Character Creation: Playing God

Often something warned against, but I dunno, seems like it might be fun. 

The Game: Playing God
The Publisher: Gnome Made Games
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

This game shares some DNA with Gods & Monsters, inasmuch as it focuses on the "build up a pantheon" bit of this kind of game. It's got some cool ideas and the subject matter, of course, is very interesting to me. The implementation...eh. This game feels like it wants to be a board game with some creative elements, in the vein of Before There Were Stars, perhaps. It also feels like it wants to have its cake and eat it, too; you can play solo, with or without a GM, cooperative or competitive...I dunno. If you want to be that flexible, maybe you need more than 60 pages. If you want to be a short game, maybe you should pick an experience you want players to have and work towards that. 

As long as I'm griping, the character sheet is bananas inky-heavy, to the point that I really don't want to print it. The DriveThru page for the game says something about a printer-friendly one, but I sure don't see it and the author's web page doesn't have downloads. Maybe I can print it in grayscale, but I think all that'll do is eat all my printer's black ink. 

Well, anywho, let's make a god. We start off with an Origin: Apotheosis (I was mortal and became a god), Born of Gods (I was...born of gods), or Primordial (I have always been a god, and perhaps have always been). 

Let's assume we're playing this game from scratch in the vein of the example of play (which I do appreciate), and I'm making a Primordial god. That being the case, I should probably choose some concept that's very basic and elemental as my domain. How about Darkness? I like the idea of being a kind of boogeyman-ish god, but maybe having a peaceful, serene side - the riddle here is that the fear of the dark is the fear you bring with you. (I mean, also there are tigers.)

Being a God of Darkness gives me the Shrouded Wonder, and being Primordial gives me 20 History minus the number of other deities in the game (so 20, unless I ever wind up playing this). Let's name my god Suratesh.

The book presents some Roleplaying Question for both my Origin and Domain, so let's have a look at those. For Origin, I'm asked to consider what I was before the first reality was created, whether I think the multiverse will ever end (and how), and what I think of younger gods. 

Well, I think Suratesh was, as far as he knows, alone in the dark before the world was created. It's not that darkness can't exist without light, it's just that it's all that exists without light - light doesn't create darkness, it gives it meaning and context. So once other gods started showing up, Suratesh watched them and sometimes granted his presence through whispers from the dark. He doesn't mind other gods, but he's pretty sure that eventually, the last light will go out. He's not in a hurry for that to happen, but when it does, it does. 

My Domain's questions ask a little about whether I'm about night or darkness (slight difference there). I think Suratesh is kind of about both - he's the god of darkness, and that means he bleeds over into the day/night/dawn deities a little (if I were playing this, I might try and say that the god of dawn is his child). He's not interested in being feared particularly. In fact, he appreciates people who can go to the dark places and meditate, not be terrified by the sounds they hear. When he manifests, it's as a whisper from the dark, faint but audible if you can calm yourself. He doesn't manifest visually, that's kind of the point. 

Need to pick a symbol. I don't want it to be an animal (like a bat or a cave fish), that's a little obvious. You know, let's make it a Site - caves, dense forests, tunnels, any place with no natural light, that's Suratesh's domain.

And, um, that's it! If I ever get a printer-friendly sheet, I'll upload it.