on DriveThru.

What I have for the game is in dead tree form, which isn't any help to you, either....

You might be able to turn it up on any of the sites attempting to stand in for The Trove (if you're willing  to frequent such places), but it was always a sadly underappreciated game and thus quite hard to find.

Edit: I should also say that Lustful Bride's suggestion of Godbound is very probably the best currently-on-sale option.  And it does have a free edition (linked to in her post). 

[Tavarokk]

In all honesty, I'm not sure such a game can be fit under an in-depth system in the first place. Player characters would have too many degrees of freedom to account for all their possible action choices, so it'd come down to GM's reasoning ability either way. Some basic tools to give everyone senses of scale and passage of time, beyond that I'm not sure what could be formalized.

[RedPhoenix]

Unfortunately the publisher (Dark Skull Studios) no longer seems to maintain a website, and I can't see the books on DriveThru.

What I have for the game is in dead tree form, which isn't any help to you, either....

You might be able to turn it up on any of the sites attempting to stand in for The Trove (if you're willing  to frequent such places), but it was always a sadly underappreciated game and thus quite hard to find.

Edit: I should also say that Lustful Bride's suggestion of Godbound is very probably the best currently-on-sale option.  And it does have a free edition (linked to in her post). 

Yeah that's about all I found too and a few download links that looked too shady to click.

I've read Godbound and it always struck me as more of a classic table top game where the focus shifts to a demigod instead of an adventurer, which I think is very distinct from the culture building approach that Tavarokk (and I) were looking for.

In all honesty, I'm not sure such a game can be fit under an in-depth system in the first place. Player characters would have too many degrees of freedom to account for all their possible action choices, so it'd come down to GM's reasoning ability either way. Some basic tools to give everyone senses of scale and passage of time, beyond that I'm not sure what could be formalized.

I agree that an in-depth system is probably a poor idea. But a sort of simple system, or a system that at least is simple on the surface with GM resolving more complex stuff behind the curtain would be fun for me. Total freeform would feel a bit cheap if the focus was on growth and development.

If you have any links to such games you've seen done well that had systems in place please do share them! :)

[Outcast]

A bit of research has turned up the author of NGoM's current blogs, and a link to a version of the 'basic rules' that he posted as a PDF on Dropbox.

They're a pared-down and fairly setting-agnostic version of the fuller game, but might be of some use / interest.

A 2nd edition of NGoM is apparently being written at the moment; I'm glad to see that there's sufficient interest in this genre of gaming to merit it.   

[Thufir Hawat]

A bit of research has turned up the author of NGoM's current blogs, and a link to a version of the 'basic rules' that he posted as a PDF on Dropbox.

They're a pared-down and fairly setting-agnostic version of the fuller game, but might be of some use / interest.

A 2nd edition of NGoM is apparently being written at the moment; I'm glad to see that there's sufficient interest in this genre of gaming to merit it.   

It's an interesting game. I'm not sure whether I'd get the next edition, but the idea is certainly interesting .

[Outcast]

It's an interesting game. I'm not sure whether I'd get the next edition, but the idea is certainly interesting .

If you're interested in giving him feedback, he's asked for it earlier this year! 

NGoM's certainly one that I've really wanted to have the chance to run more of.  I experimented with a (very basic) similar game when I was very young, but NGoM provided much more of a framework to build things around than I had come up with on my own.

[Thufir Hawat]

If you're interested in giving him feedback, he's asked for it earlier this year! 

Perhaps, but not befroe I digest all of the material and think it through !

[Tavarokk]

If you have any links to such games you've seen done well that had systems in place please do share them! :)

The closest thing I've seen was a pm game with rules as mostly I described earlier - actions per turn, resource per turn and bonuses to rolls for particular kinds of actions for actors. I realize that it'd be hard on GM, and something more structured would help a lot, but, say, NGoM mentioned earlier already makes assumptions that won't necessarily hold in an actual game, such as nature of gods as faith entities, deities being an ultimate authority in their respective tribes or putting emphasis on warfare over social engineering, and so on.