Gods Among Us is a character and faction based, story driven, role play. It focuses on Superhero, Action, Fantasy, and Science-fiction genres with an occasional dose of Political Intrigue and Lovecraftian Horror.
Gods Among Us uses a combination of Sandbox and Rail-road play to provide players to interesting stories to participate in as well as means for them to create their own stories and add to the setting. Many of the threads have an overarching plot which all the events and actions in it will likely feed into. Players are free to explore the world and interact with other characters. When players feel lost or unsure what do we encourage them to join the rail-roaded stories where they can work towards the main plot.
Players are encouraged to work with characters to create multi-faceted stories, create complex and realistic characters, and try to lead others on their own adventures.-----FAQ-----What makes God Among Us different from other Superhero stories?
Gods Among Us in an incredibly long-live RP. It has gone through many renditions each improving into an effective and efficient medium for storytelling. Our OP’s and Co-OP’s are skilled GM’s and organizers who have a history of storytelling and managing P2TM threads. Another is that God Among Us has an OP and Co-OP system that allows Co-Ops to pick up control if the OP leaves permanently or temporarily. Thread abandonment and vacations are not an issue with this thread. We also boast one of the most focused stories RP’s on Nationstates, our OP’s and Co-OP work tirelessly to craft a world where detailed and impressive stories about people with powers can be told.
What is your player base like?
God Among Us has an amazing cast of players, all talented and growing writers who are eager to catch you up on the plot, happily involve you in their stories or simply be friendly. We encourage inter-player interactions so you and your characters will always have others they can rely on both IC and OOC.
Besides Superhero what other Genres are in play?
God Among Us incorporates numerous other tropes and genres to create a varied setting where all kinds of stories can thrive and coexist. Adventures about hero’s hunting down villains can exist side by side with political thrillers about states fighting over living WMD’s. Horror can rear its head when power falls into the wrong hands and comedy can ensue while heroes struggle through their daily lives.
Does God Among Us have a story?
Yes and No. While there are large events and backstory there is not a specific story being enacted rather there are many stories which work together to build a greater setting. These stories can include a handful of character or all of them and can be as varied and unique as imaginable. So you could say that God Among Us is a story about stories, a million different unique adventures that make up one heroic whole.
Does God Among Us use railroaded stories or sandboxed stories?
Gods Among Us uses both. Some threads which have a single railroaded story which breaks that allow for open sandbox play before players are put back on the tracks to continue the main story. Other threads are open sandboxes with railed roaded stories spread throughout them that players can jump on when they want to. We use this combination so that players who want a guided plot to interact with can use the railroads, while people who want to explore can use the sandbox.-----The School Thread----------The Knights & Freaks Thread----------The Setting-----The Psuedo-Gene
The Psuedo-Gene has always been with humanity, a holdover from the primordial ooze all things came from, it allows the body to suddenly alter itself in times of great stress. It doesn’t respond to every stress or even in every person but occasionally when the conditions are right the gene will react to the dangers and totally alter a human body granting it new abilities and traits in a burst of sudden spontaneous evolution. These stressful events don’t need to be physical and can be caused by social factors. A rash of bullying can inspire the Psuedo-gene just as much as a car crash.
Frequently these powers take the form of physical changes, such as gills to prevented drowning, malleable skin to hide from foes, and caustic skin to harm foes. When the powers do change a person, it is because of an entire full physiological change, as every cell in their body is altered so their new powers can work without damaging themselves. Often the gene produces a physical mutation along with the power a visceral physical change that makes the afflicted something more (or perhaps less), human.
The Gene is the most common way people in the world can gain powers, it is something already inside each of us dormant waiting to be let out. Almost 1 in 8,000 people have had there Psuedo-gene activated and this has filled the world with powerful people. In the past, the powers would have been minor, barely even noticeable to less advanced cultures but something has changed and the powers are now undeniable and blatant. The random nature of this gene and the random nature of the abilities it grants means that power in the world has shifted widely. Random people, in random countries, are gaining powers to rival entire armies and many countries struggle to control these living WMD while also weaponize them.
