God Die
A downloadable game
WHAT IS THIS GAME?
GOD DIE is a game for 1-?? Players wherein you collectively take on the role of a God to create a world, fuel its mythology, and ultimately get driven from it as belief in You dwindles. Were You replaced by another God? Did science expose You for a fraud? ...did You accidentally destroy Your followers? At the end of the game, You should look back on Your legacy as a deity and have the story of a world and its religion from creation to death. So it is written!
You will need a single d20 to play, with some paper and Pencils to make a MAP and keep track of the world You create.
If nothing about that description gave you a good idea of what to expect out of this game, then take a gander at the following examples (if you've played the game and want to add your Map, short fiction, etc. to the gallery, let me know in the comments below, give me a link, and I'll add it in here!):
- This is my map from my first (successful) game of God Die. It's not complicated, and I ended up keeping track of my population elsewhere. You can see I left some white-space around landmarks to make it easy to add things around them or between them. I had Procreate open on an iPad while I was rolling, and it worked great.
- This is a whole write-up along with a RAD short story from Merrilee Bufkin that blew me away, and continues to blow me away. They really hit the nail on the head when they described the Map and Story as "The Artifact." If you want to understand what this game is going for, this post is a great encapsulation!
FAQ
This is a 1-Page game, obviously, so there's a lot of things I didn't get the chance to truly clarify with this game. Until I decide to make a 2.0 of the game that's more pages, this is going to have to do as a living clarification document!
Q: What should I do first?
A: This game runs on HEROES, which interact with most of the other potential miracles. That's the secret sauce that fuels the engine. When in doubt about what to do, create a HERO. Usually it's a good idea for a first ability.
Q: Do I roll the GOD DIE before or after I choose a POTENTIAL MIRACLE?
A: Before!
Q: For multiple players, are we all playing the same God, or individual Gods with our own individual POPULATION, HEROES, etc.?
A: Listen, how you play this game is ultimately up to you. I, personally, think that would make the game last forever, but maybe that's what you're after! I stuck with the idea while play testing that everyone was playing one singular God, and all systems are shared and collaborative. And that's the key, really. This is a collaborative game, and however you can work together to achieve the best story is all that matters. I also love the idea of multiple Gods in a pantheon, all arguing over the mortals as a singular collective entity.
Q: If I roll a 1, but I have a +1 bonus to the roll, is it still an ICONOCLASTIC FAILURE?
A: Up to you, but I think it's more interesting if the answer is Yes. It would be almost impossible to enter the end-state for the game unless it works this way. You're ultimately in charge of the rules during your play through, you make that call.
Q: Do I need to worry about the FLOOR before I roll my first 1?
A: Nope! The Floor only comes into play after you've rolled your first ICONOCLASTIC FAILURE.
Q: What does "Sacrifice" mean? How do I apply it in a game?
A: Sacrifice isn't like, your followers killing a goat to escape their sins or anything, it's more of a metaphorical expression of strife. Say you have a Hero and their Destiny is to find the Holy Grail. A Failure + Sacrifice could be that Hero dying on their quest. Or a Success + Sacrifice could be Odysseus coming home from his journey, broken and changed, never to Quest again. If you've played a Forged in the Dark game, this would be like a Success with a Complication. Sacrifice is like a Negative Twist to the story.
Q: I don't understand this "add a new rule to the game" thing! Are you saying I can just make some rule up for the game and then pick it as a POTENTIAL MIRACLE? Isn't that a little too powerful?
A: Yes! That's exactly it. Listen, I know that's a lot of power, and there's a ton of things you could do with that. So maybe the following list could help you out! Some potential miracles that didn't make the cut for the game, but might give you an idea for things you can make for your game. It's really easy to break the game, but I believe in you! Remember, you're making a story, and you're eventually going to need the game to end, so anything too powerful is probably going to diminish the fun of the game. On the other hand, something too trivial might feel completely useless to the game. I think if it interacts with at least one system in the game (MAP, POPULATION, FLOOR, DESTINY, TESTAMENTS) that's a good starting point.
ADDITIONAL MIRACLE IDEAS
- A Natural Disaster ravages the World! (Your FLOOR must be ≥15. -5 FLOOR, -3 POPULATION. Why do Your followers think You did this? How does this renew their devotion? How does this affect the MAP?)
- Perform a Ritual! (Your followers perform a ritual, asking you for something. Remove a HERO's DESTINY and immediately retire them with no bonus to POPULATION. What do your followers get in return?)
- Reveal a Moment of Divine Beauty! (Reveal a breathtaking natural phenomenon, such as a radiant sunrise, a blossoming field of flowers, or a rare celestial event. All conflicts cease for a moment of harmony. -2 FLOOR.)
- Sacrifice a Follower! (-1 POPULATION, -2 FLOOR. It's as simple as that. Your followers know what must be done...)
- Store Your Power! (+2 FLOOR. Your next POPULATION bonus is doubled -or- Your next DESTINY adds +3 to your roll instead of +1. What Sacrifice happens in your absence?)
- The Gift of Agriculture! (+1 POPULATION every 3 Rolls of the GOD DIE, so long as a special TESTAMENT/HOLY LANDMARK [Irrigated Farms] is maintained properly.)
- Interact with Another God! (Negotiating with other Gods could lead to peace treaties, new HOLY LANDMARKS, TESTAMENTS, or the exchange of DIVINE WISDOM. Gods could even exchange resources, divine artifacts, or followers.)
- Divine Intervention! (If You are in a pinch, another God may come to Your aid. This could be a life-saving blessing or a powerful boon that helps overcome obstacles... but at what cost?)
