Playing the Game

First off, playing Enemy Gods is just like playing any other role-playing game. You’ve got a character sheet, you’ve got dice and a Game Master. All you do is play as usual. Go delve into dungeons, go wander through shadowy cities, or maneuver your way through the intrigue of a king’s court. It’s all the same, just a switch of perspective. This time, you’ve got a God’s-eye view.

Okay, we’ve got that covered. Now, take a bunch of dice. Twenty to be exact. These are your Divinity Dice, representing your God’s influence in the world. Your Hero helps increase that influence by performing heroic actions in front of a whole lot of people, going on quests and generally spreading the Good News of your Good Name. Sound easy? It is, really.

Taking Risks

Most times a Hero can get by without ever rolling a die. He doesn’t need to roll dice for most actions, just the ones that are really risky. This philosophy was best summed up by Jared Sorensen who told me, “The only time a thief should have to bother picking a lock is if there’s a big monster chasing him.” Jared’s point is absolutely valid. Eventually, the thief will pick the lock; otherwise, the adventure sits still with the thief on one side of the door and the adventure on the other. Rolling dice should only occur if:

1)      The success of the Hero’s action is in question, and/or

2)      Rolling dice adds tension and drama to the situation.

So, instead of using the standard “Task Resolution System” cliché, I’ve chosen to call it “Taking Risks.”

Whenever any character takes a risk, roll 2 six-sided dice. If either of them rolls even (as opposed to odd), your Hero succeeds. You can get bonus dice from Devotions, from a beneficent God, good circumstances, good roleplaying, whatever, but the important thing to remember is you always roll 2 dice for any action.

Devotions

Devotions give you more dice to roll when taking Risks. Whenever your Hero takes a Risk, he chooses a God to call upon for divine favor. If the Risk is within the God’s domain, he may offer you a number of dice equal to your full Devotion. For example, if you get in a sword fight and have a 4 Devotion to the God of War, he may give you up to 4 dice to use in your fight. He may choose to give you less dice depending on how you’ve been treaing him lately.

If you choose to call upon a God whose influence does not cover your current Risk, they may only lend you dice equal to half your Devotion.

Advantage Dice

The GM may also give you a number of Advantage Dice based on the circumstances of the risk. If your Hero has some advantage in the scene, your GM will give you an Advantage Die for each circumstance.

Disadvantage Dice

Your Hero may also lose dice based on the circumstances. Losing a die means its harder to take Risks.

Hubris

You may choose for your Hero to rely on his own skills rather than call upon the favor of the Gods. If you do so, you roll your Hubris and your Hubris alone. If you succeed in your roll, you gain 1 Hubris Point. Once you gain 6 Hubris Points, your Hubris Rank increases from 1 to 2. Whenver you increase a Rank, erase all current Hubris Points. Increasing your Hubris Rank always costs a number of Hubris Points equal to 2 times your current Rank. So, raising from Hubris 2 to Hubris 3 requires 12 Hubris Points while increasing from 3 to 4 costs 18 Hubris Points.

Having a high Hubris can be dangerous. How hard a God may Smite you is based on your Hubris. More on that later.

Two Kinds or Risks

Now, when it comes down to it, a roleplaying game system really only needs to answer to questions:

1)                  How do I pick a lock?, and

2)                  How do I punch that guy out cold?

In other words, your character will either be competing with himself or with someone else. Here’s how you do both.

“How Do I Pick a Lock?”

Whenever your character wants to do something that relies on his skill alone (jumping across a ravine, climbing a wall or picking a lock), pick a Virtue from your character sheet that’s most appropriate to that action. Each action has a degree of Difficulty. You roll your dice (include any Bonuses) and count the number of evens you roll and compare it to the Difficulty assigned by the GM.

·        Easy Actions have a Difficulty of 1.

·        Normal Actions have a Difficulty of 2.

·        Difficult Actions have a Difficulty of 3.

·        Hard Actions have a Difficulty of 4.

·        Mythic Actions have a Difficulty of 8.

Your GM picks the Difficulty of Actions depending on how hard he feels the action is and how much he wants your character to succeed or fail. A Hard Action is something that requires an incredible amount of effort; a Herculean task that the character only makes once or twice in his lifetime (or game session, depending on how “heroic” you want your campaign to be). We recommend most actions be set to a 3 Difficulty or even a 2 Difficulty. That way, most characters (who are heroes, after all) can succeed most of the time on most of the tasks they want to accomplish.

It goes without saying that all mundane tasks such as tying shoes, picking up a piece of paper and writing your name (assuming the characters are literate, that is) are all examples of actions that require no dice roll. You should only be rolling dice if the success of the Hero’s action is either a) important, or b) in doubt. In other words, if the success of a simple action means the life and death of thousands, by all means, force a roll. But if it means stalling the game for an hour while we determine if Bill the Barbarian can count to three, ignore it and move on. There are many more important (and dramatic) actions in store for our Heroes and we’ve only got until midnight before the GM’s girlfriend starts calling on his cell phone.