The Ravenning
The mind is a fragile thing. A clockwork contraption of glass. A dangerous thought, an errant seizure, a crossed neuron and the unthinkable can happen. Nothing exemplifies this more than The Ravenning, a strange psychic phenomenon that descends on mankind periodically to alter and pervert the minds of humans. A string of dreams and nightmares that drive most people to madness and suicide in most cases, which tend to target the socially isolated, mentally feverish and artistically sensitive. But for those who can survive it, the spell of nightmares concern undersea cities and nightmarish chanting, offers power.
Those who come out with their minds more whole than most are graced with enhanced mental faculties enlightened by the psychic bulwark that imprinted itself on them. Some can control people’s bodies, others can control their minds in passive or active ways, some can create and manipulate minions through sheer mental will. Some have minds that become hyper-efficient at processing information tailored to interpreting or processing the world around them. Others gain knowledge of technology centuries beyond anything regular humans can achieve in a field of engineering.
The Ravenning has been thought to exist from 1925 or perhaps the dawn of time but it has changed the world. Minds reel and die, others mutate and thrive as builders, controllers and analyzers crop up to manipulate others becoming dreams and nightmares just as real as the ones they experienced. Luckily the Ravenning limits itself to about 1000 people a year only of which a tenth tend to develop powers but occasionally for small periods of time it can wax in power afflicting millions.
The Outside
The cosmos is a terrible roiling thing of empty vistas, hungry black holes and ravenous stars. It’s power should never be underestimated but it frequently collides with our island of ignorance to great effect. Burst of radiation used by interstellar communicators, parasite laden asteroids, discard shell casings from weapons launched across lightyears, all these and more can imbued humans with the power to tap into light, gravity, nuclear forces and electromagnetism. There also exist a variety of powers right under our nose, invisible beings lurking beyond our senses, alternate universes and extra dimensions laden with matte, energy and life. Intelligent, hungry life.
The outside tends to manifest in unassuming but radically unnatural ways. Humans infected with alien energy, entities and intelligences can expect themselves to be blessed with abilities related to projecting ranged offensive abilities, shifting their body into alternate states of matter and energy, or confusing enemies with unnatural ways of obfuscating senses. Humans tend to be unable to ever fully control these powers and likely their bodies and the abilities modify themselves to be used in one or two very particular ways so the host is ripped apart by their own power.
Many human organizations try to contain and limit these powerful manifestations of the outside. When objects from manifest on our small three dimensional planetoid agencies try to harness it and manipulate it. Entire wars have been fought between secret societies and international organizations for the right to mine fallen stars ripe with radiation. Often those who do learn that the universe is filled in intelligence and sentience in forms we could never guess. Sounds, colors, wavelengths and even stranger objects can be alive and have goals and motives. When humans try to control and absorb these powers they quickly realize the motives of these things and are forced to cooperate.
The Spells
The universe is vaster than we know, but creatures from the Outside have found a way to handle it, mold it and control it in unified ways. These formulas, codes, and rituals were handed down, methods for shaping the stars, merging minds and ripping apart universe slowly devolved and were simplified into more manageable abilities by the primitive creatures that got their hands on them. An ape trying to use a nuclear bomb. Tentatively called wizards, witches and sorcerer may know a single spell, but one spell alone is enough to make a person a god among mortals and a wizard would be idiotic to share even a single ounce of his knowledge with another.
Spells are not magic missiles that throw balls of fire or other handwaving superpowers. Best to look elsewhere for those kinds of powers. Magic is an artform, a complex system of using the discipline of visualizing and manipulating trans-dimensional energy fields. Acoustic signals (words of power) and geometric matrices (sigils and gestures) act as control systems, which have transcended mere material technology. The energies bleed between universes through pinpoint wormholes, often dependent on specific patterns of stellar and cosmic radiation.
The magical community and the races that have become so steeped in magic they are not unnatural have shunned the mundane world. Our world is an ashtray to them and they flee to the Dreamlands Abyss and hills to escape our pitchforks as much as to escape our ugliness. But things have changed, the magical community can feel the barriers they’ve established are fraying, they have kept their secrets well but soon maybe in ten years maybe a hundred the walls will come crashing down. Will there be wars? Who will strike first? With what weapons and for what goal? Will there be retreat? From where? To what haven? These are the questions that ever insane hermit wizard and anarcho-punk occultist must ask themselves.