- Divine Alliance: (Forming an alliance with another God can bring shared benefits. You could amplify miracles, or gain more followers, or gain a bonus to your next roll. Perhaps another God could trigger a Testament.)
- Godly Conflict: (Conflict with another God can have any number of Sacrifices, and definitely a loss of followers. However, You and Your followers may find a stronger resolve and growth after overcoming the conflict.)
- Celestial Fork: (This Fork can be used to re-roll any single roll. This artifact can be recharged after use. USES: 1/1)
- Make a Prophecy!
- Birth a Demigod!
- Take a Leave of Absence!
- Send a Messenger!
- Bestow a Magical Object!
- Give Them a Sign!
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I want to mention a few folks who helped me with this game as play-testers!
Merrilee: The first person to play this game in its larval state! They absolutely just dove head-first into this thing and came up with that INCREDIBLE short story I linked above for their first game (which, if you glossed past that, you can check out HERE! Seriously, I'm still blown away by this.)
Links to all of their stuff: https://merrilee.crd.co/
Randall Manetta & Rebecca Blick & Ronan: My playtesters who convinced me this works as a multiplayer game as well as a solo game! I don't have anything to link to for them... yet! But I will update this when I do.
The Dice Exploder Podcast & Discord: My friend Sam runs this podcast, and has a Discord where folks like me and Merrilee hang out and talk about game design and mechanics and art in general. A bunch of people had a lot of great feedback on my initial pitch for the game, and it wouldn't be what it is without all of their suggestions! If you like TTRPGs, you gotta give this one a listen! https://diceexploder.substack.com/
Download
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Comments
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I'm definitely missing something. I read through the rules, and there doesn't appear to be anything prompting when you roll a die, except for certain miracles... which only happen after you roll a die. Furthermore, the map appears to serve absolutely no function whatsoever except as a potential reminder of some of the things you've done already. No interactable objects are placed on the map and there is no map movement. I don't see the point of it.
Oh yeah for sure lemme clarify! You're going to roll a die before every miracle you perform. 1 "Round" of the game is the loop of "Roll the die, choose a miracle, perform the dice effects or text on the miracle to advance fiction, then move onto the next roll." Every miracle you perform should have a die roll associated with it.
In terms of The Map, there's a far more popular and better designed game called "The Quiet Year" that was the inspiration for this game. Effectively, you use a deck of playing cards instead of a die and prompts for each card to interact with the map. Honestly, you might try playing that before this to get an idea of what the Map is supposed to be doing? They have this quote on their webpage: "part roleplaying game, part cartographic poetry." Cartographic Poetry is such a difficult concept to get across, but how I personally use it is to come up with a backstory for a world I want to play fiction in? Basically using a game to create a world for another potential game (or just the meditative activity of worldbuilding with rules for randomness).
Anyways, all that is to say that you're super justified in your confusion! Hopefully that sort of helps?
So is this a turn -based game, where each turn consists of choosing a miracle to attempt, then rolling a die to discover the results?
Still not entirely sure on the map, but maybe I'll try to read the rules for The Quiet Year and see if that helps.
[EDIT]: I read the rules for The Quiet Year. TQY seems to be a narrative TTRPG that uses the map as a visual aid to remember what decisions have been made and what actions have occurred. I feel like even in TQY, this could easily be a textual list, and even more so in God Die as the game actions have no impact on the map.
Furthermore, actions in TQY are semi-random; in God Die, they are deliberately chosen -- the only randomness is the die result. Because the population starts at 1 and you can always choose for the population to never reach 0, the only actual loss condition is 20 Floor. This makes the entire game "roll a die until your Floor hits 20." Why would you not choose every miracle to be "decrease your Floor to 5"? The only reason I can conceive of is not wanting to be bored, because the game is, in fact, incredibly boring. The main issue with this game is that there aren't any rules besides a loss condition.
I would suggest swapping that order around: roll the die, then choose a miracle. It's subtle, but the die result should inform what you do, as opposed to the other way around.
You're correct, rules as written, the Population reaching 0 should always be a voluntary event here. But I do have a suggestion: when you roll anything that says "Sacrifice" (so like a 2-12) that's a bad thing happening, right? So that's where you can create the fall in population, or various other negative outcomes. Sacrifice means something bad has to happen, and there's only a certain amount of systems to interact with in the game (Population, Heroes, Floor, Landmarks, and Testaments). I usually defaulted to decreasing population on a Sacrifice because it's an easy consequence, and the kinda only way to actually fail with population. The reason that's not in the rules is because you could just fail turn one and lose. I wanted you to be able to build a bit of a buffer before the failures really start to pile on late.
As for the boring part, sure lol! Design philosophy wise, I always like the definition of a game from Bernard Suits: "a game is the voluntary attempt to overcome unnecessary obstacles." So like, everything in this game is entirely unnecessary to interact with outside of the Floor eventually reaching 20 from rolling failures :) That's really the only part of this that's a game, otherwise I'd say it's a 90/10 split on story-making to game, and that's not for everyone! I appreciate the feedback!
If the die result is supposed to inform what I do, and there are only a limited number of interactable systems, then I do not understand the game rules. Perhaps they need to be rewritten more clearly, because as is, the only rules I see are the fail conditions.
Thanks for the feedback! Great question!
I had that same kind of thought when I added the part about "killing a hero" in there. In my game that inspired it, I had killed a Hero to end a War, which played out as kind of a trolley problem in the fiction. Ultimately killing one person ended a strife between factions that was plaguing my population and drove it up.
Here's what I think I'd say on that: If you're playing through, and you don't think it feels right, go ahead and change it! It might change how the potential miracles balance the game, and you might need to add another potential miracle to re-balance, but that's also why that rule exists.