Rich Baker on the Spellplague and other stuff.

[FourthBear]

Exactly, in real world mythology and fantasy literature it happens quite a bit.

I agree that it happens in modern fantasy literature fairly often. I'm not convinced at all about in real world mythology. Gods die, but almost never at the hands of human mortals. I can't think of any good examples from the most commonly used pantheons: Egyptian, Greco-Roman, Norse, Chinese or Sumerian. Many stories (particularly in the Greco-Roman and Sumerian mythos) stress just how dangerous and impossible it is for mortals to get even peripherally involved in godly affairs.

 

[Steely Dan]

I'm not convinced at all about in real world mythology.

Yeah, I was probably thinking about Finnish mythology, where the heroes are practically gods.

Thanks, I'll edit my post.

 

[Khairn]

I remember, when we were 14, having a God killing campaign out of Deities & Demigods. And it was fun, but as I matured, so did my campaigns. This isn't going to change for 4e, just like it didn't for 1e, 2e, 3e.

And, "speaks volumes"? Come on, now. I would venture to guess that most (90% or likely even more) people won't have God killing campaigns, and if they did it would be more like the Paizo APs that each ended with an epic Demon/Devil/BBEG/God-like entity being vanquished.

How the designers make the game available to the masses, ie statted Gods (or maybe just avatars), doesn't mean that the game is meant to be played like that. Remember, there is a heric tier and a paragon tier first, and many campaigns will stay within these tiers quite comfortably.

In my experience, which is personal and not meant to be viewed as a blanket assumption for anyone else, players who wanted to go "kill Thor" because it would be cool, GM's who hand out Rods of Ressurection at 1st Lvs, or enabled the 3rd lv characters to discover a dragon's hoard complete with multiple +5 Holy Avengers that they can dual wield, are all examples of a munchkin, power gaming (sorry for the stereotypes) type of game that I truly dislike.

The 4E books haven't been published yet and things may change. To include (even as a reference) the ability to kill a god as an example of the power scale that the developers are working on, is a clear indication (to me) of the kind of game that they are developing.

I know I'm not being forced to play it that way. But as part of the design philosophy it does have an effect on the over-all product and shouldn't be viewed as a component completely divorced from the rest of the game.

Just a few thoughts.

 

[FourthBear]

The 4E books haven't been published yet and things may change. To include (even as a reference) the ability to kill a god as an example of the power scale that the developers are working on, is a clear indication (to me) of the kind of game that they are developing.

Since the context of this thread is the Forgotten Realms and the Spellplague, it seems like it is more than a decade too late for this. Gods starting dying off and slain by mortals (albeit with other god's help) back in the Time of Troubles. Unless we're going to retroactively rewrite the examples of vulnerable gods already in evidence, it's too late for the Realms to suddenly decide that gods are mythic and unassailable.

 

[catsclaw227]

In my experience, which is personal and not meant to be viewed as a blanket assumption for anyone else, players who wanted to go "kill Thor" because it would be cool, GM's who hand out Rods of Ressurection at 1st Lvs, or enabled the 3rd lv characters to discover a dragon's hoard complete with multiple +5 Holy Avengers that they can dual wield, are all examples of a munchkin, power gaming (sorry for the stereotypes) type of game that I truly dislike.

I am not sure how you derived the above statement from the notion that 30th level characters might have a chance to take on a god. No quotes from WOTC claimed that all 30th level PCs will be able to kill a god, but instead it was suggested that it's possible in some campaigns that a 30th level PC could challenge a god.

The 4E books haven't been published yet and things may change. To include (even as a reference) the ability to kill a god as an example of the power scale that the developers are working on, is a clear indication (to me) of the kind of game that they are developing.

Could you be more specific what kind of game you think they are developing? I am curious what you mean by this, since don't have anything as a basis to understand your argument.