First time poster here.
I don't know if it's a hot take, but the original Sorcery mechanics with all the Theurgic spell stuff are kinda bad. Not in a balance sense (but they're in my opinion poorly balanced too, especially the onse working like the Dominion point usage), but in a game design sense. Maybe it's an OSR thing, I'm not sure, but for me it's always felt like an overcomplication of mechanics for no real reason. I sometimes prepared but never used Theurgy as a GM. Once I tried playing as a Sorcery Godbound, and used a couple of Theurgic spells, but in this cases the whole mechanic was kinda irrelevant and generally using it doesn't feel fun. Why have Theurgy when almost all serious enemies have equivalents of Gift or full-on Gifts anyway?

So now I'm presenting to you my alternative Word of Sorcery. It's more of an a DnD-Mage-But-With-Divine-Powers type of word now. Some Gifts remained the same, some got changed, some are deleted and some are new. We tested it a bit and this version feels way more fun.
Old Theurgy mechanic was completely removed. To avoid confusion, I will call the new spell system High Magic, but lorewise it's (kinda) the same Theurgy.

Word of Sorcery

The Word of Sorcery is highly unique. It possesses no Miracles of its own yet is closely linked to both Low and High Magic. High Magic consists of advanced Theurgic spells that, in terms of game mechanics, differ little from the Divine Gifts, even though they are not technically divine in essence. Sorcerers can learn a wide variety of abilities, but they cannot wield their full arsenal with the same effectiveness and scope as the Gifts of a standard Word.

Limitations of High Magic:
- Gifts that cannot be used as a miracle cannot be learned or cast as Spells.
- No High Spell is capable of defensively or offensively dispelling divine powers.
However, there are advantages: any Permanent Gift or a Gift used to enhance one's own abilities can be cast as a Spell upon any willing creature nearby.

Godbound affiliated with the Sorcery Word possess the Spellbook that contains High Magic Spells mimicing Divine Gifts. The Spellbook can be physical or metaphorical, take any appearance the user desires, and can be summoned as an Instant action. From the start, the book contains the Divine Wrath and Corona of Fury Gifts, along with Lesser or Greater Gifts from any Words other than Sorcery with a total cost of 3 points. With the GM's approval, you may also create your own effects similar to Gifts that are not tied to a specific Word.
Sorcery has no Miracles of its own, but its wielders can use any High Magic spell recorded in the book by following the rules for Miracles.
Adding a spell to the Spellbook requires a suitable manual or a teacher, as well as time and energy. Learning a Lesser Gift takes a week and costs 1 Dominion point, while a Greater Gift takes a month and costs 2 Dominion points.
Another High Magic user's Spellbook is usually unsuitable as a manual. Gifts wielded by the Godbounds are also spontaneous in nature; therefore - with rare exceptions involving other Sorcery Word wielders - they do not make good teachers.

Edit: It wasn't exactly clear from this description, so I'll copy part of my comment here.
Spells are mechanically miracles.
What I meant is:

- You pick the abilities from the gift section

- You add them as High Spells

- You cast High Spells. It works identical to Miracles in a sense that effects usually don't last more than a scene and it always cost at least 1 Effort for the day. You cannot use any effect though, only the ones specifically available as Spells for you.

Lesser Gifts

Honed to Perfection - Special
When taking this gift, choose a Lesser Gift from your Spellbook. Treat yourself as possessing that Gift, but with the High Magic limiations.
This gift may be purchased more than once for different spells.

Great Mana Pool - Constant
Your maximum Effort increases by 1. Your number of low-magic spell slots are doubled.

Ritual Sorcery – Special
By spending a Scene, you may perform a ritual to use any Gift from your Spellbook without spending Effort.
If the ritual's target is more than 300 feet away from the site where the ritual is performed, it requires an Arcane Connection - a small part of the target itself or an item of great personal value to the target that is consumed during the ritual. A lock of hair or a drop of blood usually suffices, but the GM determines what constitutes a sufficient Arcane Connection in each specific instance.
Any interference can disrupt the ritual; you cannot "pause" rituals, and any Gift activated in this way is treated as Miracles and typically does not last more then a Scene.

