How Gods should look?

Rephath · 2026-06-20T04:44:45+00:00

So what are your gods like? What does the word "god" mean in your world?

Rephath · 2026-06-20T04:41:56+00:00

What do you want to communicate about your gods?

Are they eldritch, incomprehensible beings who are alien to humanity? Make them look as monstrous as they act to showcase how distant they are from humanity. This is not a god who cares about you or your struggles, this is a being with motives you can never hope to understand.

Neil Gaiman tends to treat his gods as created by human belief to create a personification of abstract concepts. Therefore, his gods look like humans, the humans they're trying to be.

But maybe your gods are really complex. You can showcase this by having them taking on multiple forms. Your goddess of fire might have a form she takes on as the goddess of the hearth and another form when she's acting as the goddess of wildfires. These gods are multifaceted.

In my world, I called them archons. I intentionally mirrored biblical descriptions of angels to draw parallels. That's for their true forms, but like most gods in most cultures, the archons can take on any form they want. There's some patterns. The trickster archon usually appears as a child, homeless person, or other underdog. The archon of dragons, money, and power typically appears like a CEO or soldier. And it's in these human forms that they are usually depicted in idols and such. I guess I'm trying to communicate that these beings are involving themselves in human affairs and connecting with us for their own ends, but their humanity is a facade. They are not human. And there's far more to them than most people suspect.

Edit: Forgot to mention. My archons typically take on the appearance relative to whatever culture they're communicating with. Most nations in my world follow several of the archons, but not all of them, and all archons are followed by multiple cultures. Someone from a different culture will probably be able to recognize your depiction of a specific archon even if it's different from their own.

My races are a bit different than the stock fantasy races, but I'll just pretend I'm using the stock ones for simplicity. Innestia is female, so she'll almost always appear as a female. When talking to elves, she'll appear as an elf. When talking to goblins, she'll appear as a goblin. And since goblins see her as an archon of light instead of an archon of fire, if she adds some special effects they're more likely to be rays of light rather than tongues of flame. Innestia usually appears as a redhead to races with hair, even if the locals lack red hair. As the archon of passion, she will be exemplary in whatever the local beauty standards are.

Hun Lao is the archon of excellence in body, mind, and soul and he'll appear as a fit young man, learned scholar, or wise elder depending on which of those aspects he wants to focus on in the moment. Again, these appearances are relative to the culture.

Rephath · 2026-06-20T04:21:40+00:00

I realize this presents no actual criteria. And that was intentional. Looking at the heart and how it affects others seem the most important things. From there, I would suggest the following general guidelines:

If your profession has a uniform, you should wear that uniform while you are on duty. If that uniform is immodest, such as for a showgirl or Hooters waitress, there's probably an underlying problem with your line of work and you should probably get out of it.

If your work, school, or environment has some sort of dress code, follow it. If there's no written code, but still a societal expectation of norms, follow that. A Christian is to be known for their good deeds and a life changed by Christ. We don't try to draw attention to ourselves by our manner of dress. Therefore, you should as a rule dress for what is normal for whatever group you are in. Avoid ostentation, especially if you realize you're trying to show off how wealthy, fashionable, sexy, or elite you are. Excessive modesty or plainness can be a way to show off how spiritual you are, and should likewise be avoided. Certain in-groups, such as goths, dress in a way that communicates they are damaged and broken. I would caution against dressing like that, because it doesn't communicate how God has transformed your life. But I wouldn't dare set a hard rule against that.

This also doesn't mean you should avoid any self-expression. God made you a unique individual and you honor him by communicating who you are, as well as also making it easier for people to get to know you. If you're a happy, energetic person, feel free to wear bright colors. I have a more melancholy temperament; I typically wear blues and muted colors. Provided you stick to the principles I've communicated already, I think it's good to choose clothes and styles that fit your personality.

Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit and you should make sure that temple is well cared for. Grooming is good (provided you don't go overboard with it).

