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GODS is a dark fantasy tabletop roleplaying game created by Bastien Lecouffe Deharme and Julien Blondel.
Designed by long time friends, roleplayers, and Dark Fantasy fans, GODS is a love song to the legendary writers and artists who defined the genre, such as Robert E. Howard, Karl E. Wagner, Michael Moorcock, Glen Cook or Frank Frazetta.
The game invites the players to play heroes seeking high adventure in the Wildlands, a brutal land abandoned and forgotten by the gods. From one-shots adventures to massive campaigns, GODS will offer a variety of game modes and provide a modern and adult gaming experience, supported by a d10 system that favors gameplay, narrative and fun without leaving simulation and realism aside.
GODS is, above all, a game based on adventure, epic quests, and exploration: a journey to the far reaches of the Wildlands, its lost cities, titanic scenery, primeval forests, and forgotten ruins. Attached to the standards of Dark Fantasy, the game is full of action, magic, rituals, and epic battles. It will satisfy players with a taste for atmosphere, mystery, and diplomacy, with a subtle dose of poetry: a brutal world, epic and dark, where fighters, shamans, thieves and other heroes often have to write their legend in blood.
The rules are based on the TOTEM SYSTEM and use 10-sided dice to manage gaming phases. Combat, magic, negotiation, enchantment of objects or simple travels and adventures: all technical aspects use the same mechanics. Characters are defined by Traits associated to a number of dice. When a character performs an action, the player simply rolls a number of dice equal to the score of the Trait used, generally a number between 1D and 3D. Whenever a character undertakes an action where the outcome is uncertain, the player rolls a number of 10-sided dice equal to the score of the Trait at hand and compares the result of each die to a Difficulty ranging from 1 to 10. The more results that are equal to or higher than the Difficulty, the more successful the character is.
To shoot with a bow, the Accuracy Trait is used. Let’s say that the character’s score is 2D, meaning that the player rolls two dice against a Difficulty of 5, 7, or 9 depending on the distance, size, and speed of the target. If at least one die rolls equal to or higher than the Difficulty, the shot hits home. If both dice are successful, the shot may hit a vulnerable area and inflict more damage, reflecting the higher degree of success.
In accordance with their background practical experience, and chosen Profile, the players’ characters will also have Skills and Specialties that will grant Bonuses to their actions, as well as dice pools called Reserves from which they can draw to improve their chances. However, these Reserves represent the characters’ innermost resources, and drawing from them will be exhausting. As they travel together and grow used to each other, the characters can strengthen the unity of their Party and acquire new collective abilities, from simple Bonuses to innovative storytelling options such as save points.
THE WILDLANDS
A land so vast no cartographer could ever map it all.
A land that was once the playground of giants and fantastic creatures, and where humans are now building empires and civilizations.
A land forgotten by its own gods.
From the small villages to the cities and capitals, men are left to fight for their survival. Their fate is in their hands, and civilizations seem to collapse faster than they grow. The grim Cult of the Black Sun is spreading like the plague, preaching the Words of the One, and providing insights to the men and women in need of answers, in exchange of their allegiance.
Untamed, the Wildlands call for heroes. Men and women chasing their own destiny. Adventurers brave or crazy enough to take on the roads and uncover the dark secrets left behind in the ruins of a forgotten world.
CHOSEN ONES
The old and forgotten gods are preparing their awakening.
To do so, they need the men and women of the Wildlands to remember them. To believe in them once again. They are choosing their heroes. They are choosing the men and women who will become their voices and their hands among the mortals.
GODS invites players to play exceptional people – characters who all have this little “something” special that make them step out of the ordinary. Whether they are the most talented hunter of the village, the warrior who never gives up, the blacksmith whose craft makes people travel from long distances or even the weirdo of the town who claims that she can hear voices, they all have this energy that makes people wonder if they might have been chosen by the gods…
And you are one of them.
SHARDS
To reach the humans they have chosen, on the spiritual and physical level, the Old Gods infuse man-made objects with a fragment of their spirits. Weapons, tools, jewelry or any type of artefacts. Those manufactured objects invested with a piece of a god’s soul are called Shards. They are the vectors of the divine favors, providing the Chosen Ones with a physical symbol of the god, a tool, an emblem, a link, a companion, that will help them fulfill their destiny.
On their path, the characters may encounter and wield one of these rare and precious objects. Through the Shards, the Chosen Ones develop a link with their gods, receive favors and powers, to help them forge their legend and wake their gods.
In game, the Shards will evolve and accumulate powers in accordance to the choices of the characters and the strength of the link built between the Chosen Ones and their gods.
SACRIFICIAL MAGIC
There are several types of magic in the Wildlands. One of them is "sacrificial magic".
The relationship between humans and gods have always been built on exchanges between services and favors, pledges of reverence and signs of recognition, forbidden thoughts and encouraged acts. Priests and believers used to find communion with their gods through rituals and ceremonies.
Since the gods disappeared, the link between the divine and humans was broken. But recently, men and women have found a way to reconnect with the gods. The odd ones, the shamans and the druids, the seers and the oracles, they all feel the energy of the gods rising. Where the Chosen Ones receive divine favors through the Shards, these address to the gods through the practice of sacrificial magic.
Sacrificial magic requires rituals that vary depending of the gods they are made to. From blood sacrifices to destruction of valuable materials, they sometimes require specific actions to be performed. The few who receive answers from the divine energies through those rituals are also considered Chosen.
CULT OF THE BLACK SUN
Throughout the Wildlands, the Cult of the Black Sun spreads like black ink on blank parchment. Its fanatical priests preach the arrival of a new Prophet, the Word of the One and the advent of his dogma. Through the weapons of his Priest-Soldiers, the Cult prepares the Wildlands to the return of the Black Sun.
For the cultists, the sun is the “Eye of the One”. When men are finally worthy of the trust of the One, only then will the One God close his eye, and the sun will become black, and men will find the way to their creator, in the comfort of the “Primordial Darkness and the Holy Trust”.
The Chosen Ones are considered enemies of the One God, and the Cult is actively tracking them. Any form of magic performed by anyone other than a priest of the Black Sun is considered heretical. This includes the use of the Shards, and the individuals who build any type of link with the Old Gods.