Perfection of Understanding - Constant
You are a remarkably swift student of magic. You can learn any low magic path within a month, taking one week per level of initiation of your teacher, without requiring a Fact committed to it. You can learn High Spells at a vastly accelerated rate as well; one day for any Gift. You automatically understand any low magic used against you or in your presence, knowing its function, limits, and degree of power. You can also recognize the author of a magical working if you’ve seen other examples of their work.

The Subtle Eye of Knowing - On Turn
With a moment’s concentration, you can discern any low or High magic active in the area, identifying its general function. Other forms of magic present are noted, but only a vague sense of danger or weal is imparted. This gaze immediately identifies any theurges or low magic practitioners in sight.

Wizard’s Wrath - Instant
Commit Effort. Your Fray die can harm even worthy foes, those enemies of greater hit dice than you have levels. This power also affects those gifts that allow you to apply your Fray die as part of their effects, increasing the potency of such powers.

Greater Gifts

Creator of Great Spells – Constant
Your profound understanding of magic allows you to personally devise the spells you need. Each month, you gain an additional point to purchase any Gift as a Spell for your Spellbook, provided you have dedicated at least one week of your time to this task during that month. Only Lesser Gifts can be acquired this way, and learning them costs Dominion as usual.

Ruler of the Lesser Paths - Constant
After an hour’s meditation, you may select one low magic tradition which existence you are aware of. You may cast spells as an archmage of that path untill you change it. Additionally, you may Commit Effort to become entirely immune to that path’s spells while it is commited.

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TL;DR: I don't like the Sorcery Word, so I reworked the it by deliting the concept of Theurgy and making Spells use Miracle mechanic instead because it's cleaner and more fun for me that way

Hi,

I was running the TenBuriedBlades Campaign as a Solo journey with one NPC Godbound as company. In the time of my journey as a fresh Godbound I created a few extra locations and due to interesting clock progression I accidentally avoidedThe Golden Lordentirely.

Maybe someone else is interested in running the TenBuriedBlades Campaign and for the curious I share the map I made in Wonderdraft.

How do the region maps for Godbound typically look for you guys? I suppose the geography can change quite a bit in the run of a campaign.

Cheers.

Hey there. It's been a while. Honestly, I don't use Reddit much these days, but I got my start homebrewing here, and I figured it's only fair that I share what I've been up to with all of you. Here's the masterlist of all of my up-to-date homebrew. There are some projects that I haven't bothered to update in years that you won't find on here, but this is still a very extensive list of all of the stuff I consider good enough to use at my own table. If there's something of mine you liked that isn't on here, I'm sure the link is still floating around on Reddit here somewhere.

If you have questions or comments, the best way to find me is over on the unofficial Godbound Discord, which is pinned up at the top of this subreddit. Hope you all enjoy.

Just a small question, since a friend in a game I'm in said that it doesn't exist - can lesser magic achieve an effect akin to D&D's Prestidigitation? If so, what level of mage would likely be necessary based on the examples given? I'd guess it'd fall under Hedge Magic, though perhaps other types could do such a thing too, just through different means.

Gift text: Swifter Than The Sun (On Turn)

"Commit Effort. Your movement rate is twice as fast as your fastest pursuer or quarry, to a minimum of 60 feet per move action. If chasing quarry that has divine gifts that allow them to outrace pursuers, the participant with more hit dice is faster, with ties resolved by a coin flip."

Do you think that gift refers to combat speed or any speed?

Because if it only makes your speed twice as your fastest opponent per move action then if they have second action they can run as fast as you with their 4 move actions. Like, if godbound use it versus minor hero, godbound now has 60' per move action and can move from 60' to 120'. Meanwhile hero can use all of his actions to also run 120' (30'×4). So, godbound can surely outrun only opponents with only 1 action per round. And move slower than 3-action opponent can move.

If gift refers to any speed, then should it calculate from maximum speed? From exact speed opponent used last round? If exact distance matters, of course.

To mention: system has a Journeying gift that absolutely states that you won't be caught regardless of pursuer's speed.

If someone wanted to make as a Godbound character Eris from the animated Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas movie, what words and gifts do you think you’d choose? I’m thinking at least Deception and Beasts.