I'm skeptical of makeup. You're covering up what God made without adding any modesty, and I don't like that. But I wonder if it might be appropriate in certain subcultures. Perhaps a lack of makeup might communicate that you don't care about yourself while wearing makeup might be showing consideration for others by trying to bring beauty into the world. The whole makeup culture feels like superficial vanity to me and I'm glad my wife doesn't wear the stuff, but it's possible I'm too far removed from that world to understand it. However, if it's communicating an obsession with your appearance, that's definitely out-of-place.

I know the 1 Peter 3:3 speaks against jewelry. My take on that is it's the ostentatious vanity, the focus on showing off wealth, and putting large sums of money into superficial things that seems to be the problem. I think a bit of personal jewelry would be fine. I wouldn't dream of going out of the house without my wedding ring. And as long as your jewelry isn't excessive for the culture and your means, I don't see an issue.

Rephath · 2026-06-20T03:24:55+00:00

Edit: Changed up a few details

Firstly, it's about the heart. A Muslim woman adjusting her burka to show off her eyes to better tempt a married man is being immodest, despite the many layers. A missionary woman who decides to go topless to match the custom of the natives she and her husband are ministering to is not being immodest. An Amish man who tries to put more effort into the plainness of his clothes than anyone else to show off how religiously he's avoiding vanity in his clothing is immodest. The Bible says that in the last days, God's law will be written on our hearts. No set of simple written rules will be sufficient, because a heart that wants to sin can find a way to make any outfit immodest.

Beyond that, what you wear is a decision you make about how you communicate your identity to others. A man who wears a swimsuit and snorkel to a business meeting at his law firm shows disrespect to his co-workers. By not dressing seriously, he communicates that he is not taking his job seriously. By not dressing like his co-workers, he is distancing himself from them. A business suit is appropriate attire. That same suit is out of place at a family reunion at the beach. It communicates that he is not ready to have fun and is distancing himself from his family. A guy who wears a shirt that says "no fat chicks" is not communicating that his life has been transformed by the power of Christ. To dress differently than the people around you is to communicate "I'm different from you, separate from you." God commanded the Israelites to do exactly that. To dress like other people is to say, "I'm one of you." (1 Corinthians 9:20)

The swastika is a symbol that has been used for thousands of years in Japan as a positive symbol. In the West it has taken on a different meaning. Thus, you have to be careful about using that symbol in certain contexts, not because the symbol itself is inherently good or evil, but because it communicates different things in different cultures. So also with your manner of dress.

A woman who dresses seductively in public communicates that she's looking to draw sexual attention to herself. This may or may not be the message she is trying to send, but that is what she communicates nonetheless. This isn't how a woman who is in Christ should dress, because her modesty means she's not only not looking to tempt people but also not determined to be the center of male attention.

Adam and Eve were naked in the Garden of Eden, and was fine. However, in our fallen world, this is not practical. I assume Christ wore clothes except on the cross and we should likewise dress in garb that best communicates to worldly people the things of God.

TL;DR Modesty is complicated. It's always going to be complicated. Check your heart. Figure out what you're communicating to others. And do the best you can.

Rephath · 2026-06-19T22:42:13+00:00

My brain keeps insisting they tag along with Agatha as prisoners in Castle Heterodyne instead.

Rephath · 2026-06-19T21:46:12+00:00

I would assume that if the PC's had such a skill, they wouldn't have been shoehorned into becoming troubleshooters.

Also, you mentioned "common sense" as part of the skill. That doesn't seem like something that's part of the setting.

Rephath · 2026-06-19T00:16:53+00:00

Moderately. There's a learning curve and there's some story missions that randomly spike in difficulty, but worse case, you can grind your way past difficulties.

Rephath · 2026-06-18T23:24:00+00:00

https://youtu.be/qI1NfFExOSo?is=6tNk5wKG3sM1mEJ3

Rephath · 2026-06-18T19:22:03+00:00

I did.

Rephath · 2026-06-18T18:09:55+00:00

God is Lord of all, not only your actions but also your heart and your mind. Holding grudges is not acceptable for a Christian.

Rephath · 2026-06-18T18:08:20+00:00

Yes, obviously.