* Also see the Dreamlands, Gods of Earth and A Word on the Soul-----The Rules-----
- OP's and Co-OPs
- OP's word is Law. The Co-Op's word is heavily favored.
- Our OP is Primordial Luxa, Our Co-OP's are Dyelli Beybi, and The Republic of Atria
- For the sake of fairness, only OP’s and Co-OP’s will RP the Governments of the world/news media/general population/large setting important organizations etc.
- If you do something as stupid as this, OP’s and Co-OP’s reserve the right to tell you your character is dead.
- PG-13/Sex/Violence
We may have minors ergo our IC and OOC are PG-13. Keep it that way. GAU is not the place to act out your violent or sexual fantasies. Violence and sex are allowed, of course, but we employ a "fade to black" or peripheral violence rule rather than expose minors to graphic content or obscene material. You can obtain further guidance here. Explicit rape is taboo. NPCs are not there to be spindled, mutilated and torn apart unless of course, it's combat.
- Role Play Etiquette
- Godmodding and metagaming are not allowed. Do not kill other players character without their permission and remember that it is up to a characters owner to determine to what degree and attack affect them. However, the reverse is true and if you don't list appropriate damage to a character when they should suffer some sort of injury that is also Godmodding.
- We don't use multi-colored or oddly formatted fonts for dialog. We also don't use asterisks to denote action. You must use proper punctuation and grammar; we aren't here to teach basic English.
- If you have a problem with a player, take it to TG. If that does not work, bring it to the OP or a CoOP's attention. Do not turn the OOC thread into chaos.
- Bogging down other players through lack of posts or low-quality posts without offering satisfactory OOC explanation (esp. if posting of high quality in other RPs) will earn a warning; further problems will lead to player removal from the roster.
- If your character(s) are a vital part of the current event(s) and you don't post IC within a sufficient timeframe, OP’s and Co-OP’s will take over the running of your characters until you return. If it looks like you aren't planning to (and I will make every effort to contact you), OP’s and Co-OP’s may kill them off in a manner they find amusing.
- Character Creation
- Generally, just don't make your character too overpowered. To keep this RP fun for everyone, please try to pitch your characters at the Green Lantern/Wolverine/Cyborg/Spider Man level of power. Do not pitch them at the Superman/Dr. Manhattan level of power.
- The OP and Co-Ops reserve the right to ask for a reapplication or unapprove a character if your interpretation of what their power level was differs from what you pitched and what it was understood to mean.
- DO NOT simple post links to Superpower Wiki pages, these are not detailed and usually always overpower and over complicated. DESCRIBE your characters power and give examples of how strong, weak or variable a power is.
- The Non-Organic Rule: Powers are assumed to not directly alter organic matter and living things unless explicitly stated. For example, a person with Telekinesis (The ability to move things with there mind) cannot rip a heart out of a person's chest unless stated. A Pyromancer cannot turn another living creature into fire or make a fire inside of them. An Electromancer cannot absorb electricity from a person unless stated and a reality warper can only warp inorganic matter unless stated so.
- The Rule of Science: Smart characters such as scientists and inventors cannot be “The smartest” or “best” at any one thing. They can be really good, great even, but they are not the best out of 6 billions humans. When making a Smart character please choose an area of expertise or a gimmick. For example maybe they focus on Electrical Device, maybe their a bomb making expert, maybe they are great at combing technology in odd ways, maybe their good at reducing the size of tech to absurd degrees.
- The Realiy of Magic Rule: Do not post a character who knows "Magic" or some other kind of blanket magic. Spellcaster knows individual spells. These spells are very powerful but very narrow in scope. That is the boon of magic, it always works, it is a universal rule that is always applicable. But they are narrowly focused and hard to learn. A Magician with a few powerful spells is a threat beyond any. Some will know numerous lesser spells while most of the powerful magicians will know a handful of incredibly potent spells.
- The following things are NOT considered weaknesses; personality traits, not having another power, something that true about anyone in a similar situation. Being stubborn is not a weakness, having super strength but not super endurance is not a weakness, armor being heavy is not a weakness.
- Weaknesses are things that; limit when a power or tool can be used, are uniquely dangerous to a character that isn't usually as dangerous to a normal human, or situations when powers don't work at all. The inability of a green lantern to effect wood is a weakness, and Superman being weakened by kryptonite is a weakness.
