Pantheons of the Megaverse - friendly takes on scary gods?

Ley Line walkers, Juicers, Coalition Troops, Samas, Tolkeen, & The Federation Of Magic. Come together here to discuss all things Rifts®.

Moderators: Immortals, Supreme Beings, Old Ones

User avatar
Axelmania
Knight
Posts: 5523
Joined: Sun Dec 27, 2015 1:13 pm

Pantheons of the Megaverse - friendly takes on scary gods?

Unread post by Axelmania »

I was watching Victor and Valentino's take on Xipe Totec and that seems like an interesting way to reinvent them, either in a modern-day campaign (Beyond the Supernatural) or even a post-apocalyptic one.

The artwork in CB2 seems like how they would've looked back in the pre-industrial ages when their worship was at it's highest. Aztec Gods who are still around might occasionally use their old clothes (like how Xipe has some in the back room of his fashion shop) but I also like the idea of them blending into later societies and just seeming like mysterious oddballs. I think both Supernatural and American Gods have also toyed with that.

It's almost creepier to do this than to have them be outright horrific because when you wrap horror in cute it's like a surprise when your guard is down.
User avatar
taalismn
Priest
Posts: 47908
Joined: Tue Sep 02, 2003 8:19 pm
Location: Somewhere between Heaven, Hell, and New England

Re: Pantheons of the Megaverse - friendly takes on scary god

Unread post by taalismn »

Like Ba'al in Stargate going around dressed like a business exec?
Yah, you just think 'creepy lawyer' or 'smug-snake businessman', not 'Lord of Darkness, Harvester of Souls, heading for his penthouse Temple of Blood'.

Or the 'Hawaiian Shirted Incarnation of Cosmic Destruction."

"Kali, is that little off the shoulder number custom or off-the-rack?"
-------------
"Trouble rather the Tiger in his Lair,
Than the Sage among his Books,
For all the Empires and Kingdoms,
The Armies and Works that you hold Dear,
Are to him but the Playthings of the Moment,
To be turned over with the Flick of a Finger,
And the Turning of a Page"

--------Rudyard Kipling
------------
guardiandashi
Hero
Posts: 1437
Joined: Wed Nov 27, 2013 12:21 am

Re: Pantheons of the Megaverse - friendly takes on scary god

Unread post by guardiandashi »

in the campaign a gm ran he had a lot of the gods kind of along the idea of stargate sg1 where the "gods" were really aliens it wasn't too horrible until the character I was playing got her butt kicked by Helcate and got grumpy about it, so she started exploiting her Deific abilities (and pulled out gear from her dimensional hops.
for instance she puled out a Timberwolf Omni (75 ton combat vehicle) and pulled 7 tons of weaponry off it, and mounted a syncro cannon on 1 shoulder (yes she had gone through the entire "robotech saga more than once and got her hands on a couple syncro cannons) so when she ran up against Atlas it was a very short combat... I fire the syncro cannon at him.
does he have any resistances that apply?
resistant to energy? nope
resistant to spacial distruction effects? nope
etc.
ok the beam hit him above the belly and absolutely positively destroyed a 25ft radius around that point.... all thats left of him is his boots
OOPS
ya you turned what was supposed to be a major menace to a minor one... you get 25 xp

when we got into space to try to slow down their invasion armada, it was almost worse...

they are coming in with a fleet of motherships (from sg1)
my char, I go into my lab, and open the doors to the spacedock
GM ok?
I deploy the 2 capital ships from the spacedock
the first ship is a fully crewed and operational Interdictor cruiser that turns on its 4 gravity well projectors and disables Hyperdrive style FTL systems clear out past the asteroid belt...
then the second ship leaves the spacedock and maneuvers to cover the interdictor before starting to bring its arsonal online ( a heavily modified Imperial MK2 star destroyer ) it has all the weapon mounts of a imperial II but a lot of the weapons are longer ranged, sure it has some turbo lasers, and ion cannon... it also has Federation (star trek) sensors, pulse phasers, 14 photon torpedo launchers (federation capable of firing 10 torpedo salvos) and has a 500 torpedo magazine for EACH launcher it also carries a total of 10 SLAMS, and long range missiles with either 200 megaton nukes, and or pumped Xray laser head missiles.
it turned into a pretty nasty slaughter because the invasion fleet could not repel firepower of that magnitude.
User avatar
taalismn
Priest
Posts: 47908
Joined: Tue Sep 02, 2003 8:19 pm
Location: Somewhere between Heaven, Hell, and New England

Re: Pantheons of the Megaverse - friendly takes on scary god

Unread post by taalismn »

That's not really a case of an evil god looking disarmingly badly modern before ripping your soul out, it's a case of poorly-played god-being getting sandbagged by PC overkill.

Now if the mousy office assistant in the corner that your PC ignored while synchro-cannoning the obvious Big Bad turned out to be the REAL god in disguise(while you whacked a decoy), slipped away via Rift, or summoned up some monstrous minions to Zerg-rush you, or opened a dimensional hole under you dropping you into some hell-scape. THAT'S a case of deceiving appearances.
Or maybe the sexy secretary or maiden in distress who gets 'rescued' turns out to be the real god/dess. Gets you to lower your guard, then drops you into a trap, or stabs you with a soul drinker.
Or, of course, the helpless little orphan. "Hey, I'm EVIL; I don't play by the rules! If I have the ability to change my appearance, I'm going to go with something people are going to hesitate to shoot on sight! Of course, if you start killing helpless little orphans trying to get me, I'll spread the pictures of you being 'heroic', HERO."

Hey, posing as a friendly, harmless politician-cum-civil-servant worked for Sheeve Palpatine.
-------------
"Trouble rather the Tiger in his Lair,
Than the Sage among his Books,
For all the Empires and Kingdoms,
The Armies and Works that you hold Dear,
Are to him but the Playthings of the Moment,
To be turned over with the Flick of a Finger,
And the Turning of a Page"

--------Rudyard Kipling
------------
Post Reply

Return to “Rifts®”