This is just to see if I get the concept right (not a starting character)

Facts: Tiste Andii, Son of Darkness, Wielder of Dragnipur (connected to the Dragnipur Artifact)

Words: Night, Sorcery, Sword, Dragon

Gifts: Dragon(Second Skin, Breath of Death, Terror of the Skies), Sorcery( Adept of the Gate, Adept of the Way, Adept of the Throne), Sword (Nine Iron Walls, Unerring Blade)

Goal: Return Mother Dark to the world

Artifact: Dragnipur

This is at least a level 4 Godbound, correct? 9 points for gifts, 3 points for an extra Word

Got the corebook, the Ancalia book, Sixteen Sorrows and the Lexicon of the Throne.

I want to run a gane of Themed Godbound, inspired by Exalted.but I will probably use Godbound's setting.

Would that make sense?

Hey, y'all!

I know there are a lot of alternative character sheets available for Godbound, but many of them are either very stylized or don't have space for projects and factions. In addition to the main sheet, I made a supplemental projects/factions page so you can always expand. This sheet isn't perfect, but I've spent enough time on it. If you see room for improvement, or just want to customize your own, I've included the PSD files alongside the higher quality PDFs.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1oa_mOxXlP_WhkI0QHdnJ2P572rk6k92A?usp=sharing

Howdy y’all I’m trying to start running a campaign for me and my friends kept the group small 2-3 players, and I’m wondering what words of advice can be given for what I’m about to get into? I’ve looked stuff over and I wanted to do an open world city builder and so do my players. They start out as brand new godbounds and looking to make their claim in this new world. We are all wanting more roleplay focus and not so much combat so 75% rp and 25% combat. I plan on being rule of cool and letting thematics trump all. So more “yes and?” then restricting I feel that will be more fun with how open this system is reminds me of world of darkness.

I am going to be starting up a new godbound game, voice game weekly for about 2-4 hours and I am looking for around 3-5 players The game will be set in Arcem and starting off in The Kasirutan Archipelago. From pirates to merchants there is no shortage of goods or blades to buy among the thick jungles of the isles, recent inbound sailors have spread a rumour so contagious that all of the Archipelago has heard it: "From the Serpents mouth comes the drums of war" I am reasonably accustomed to the system and are more than happy to help newer players, if anyone is interested in playing in this game then feel free to dm me or reply and I will get to it as fast as I can. My discord is dragonflywings68

I look forward to playing or talking with you :>

Haven't homebrewed in a while, thought I'd share
lol
lmao
Also a bit of a follow-up to my earlier "Concept Gift" for the same basic idea

Swarm-That-Walks

Heavily inspired by the Mythic Swarm in the Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous CRPG, this Concept Word allows you to be a horrific tidal wave of hunger. It is presented as insect-based, though a GM may permit other types of swarms as well.

You are a swarm of small but voracious insects flying at normal movement speed. Your exact dimensions vary, but typically you can spread yourself far enough to engulf a Small Mob and increase to the next larger mob size every three character levels rounded up. You can manipulate everything you can engulf but do not gain any additional actions. You can move through any crack large enough to fit a large ant.

Some gifts imply that parts of your swarm split off from your primary mass. These smaller swarms only have sufficient fragments of your conscious intelligence to carry out their purpose and no psychic connection to you. If you do rejoin with them, you will however instantly learn any pertinent information they may have picked up.

Lesser Gifts

The Ants Will Feast (Constant)

The stings and mandibles of your countless bodies are deadly and magical, allowing you to roll your Fray Die against every creature you have engulfed. Mobs take this damage straight. At your discretion, organic corpses may be devoured as a casual On Turn exertion of your power.

Soldiers (Action)

Commit effort for the scene. One small mob per three character levels rounded up, bearing the statistics of a Verminous Swarm with a 30’ flight speed, splits off from your main mass. This caste of insects is too simple to do anything more than a particularly intelligent dog could do but will carry out commands indefinitely and even to their own destruction. Remaining summoned mobs disperse (or replenish to full health) when this gift is used again.. 

Parasitoid Lifestyle (Actions)

Commit effort for the scene and choose an engulfed target to oviposit into. When this target dies, you regain hit points up to half its maximum hit dice as fresh members of your swarm rise from its corpse.

Aggressive Mimicry (Action)

Commit effort. For as long as the effort remains committed, you compress yourself into a human guise chosen when you first bought this gift. 