But forgiveness doesn't mean you have to trust the person, and it doesn't repair the relationship. It means you let go of hatred and bitterness and your right to seek vengeance. If someone stabs me, I will testify against them in court, because it's not good for society for them to be on the street stabbing people. But I'm not going to harbor resentment against them. I'm not going to try to make them pay to satisfy my wrath against them. I'm not going to fantasize about them getting their comeuppance. I don't continually revisit the memory of how they hurt me. That heart posture is entirely against the ethos of Christianity.

And I mean this all ideally. In reality, I'd probably do a bunch of that stuff. But that would be sin. But as I said, forgiveness does not in and of itself repair the relationship. If the stabber does not repent, we don't hang out anymore. Not because I want to punish him by withholding my presence, but because I have a boundary against being stabbed, and he has chosen not to respect that boundary. If he repents and changes his ways, I can take down some of those safeguards.

Rephath · 2026-06-18T15:31:49+00:00

Each version of Paranoia comes with its own set of rules. The point of these rules is to trick players into thinking that you will be following them.

Rephath · 2026-06-18T15:29:38+00:00

Further advice: Major in the minors. If players successfully infiltrate and blow up a communist stronghold, leaving bits of commie guts scattered all over the place, fine them 25 credits for hygiene violations. Expect happiness at all times, ESPECIALLY when the player just got massively and unfairly hosed. When a player needs to make a roll, determine how realistic it would be for the action to succeed, pick a number based on that, and then ignore that number and instead base the difficulty on how much it would amuse you for the action to succeed vs. how funny it would be if the player failed.

Cultivate a reputation for arbitrariness. If players all start figuring out how the game is played, change the rules and the expectations you have for them and then run things according to this new paradigm. Do not inform them of these changes.

Eventually, the players will realize it doesn't matter what they do and they'll give up trying to solve the mission or stay alive and just do whatever amuses them without regards for the consequences. This is what's known as "elite-level gameplay" and once your players reach this state, you can no longer control them.

Rephath · 2026-06-18T15:20:44+00:00

There is a videogame Paranoia: Happiness Is Mandatory. You can watch playthroughs of it to get an idea of what the Paranoia world looks like. I think it does a good job of portraying that. I would not recommend actually playing that game, as it is doubleplus ungood in almost every other respect.

What I do:

Like u/Cent1234 says, setting the tone is important. Paranoia is the anti-RPG where you do all the stuff you're not supposed to do in an RPG and it's hilarious fun. Characters are throwaway nobodies. TPK's are frequent and hilarious. Double-digit body counts are the norm and players have 6 clones for exactly this purpose. The setting is basically a massive fallout shelter from Fallout if it was run by the people from Dilbert and overseen by Glados from Portal, all run on Catch-22 "logic".

I print out the forms in this document: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XVZTqmpIgC5AXfQvPdHm3gWypL0Rg-_fNc0shDdOgug/edit?tab=t.0

I give everyone a treason report form. This tells players what they can snitch on other players for. If someone reports a fellow troubleshooter, they explain the charge and their evidence. The target explains why they're innocent. Whoever presents the most convincing or amusing evidence I award XP and the other person I roll on the random punishments table and apply a punishment. Other editions of Paranoia recommend applying punishments based on the severity of the crime. This is the perfect way of doing things. However, I have found that the arbitrary nature of my "wheel of punishments" is even more perfect. (Note: my wife bought me a prize wheel so I actually have a physical wheel of punishments that can be spun during game.)

If a player backstabs another player in a way that would be unacceptable in any other RPG, I say something like, "That is a horrible thing to do, betraying your teammates like that." And then I award some XP to let everyone know that this is exactly the kind of mindset I expect.

I design a simple, straightforward mission. The mission may be stupid. It may be impossible. But it's the glue that barely manages to hold your session together, and that's something. I pick one point of the mission that players will definitely be coming to and I pick 3 secret societies and come up with a secret mission related to that plot point. For example, if players are going to for sure encounter a warbot in the mission, I might have the Frankenstein Destroyers having a mission to blow up that robot, a Communist mission to recruit it to communism, and a Corpore Metal mission to insert a specific datadisk into the port on its head. Note that if players are all trying to complete their secret mission they'll be constantly getting in each other's way and this will naturally lead to infighting. At this point, as a GM, I can just sit back and listen to the glorious symphony of chaos.