- This is an RP for original characters, it is absolutely fine to draw inspiration from something else, but if you are drawing so much inspiration that you might as well be playing the character that inspire you then what’s the point.
- Keep the RP religion-sensitive. If you want to RP the existence of any god or member of a religion, be respectful.
- Brownie points for incorporating existing elements of our story into your character or Lovecraftian elements. Look at the existing characters and have your character be related to them in some way. Ask to be part of an existing organization.
- Scale and Story
- One of the biggest problems faced by modern superhero stories is the issue of escalation. The earth can only be in jeopardy so many times before it becomes boring. After you save the earth fifteen times from Thanosied before it becomes boring to see people stop a bank robbery. Because of this, we will strive to make earth-shattering events few and far between so they keep their impact. Villains should rob banks, take hostages and do other traditional villain things. So if you want to have a villain kill more than 12 people in a single instant you will need permission.
- The vast majority of people in this setting get their powers from being a Meta-human. A person with a Meta-gene that has been stimulated by stress, science, or magic and has altered that person's physiology. There is only 1 meta-human per 10,000 people. For every superhero, there are 2 people with an untapped Meta-gene that could modify them into a weak meta-human. Your powers can be from anything imaginable but the classification for humans that have powers is metahuman.
- A major part of RPing gives and take. When you write a post you are not just writing for yourself, you are incorporating other people's characters, themes, and ideas. If you write as though only your characters matter and other people characters aren't important then you aren't really RPing.
-----Sign Up-----
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[spoiler=Character Name Here][box][align=center][size=200]Gods Among Us
Character Application[/size][/align]
[hr][/hr]
[size=150][b]Character Description[/b][/size]
[list][b]Given Name:[/b]
[b]Alternate Identities:[/b]
[b]Legal Status:[/b] (State Sanction Hero, Vigilante Hero, Criminal, Organized Criminal)
[b]Gender:[/b]
[b]Age:[/b]
[b]Species:[/b]
[b]Apperance:[/b] (URL or description please)
[b]Characters Biggest Strength:[/b] (Not just a power please)
[b]Characters Biggest Weakness:[/b] (not just related to a power lease) [/list]
[size=150][b]Motivations and Desires[/b][/size]
[list][b]Primary Goal:[/b] (What does this character want most in life. Make it specific)
[b]Secondary Goal:[/b] (What are the smaller steps on the way to this characters primary goal? What must be accomplished first in order to see it realized.)
[b]Fears:[/b] What are the visceral, psychological, regrets and existential fears of your character. What makes them flee in terror or freeze in panic. Not what makes them angry and encourages, what makes them RUN![/list]
[size=150][b]Powers[/b][/size]
[list]
[b]Primary Source of Powers[/b]: The Pseudo-Gene (Or C-Cells), The Ravenning, The Spells, or the Outside,
[*][b]Power 1[/b]:
Effects: What does the power do and how does it do it? Please make reference to Range, Speed and/or Mass
Weaknesses: What counters the power? Stops it dead in it’s tracks or causes it to fail? What limits the usage of the power? When can it not be used?
[*][b]Power 2[/b]:
Effects: What does the power do and how does it do it? Please make reference to Range, Speed and/or Mass
Weaknesses: What counters the power? Stops it dead in it’s tracks or causes it to fail? What limits the usage of the power? When can it not be used?
[b]Equipment[/b]: (What tools or equipment does this character possess that is noteworthy? If it provides them with a noticable supernatural or obvious power that power must also be listed under power.)[/list]
[size=150][b]Background[/b][/size]
[list][b]Occupation: [/b] (How do they get money for houses, food and guns?)
[b]Training and Education: [/b] (Where did they go to school and learn what they know now.)
[b]Things any characters might know about them: [/b] (Things a quick google search would reveal)
[b]Group Affiliations:[/b] (Who are they loyal to? What clubs do they owe allegiance? Who do they consider master?)
[b]History and Bibliography: [/b] (How did it all come to this?)[/list]
[size=200][b]Summary:[/b] (1-5 WORDS that sum up the whole character. No sentences) [/size][/box][/spoiler]