Re-Tries

It’s that old “try, try again” thing is it? All right, here’s how characters “try again” for actions they fail the first time.

If you screw up on your first attempt, you can try again, but you only get to roll dice that rolled odds on your first try. Dump the even dice and re-roll the odds. If this roll gives you what you need to succeed, congratulations, just assume your second try took just as long as you’re first try.

Third and fourth tries? Sure. But again, they take just as long as that first and second try did, and that means you’re wasting everybody’s time, now doesn’t it?

“How Do I Punch That Guy Out Cold?”

Actions that directly test your skills against another is a slightly more complicated matter.

First, both the contestants roll dice (add any Bonus Dice) and keep the evens. Whoever rolled the most evens is the winner of this round.

Second, roll again, using only the dice that rolled even in the first round. Again, whoever rolled the most evens is the winner of the second round.

Third, roll only the dice that rolled evens again, and whoever rolled the most evens is the winner of the third round.

You keep this up until one person doesn’t have any dice left. That person loses the fight and the winner describes what happens to the loser. He gets knocked out, incapacitated, gets his hand cut off or he gets killed. Again, it’s up to the winner. However, if he’s a Hero, you cannot kill him unless his God doesn’t have any Divinity Dice. We’ll talk more about Hero Death a little later.

Weapons

Weapons provide advantages during combat, so weapons are reflected in the system as Advantage Dice.

Melee Weapons

When it really comes down to it, a knife can kill you just as quick as a sword can. This whole notion of a knife doing d4 hit points while a sword does d8 or d10 is really very silly. In the hands of a professional (and let’s assume our characters are professionals; they do get paid for what they do), a knife and a two-handed bastard sword are really the same thing. They’re just means to the same end: piercing your opponent’s heart or cutting his throat.

The fact of the matter is this: a weapon provides an advantage. If you have a weapon and your opponent does not, it gives you an advantage. Thus, swords, knives, pole arms and back-of-the-hand claws all provide your character an advantage over an opponent who is unarmed. You have a weapon, you get bonus dice over an opponent who doesn’t. One, two or three, depending on the circumstances. If both you and your opponent have equal weaponry, your skills should carry out the fate of the battle rather than the weapon. However, some weapons are more advantageous than others. If you’ve got a knife and your opponent has a pole arm, one of you has a definite advantage (and it ain’t you). On the other hand, if you can get by your opponent’s pole arm and get into some tight fighting, the advantage of a pole arm disappears.

I guess what I’m saying is this: in a fight between professionals, the advantages weapons give are entirely circumstantial, depending on the fight, the fighting ground and the fighters. A good GM will take that into account when the fun starts and apply the bonuses as necessary.

Ranged Weapons

On the other hand, there’s no doubt a skilled archer shooting at a target from three hundred yards has a definite advantage. Make one roll for the shooter and the target and give the shooter 3 bonus dice. If the shooter gets more successes, the target gets shot and the shooter decides what happens to the target. Ain’t ranged weapons cool?

Wounds

When you roll dice against an opponent in a physical contest, count up your evens and whoever rolled the most gets to give his opponent a Wound. A Wound is a description of a cut, bruise, bump or otherwise slightly incapacitating injury.

Wounds not only give your character scars, they also affect his actions. Like a Virtue, a Wound has a kind of Bonus, but in this case, it’s more like a Penalty. Whenever your character makes an action, check your Wounds. If a Wound is applicable to that action, your Hero loses one die from his action. For example, if I get a cut above my eye in a duel with the Evil Duke’s crony, then turn around and have to face the Evil Duke in a duel immediately thereafter, the effects of the cut over my eye apply.

In case you’re wondering, the effects of multiple Wounds can apply to one action. Thus, if I’m trying to fire a bow and I have a cut on my hand and over my eye, plus some bruised ribs, I could suffer up to a –3 penalty for that roll, depending on the GM.

Healing

How do I get rid of my Wounds? Well, a good night’s rest will take care of little Wounds like cuts and abrasions, but more serious Wounds stick around a lot longer. Like everything else in this section, there’s “reality” and “how it is in the books.” I personally like characters having to deal with Wounds; I think it adds drama to the situation. However, a more heroic campaign should emphasize the hero’s ability to overcome his Wounds. Here’s how I handle it.

·        Small Wounds, cuts and abrasions, go away at the beginning of the next day.

·        Large Wounds, more serious but not permanent injuries, go away after three days.

·        Serious Wounds, broken bones and such, go away when the character gets long-term rest (two months or so).