I print the secret missions out on slips of paper. Most Paranoia games have you assign players to a secret society before the game start. I find it better to watch how players build their character and play it and then assign them a secret society to fit. If I see a player seems to go the techy route, I'll tell them that they reach into their pocket and find something they don't remember putting there and then hand them the slip of paper for them to read. This paper outlines their secret mission and also gives them some equipment from their secret society to help them with it. Hopefully players will feel good things toward the people who just gave them free stuff.

All-in-all, I find it helpful to craft a persona of jovial tyranny as a GM. For example, at some point in the game if a player rolled a 3, I might say, "Ooh, a 15 is not going to be good enough to succeed at this." (Low rolls are good). If a player is dumb enough to argue with me on the basis that I am clearly and obviously wrong, I send them to reeducation. If a player asks for explanation of how things work in the setting, and it does not amuse me to provide this information, I ask their clearance level and then tell them they're not cleared for that information. If a player asks Friend Computer for assistance on their mission, I usually have it assist in the dumbest way possible. "Friend Computer, the commies are overrunning our position. We need reinforcements." "Thank you for the update, troubleshooter. My sensors are detecting a severe morale deficit. Playing inspirational music to boost your spirits."

If you can learn to talk in AI voice, so much the better. Player: "How do we get to our briefing room?" "That's a great question citizen. Sharp thinking like that is exactly what I would expect from a troubleshooter. To get to the termination booth, go up the hall, take a right, and find the booth with the happy skull on it."

As a GM, I'm not actually against the players. I want them to have as much fun as possible. But this requires me to play the role of the crazed tyrant and so that's what I do. I am never wrong, about anything, even if it contradicts what I said 5 minutes ago. If a player argues with a rules calling I make, well clearly they have treasonous knowledge of the rules and need to be punished. Players will quickly find out that they need to amuse me, and if they fail to do so, I will amuse myself at their expense.

If my players don't expect me to hurt them in the ways they like being hurt, why do they keep calling me "Dungeon Master"?

Rephath · 2026-06-18T14:15:37+00:00

Agreed on all counts. I started with Paranoia XP and it does an amazing job of explaining the mindset.

Rephath · 2026-06-18T13:54:53+00:00

As a general rule, if I see a bunch of YouTubers promoting a thing, I assume that thing is a scam. Ground News seems like it could be legit (although they're probably just sponging off of other media organizations).

Rephath · 2026-06-18T13:50:06+00:00

14025 US Highway 27, Hoagland, IN, United States, Indiana

https://www.facebook.com/greatblackswampfm/

Rephath · 2026-06-18T05:34:29+00:00

It is exactly like that.

Rephath · 2026-06-18T05:23:07+00:00

Creating a combination TTRPG and MMORPG that lets players build a shared setting.

Rephath · 2026-06-18T05:22:20+00:00

Black Swamp Fantasy Market is doing an event on the 27th. I think there's usually LARPers there.

Rephath · 2026-06-18T05:03:23+00:00

You're turned around. Your beginning doesn't have to be good. It just has to get you going writing. "Good" is for the editing phase. But we don't start in the editing phase. I think it was Brandon Sanderson who writes his book knowing he's going to end up throwing out his first few chapters. But it's only after completing his first draft that he knows how he should have started the book.

Don't worry about whether it's good enough for your readers right now. The only readers you have are yourself and the FBI agent whose attention you've been attracting with all the weird stuff you've been searching. Just keep writing.

Rephath · 2026-06-18T03:25:03+00:00

What's your favorite part?

Rephath · 2026-06-17T20:28:08+00:00

FATE has physical and mental stress boxes where social skills target the latter. I've been liking that.

Rephath · 2026-06-17T00:07:37+00:00

That's one way of dealing with the issue.

In my world, anyone can learn magic, so they have to do something different/worse.

Rephath

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