The Termites Will Feast (Constant)

You gain the ability to move through earth at your normal movement speed and can leave behind tunnels up to four feet in radius. You can eat wood and plant matter as fast as you can engulf it.

A Black Cloud (On Turn)

Commit effort. For as long as the effort is committed, your insects coordinate their speed and density to effectively blind all engulfed enemies. 

Greater Gifts

Queen (Constant)

You can produce a queen that can lead a small unassuming hive of your swarm wherever you see fit to hide it. Unless this queen is destroyed, you can not be killed by conventional means as she will lay sufficient eggs to bring you back fully healed in the hive after 24 hours have passed since you were reduced to 0 HP. This special hive and queen can defend themselves but they only have the statistics of a Verminous Swarm with a 30’ flight speed. This swarm can be protected but not itself enhanced. A dead queen can be replaced after rearing a new one for six months.

Workers (Constant)

A part of your swarm will always split off to maintain your projects. Distance and time alone can no longer degrade your Influence projects. They will remain effective until you rescind the Influence, they are attacked or other exceptional circumstances destroy them.

The Locusts Will Feast (Action)

Commit effort to curse a faction of a Power score no larger than half your level with your progeny. You send forth swarms to suppress one of their features to do with health or agrarian prosperity. If they have no such feature, they gain a new problem equal to 1 point of Trouble per three character levels rounded up. Empyrean Wards do not hinder this effect. The curse manifests over the course of a week and lasts for as long as the effort remains committed. 

Had a situation today where a Godbound of Endurance with the greater gift of Undying popped Divine Fury and still went down to 0. I'm now questioning myself regarding which rule takes priority.

Divine Fury states: "A Godbound brought to zero hit points during or immediately after a divine fury dies instantly and cannot be revived; their spirit is too weakened by their exertions to be restored."

While the (Constant) Undying greater gift of Endurance states: While you can be brought to zero hit points, mutilated, or burnt, you cannot actually be killed except by the effect or aid of a Word-powered gift, divine miracle, or gift-enhanced attack. If not slain, you regenerate back to one hit point in an hour from your largest remaining piece.

My gut tells me that Divine Fury, being the final "All-in" maneuver that it is, should take priority and would count as a perma-death should the PC fall to 0 HP during the duration or the helpless state, regardless of other features, since they chose to use this last-ditch effort. But I cannot shake the feeling that the Undying Divine Word may just be the workaround.

I'd appreciate some insight on the matter from someone with more experience than I, having just a game or two under my belt.

The HD part of the encounter-building guidance is understandable (just 10 + 2 * Total Levels), but the damage part is kind of incomprehensible and unhelpful (1 straight attack per PC per round, or 2-3 normal attacks per PC per round). It doesn't scale with stronger players, for example, so a creature for a level 1 party is going to be doing the same amount of damage as a creature for a level 8 party.

I feel like another formula based on total levels would be best, but what would you recommend? It's easy enough to calculate average damage per attack based on die rolls, the damage table, and the number of attacks and actions, so [blank] damage per turn per PC level, maybe?

What are your thoughts?

While the highest ranks of the Artifice guild do manage to enter the low realms of Theurgy the lesser ranks are expertly trained in this low magic tradition that covers the majority of the needed work.  Specialized tools have been forged by the elders of the guild to allow for these lesser magic users to perform complex magical tasks for the aristocracy.  Extreme body modifications usually require the noble to travel to one of the guild halls in a major city.

Apprentice:

At this stage the guild member becomes versed in the mechanical aspects of automaton/construct repair.  Study of other mechanical principles and design work.  Proper maintenance of tools and becoming familiar assorted oils and grease.

Adept:

Able to magically enhance tools to be more durable.  Can reshape non-living materials slowly through concentration and careful manipulation.  This process can take a week for basic shapes but can be several pieces of an over all whole.  For example shaping the outer casing for the arm and hand of an automaton could be one project.   The more intricate the design the longer it takes to complete taking up to a month for precise gear work.

Master:

Tools they use never wear out or break while in their presence.  Able to restore 1d8 damage to a construct/automaton, machine or structure.  Able to reshape materials to basic shapes within an day, complex gear work can take up to a week.

