@Cyclone
I disagree that gods need to be broadly weaker. One of the things I like about Divinus is the sheer power you wield. The reason we want Gods to be weaker, if I'm not mistaken, is to avoid abuses where we nuke planets and the like. If we lessened their creative powers to do this, I feel like it would be detracting from Divinus. However, limiting their destructive power without altering their creative power allows players to retain the feeling of god-like power without risking wanton destruction.
That's a really big and fundamental point of contention that doesn't leave us with much to debate or negotiate on; you either see it from my side or yours, and one of us is just going to end up being displeased with whatever outcome is decided upon.
I find it infinitely more interesting if the scope is restricted to one planet (and maybe a few small, separate planes like an underworld etc.) rather than an entire universe, and I similarly like the idea of gods not being such overbearingly strong forces. This gives a reason for more interaction with mortals, anyways, if mortals are actually useful in helping gods to achieve their objectives as compared to just ants to poke at or fuel to chuck into holy sites.
(P.S. In Kho's words: "Gods need to be powerful, semi-transcendent beings with tremendous power." I feel this is a core part of Divinus.)
I don't care about maintaining any form of tight cohesion between the two RPs. I'm fine with it having big fundamental changes, as most of these proposed changes are.
The initial planet, I think, should have basic continents and oceans and a good atmosphere and stuff like that, but no life (or only mundane life. Nothing sentient or magical or monstrous)
I actually quite like the idea of our gods arriving to a world in a primoridal chaos with humans already present, as well as mythical monsters and the sort. It would be through the actions of our gods (or some of them, at least) that civilization would actually rise; the worst of the monsters would be slain, imprisoned, or subjugated and leave behind memories of a time of legends.
This does impose difficulty in defining exactly what sort of monsters etc. would already be there, admittedly. I'm still partial to having primitive humans and basic life already there, though.
What is gained by discarding Fate and Amul? Lore-wise, they provide coherency within the Divinus multiverse. They can also be used to give direction to the gods, even as simple as a quick speech at the opening. And it gives the gods something greater than themselves to potentially interact with, and call upon for help if need be. Mechanically, they give the GMs a ready-to-use tool for intervening with IC affairs if necessary without having to contrive something ex nihilio or bend their own characters to do it.
A more sandboxy and free feel as well as freedom from a vague backstory that I'm not all that fond of. GM intervention would be a last resort in my idealized vision; for the most part, if one god is being overly destructive and a dick, I think that it should fall to the other players to stop him. If nobody does, then he rampages and run loose. Only if the story is utterly stagnating or something extreme happens (ie alliance of chaos gods threatening to scour all of creation) should some ex nihilo event need to happen with GM intervention. Because we'd plan on trying to avoid the need for such things, I dislike having the Primordial Beings primed and loomed over us like a bucket of water rigged to the top of a door.
If you have a God of Water, can you also have a God of Rain? Rain would normally be a subset of Water, but here we have an interesting clash of specialisations; the Water God is equally good at all water things, but the Rain God is very good at rain but no good at any other water things...Portfolios are acquired on a first-come first-served basis during the course of the game, so dropping all restrictions (including Domains) turns the game into a free-for-all Portfolio land grab.
I very much like this. Why? Because I advocate for the ability to steal portfolios, similar to how holy sites can be stolen. Think of the Olympians usurping the titans.
Thoughts?
I'll explain what role Domains do have: they provide a description of what your god is broadly good at, without laying exclusive claim to it. It maintains the division between being broadly good at something (Domain) and being highly specialised in something (Portfolio). Discarding Domains removes this division. You could get away with it. Doing so would allow for gods with more diverse skill sets. But you'd very much change the dynamic of how Divinus Gods work.
For instance, having the Crafting Domain means I am broadly good at crafting, and I then claim Portfolios which indicate areas in which I am extremely skilled. Without Domains, I would have had to choose the Crafting Portfolio, then picked what are essentially sub-Portfolios, or else I would have lacked the breadth of skill I had otherwise.
I concede you have some fair points in there, especially about how domains give a very broad idea of what your god is good at. I still would prefer not having them, though. Just as a guy who has worked as a carpenter, construction worker, and lumberjack would probably be better at building houses than a guy who has worked as a pilot and racecar driver, I'd say getting several portfolios in one general 'domain' would make you start to get pretty good at related things even if you haven't fully claimed them as portfolios.
As a compromise: new Domains should be easier to acquire. Kho's current version of Divinus Lite says you can get your second Domain at Level 10, third at Level 15, and so on. I propose that instead you should be able to get your second Domain at Level 5, third at Level 10, and so on. The wait to acquire new Domains even here is too long.
It's a good start, but I'd be happier if you could just start with 2 or 3 portfolios from the get-go. It's annoying to think that to make a Hermes-inspired character you'd first have to contrive some weird domain that fits all or most of his aspects. Then, you'd have to pick just one portfolio and slowly get all the others over time.
Obviously I don't advocate for the ability to start with 5 or 6 distinct portfolios to cover the whole diaspora of things that make Hermes the god he is, but I'd like enough to be able to bear some resemblance instead of just a really hollow shell that you spend a long time trying to slowly fill in.
As for conflicting Domains/Portfolios and allowing Portfolios outside your thematic reach: it depends how much we want to build in niche protection. The current system protects each God's area of specialty. I don't have to worry about Jvan getting better at building robots than Teknall; Jvan doesn't have to worry about Teknall getting better at making life than her; Astarte doesn't have to worry about Ilunabar getting better at magic than her; and so on.
<Snipped quote by Cyclone>
Just because something forces bending, breaking and working around it does not mean it is bad, especially in something where there is more fun in the journey than in the destination. The use of Domain + Portfolio is one of the key factors that differentiates Divinus from other Divine RPs, I also particularly think its one of the things that helped us to have such a unique pantheon vs the overall genericness you can see in similar systems.
It allows enough mutability so the characters are not stuck with their initial concepts, but it places enough limits to encourage creative thinking and close the easy path to commonplace concepts that other RPs are filled with.
Firstly I dispute your notion that forcing more specialization in the form of taking just portfolios instead of hugely broad domains like 'change' or 'chaos' would somehow make the characters more generic. I think you've got it backwards.
Secondly, this goes back to me not seeing the need to make this Divinus-lite stay very faithful to this Divinus. It's in a very different section, appealing to a different crowd. Let it be different and stand on its own as a sister RP and not some simplified replica.
We already have this RP operating under such mechanics, anyways. I like the idea of making some radical changes and seeing how they turn out. If it does turn out to be less to your liking and somehow more 'generic' (even though I think god RPs are hardly common) then you'd still have this Divinus to turn back to.
