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From: tim@cmu-cs-k.ARPA (Tim Maroney)
Newsgroups: net.games.frp
Subject: Re: PCs vs Gods (reposted)
Message-ID: <20980085@cmu-cs-k.ARPA>
Date: Mon, 28-Jan-85 23:36:46 EST
Article-I.D.: cmu-cs-k.20980085
Posted: Mon Jan 28 23:36:46 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 2-Feb-85 09:01:27 EST
References: <3429@ucla-cs.ARPA>
Organization: Carnegie-Mellon University, CS/RI
Lines: 24

I think Gods do need to be distinguished from all other entities in the
game, not just in being the only beings with 300+ hit points or the spirits
with the biggest POW.  They should exist in a fundamentally different way
from mortal races.

The way I am distinguishing them in the RuneQuest camapign I am putting
together now is that they derive from their worshippers a "distributed
intelligence", that is, they use the brain equipment of all their followers
like a distributed OS.  A god therefore cannot be destroyed unless its
worshippers are destroyed, since the god lives in all their unconscious
minds.  But a god might build a body to work directly on the material plane,
and that can be destroyed or driven back.

However, beneath a certain critical threshold of worship, a god loses some
divine powers and becomes just a wonderful spirit.  Furthermore, normal
spirits can gain divine powers by accumulating enough worshippers.
-=-
Tim Maroney, Carnegie-Mellon University Computation Center
ARPA:	Tim.Maroney@CMU-CS-K	uucp:	seismo!cmu-cs-k!tim
CompuServe:	74176,1360	audio:	shout "Hey, Tim!"

"Remember all ye that existence is pure joy; that all the sorrows are
but as shadows; they pass & are done; but there is that which remains."
Liber AL, II:9.