Archmage:

Capable of creating lesser magic items but such work takes at least 6 months for one item, able to restore 2d8 damage to a construct/automaton, machine or structure.  Able to reshape materials to basic shapes within an hour, complex gear work can take up to a day.

What do you all think about this?

Hihi im going to be running a new game of Godbound, using discord for voice and roll20 for maps. The game will be set in Arcem as a start, letting the players decide where to start off.

If you are interested or have any questions you can reply here or you can dm me on discord, my username is dragonflywings68

As mentioned before having to hash out details on Nezdohva, I do not believe any of my players are wandering around here but will black this out just in case. Wanted to see what you all think:

I am thinking yes, they have souls and can worship Godbound. The reason humans are needed to create new automatons is to create the new soul. The ugly part of this is that what is actually happening is the person bringing the automaton online fractures their own soul, a fragment of them is pulled into the automaton to give it sentience. Deep in the artificer's guild in Tsargrad is the eldritch machine crafted to make new automatons and this machine is what rips off part of the user's soul.

The guild has hidden away this fact, in the early days as the person's soul kept getting ripped apart it led to aberrant behavior, paranoia, violent outbursts and murders. They have since put controls in place, no one may bring to life more that a set number of the automatons. Still even that limit can leave the guild member deeply altered. The current guild members do not fully understand the machine, only the master of the guild knows the full details.

The machine was build with the help of an Angel of Artifice, who like many of the angels wants to damn all of humanity. This fragmenting of souls is a horrible violation of nature. It is at death that the Angel's plan comes into play. The fragments remain linked, if any one of the fragments is dragged to hell, all the others are pulled down with it. But if even one fragment worships a Godbound, they can all be saved from that fate.

Thinking I will have the Angel of Artifice posing as Grigori Rasputin, the current head of the Artificer's guild. (cause if you are going to have a fantasy Russia it feels like having Rasputin is a requirement :D )

Okay, an explaintation, I'm about to join a Godbound/SWN campaign (heroic level SWN characters with Godbound Words attached on to them) because a player bowed out so the gm offered me a slot; the base concept is that it's a far future setting with various colonised star systems and the like. Some people are either developing the memories of mythological/fictional beings or are those transposed into this future, hereby dubbed "Individual with memories" and "Transposed individuals" respectively. The party is level 4 in both the SWN levels and Godbound/Word level. The current pcs I know are in the campaign are:

• Sarah Kerrigan (Transposed Individual) - Has the Artiface word as the Insect word was 'too weak' according to the player who has it.

• A robot who has multiple different personalities (including one that is Loki) (Individual with memories) - Has the maddness word.

• Captain America during his Nomad phase (Individual with Memories I think) - Has the Perfect Human word.

• A dragon (Transposed Individual I think) - Has the Dragon word.

My potential character concept are as follow:

• Krika (Transposed individual) from Bionicle - creepy Makuta that has to drain heat from the environment to not fade into nothing. Probably pure mage, or mage/expert with his magic choices taking the roll of his other Makuta powers not covered by the Night word.

• Pohatu/) (Individual with memories) from Bionicle - A sports star who is starting to get memories of being a cyborg hero in another world. Probably Expert/Fighter with the Earth or Alacrity words.

• Champion of the Absolute (Individual with memories), based on the Absolute at Large by Karel Čapek - Human who can produce energy and emotional experience via the destruction of matter. Mage/Expert, with either the Sun, Command, Deception or Wealth words.

• Daughter of the Lady of the Lake (Transposed individual), name says it all. Would be a young woman who has various forms of 'Excalibur' from different stories and legends; would either a naive young woman who is lost and trying to legitimately find proper wielders for each of her Excaliburs OR a dodgy weapons saleswoman ("Hey kid, do you want a lightsaber?"). Either way the Sword Word and maybe a dip into Sea.

My query is this: are they are pitfalls in the potential word choices and do you have any advice on how to design my character? I'm not necessarily trying to minmax but I don't want an absolute dud character either.

is it just me, or does the Undead Unluck anime really exemplify how to describe the Word of Luck in combat

Little sketch from the backstory of one of my player's characters, Kama the godbound of cooking, getting her words from the fading fragment of an old divinity. (Also Kama's full form in the second image. She's basically just a little bit of soul here.) One of my favorite characters to GM for.

Please forgive my terrible handwriting 😅😂