I glanced at the Pathfinder alpha and noted that wizards had school powers just like clerics had domain powers.
I had a marvelous idea.
Get rid of all the classes except cleric.
Everyone can wear armor. If you want to find traps, worship a god of trapfinding.
Everyone gets domain powers. Everyone has a god -- at least one. It's not possible to be without at least one god -- because gods will adopt mortals, even if the mortals don't want to be adopted.
There are no prestige classes. There is only one class- cleric. To customize characters, give them interesting gods, domain access appropriate to their gods, and make their relationships with their churches and gods reflect the personalities of everyone involved.
This idea seemed really original to me for about two seconds, then I realized I had reinvented the superhero genre -- again -- but in a fantasy context.
Still, I'm going to run it if I can get players for it. I won't use Pathfinder, of course -- d6 or GURPS will work. All the players need is a handout with the list of domains from which they can choose, and some pre-generated gods in case they don't want to make up their own gods.
...Be prepared for a parody campaign. Cause man, if I couldn't do anything without asking a god for help, the both of us would be getting terribly annoyed.
Maybe you could make the campaign Ancient-Greek flavoured (or some other situation where the gods are constantly directly involved in what everyone does).
XP could come from sacrifices, which could justify how treasure / killing things makes you more powerful.
EDIT: different gods could demand different types of offerings.
I said the same thing when I read the 4th edition players handbook.
If you create a good pantheon of gods I would totally get behind a game like this! Cleric has always been the best DnD class anyway.
I had a great idea once: do away with classes, and simply let people learn what it makes sense for them to be able to learn. Then I realized I already played that game, and that D&D players actually really like classes, and I shouldn't fuck with them, because they get very upset when I talk about classless games.
Silly person, I'm a D&D player, writing a classless game.
Check out a game called free Greak Ork Gods - it's a humorous one-shot RPG where you play Orcs who are hated by their gods, but no orc can achieve anything without their gods. Its fantasy Paranoia in its gameplay.
RuneQuest had the everybody's a cleric thing and that had no classes and works great. In RQ, you joined a few cults or you were toast in longer campaigns because Battle Magic / Spirit Magic was cheap but weak.
Do you have link to download Greak Ork Gods? I tried a search but could only find forum references to the game. Yes, my Google-fu sucks. Thanks!
That's because it's Great Ork Gods. (http://www.greatorkgods.co.uk/)
Sounds kinda bleak and pointless to me, unless you play it purely for doomed laughs.
Quote from: Narf the Mouse;255451That's because it's Great Ork Gods. (http://www.greatorkgods.co.uk/)
Sounds kinda bleak and pointless to me, unless you play it purely for doomed laughs.
LOL, thanks for the link.
Quote from: Engine;255425I had a great idea once: do away with classes, and simply let people learn what it makes sense for them to be able to learn. Then I realized I already played that game, and that D&D players actually really like classes, and I shouldn't fuck with them, because they get very upset when I talk about classless games.
I like both. WFRP made me love "classes" again.
Quote from: Narf the Mouse;255451That's because it's Great Ork Gods. (http://www.greatorkgods.co.uk/)
Sounds kinda bleak and pointless to me, unless you play it purely for doomed laughs.
Throw in a case of beer and I am sold!
If I decided to GM it, you'd have to bring your beer - I don't drink alcohol. Just don't go getting piss-drunk and I'd call it even.
Quote from: Age of Fable;255421EDIT: different gods could demand different types of offerings.
You all need to read about the god Cayden Cailean (God of Freedom, Wine, and Bravery) in the Pathfinder setting and seriously consider being a party of his clerics.
Quote from: Narf the Mouse;255466If I decided to GM it, you'd have to bring your beer - I don't drink alcohol. Just don't go getting piss-drunk and I'd call it even.
Well yeah naturally, and if you don't drink I probably would avoid the beer. I have too many friends who are perfectly fine being the one drunk at the game table, no thanks. The game does sound like a good one to go with drinking though.
"Hey angry god dude! Bet you can't hit a drunken goblin with a lightning bolt!
What do you mean you can? There's one right there and you already missed!
Hah! Good one! That'll show 'em!"
Ork Shaman. Hence the highly-educated language.
Quote from: Narf the Mouse;255489"Hey angry god dude! Bet you can't hit a drunken goblin with a lightning bolt!
What do you mean you can? There's one right there and you already missed!
Hah! Good one! That'll show 'em!"
Ork Shaman. Hence the highly-educated language.
Reminds me how much I'd like a copy of the Gork and Mork box set.
Sadly I can't check this game out til I get home but it's sounding fun.
Quote from: Narf the Mouse;255451That's because it's Great Ork Gods. (http://www.greatorkgods.co.uk/)
Sounds kinda bleak and pointless to me, unless you play it purely for doomed laughs.
I didn't like how they seem to have divided the god's domains so that each god essentially covers an attribute, rather than something more like 'real' pantheons.
Quote from: Age of Fable;255535I didn't like how they seem to have divided the god's domains so that each god essentially covers an attribute, rather than something more like 'real' pantheons.
Awww you put ' ' around the word real. ;)
Anyway, would it be too hard to give the gods broader and even slightly overlapping domains using the attritbute as a base?
I leave work in one hour or so I can give it a look.
With any RPG, there's a rules subset that you either live with, alter or throw out.
The idea that the rules are concrete and fixed seems rather against the point of having a GM.
Quote from: Narf the Mouse;255542With any RPG, there's a rules subset that you either live with, alter or throw out.
The idea that the rules are concrete and fixed seems rather against the point of having a GM.
Yeah, that and letting the players focus on their characters by putting everyone else in the hands of the GM. Even a concrete and fixed game system would likely have that need. This I think is easily represented by good games run by GMs who do everything by the book. I have met one of those before.
Quote from: Narf the Mouse;255451Sounds kinda bleak and pointless to me, unless you play it purely for doomed laughs.
Bleak and pointless = An Ork's Life (it's why they are so angry)
It's got that Paranoia / Og vibe where the game is darkly comic and involves lots of (hopefully) good humored "gotcha" and "take-that" backstabbing by fellow players.
Like Paranoia, players will decide if their goal is to see how long they can keep one Ork alive or how many Orks they can burn through in one session.
Quote from: Age of Fable;255421Maybe you could make the campaign Ancient-Greek flavoured (or some other situation where the gods are constantly directly involved in what everyone does).
XP could come from sacrifices, which could justify how treasure / killing things makes you more powerful.
EDIT: different gods could demand different types of offerings.
I'm actually recruiting Mandarin-speakers who aren't familiar with d20 at all, but who are familiar with ancient Chinese folk religions as re-told through modern pop culture. The "ghost and god" movies are pretty big in some parts of Asia. The "patron deity" notion is a little looser than default D&D, but it's not unlike polytheistic, Homeric Greece, AFAICT.