The Cold War of The Gods (A Fantasy RPG Setup)

If you've been playing TTRPGs for long enough, there is a question you've no doubt come across several times in your career; why us? Whether it's a group of no-account drunks and thugs being asked to save a kingdom from the depradations of a lich lord, or some relative nobodies being given the task to close a hell rift, it can often feel disporportionate. After all, there are real heroes in the setting who have powers and abilities far beyond our simple level 3 party... why aren't you asking them to do it?

Or, the one that gets a lot of us in trouble, why aren't the gods handling these problems? Whether it's demons leaking through a breach in the abyss, or malignant forces belched forth from the darkness between the stars, where are the gods in this whole setup? Why do mortals have to fight these battles?

And that is where the idea of the Cold War of The Gods comes in. I found this on TikTok from Nobody Important, link to the original video is here.

Take this, and do what needs to be done.

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Proxy Wars in Your Setting

For those whose history books didn't cover the topic, I'm going to lay out a few generalities of the Cold War.

So, during the heights of the twin superpowers of the USSR and the USA, tensions were running very high. These two nations both had massive nuclear arsenals, huge armies, and they weren't shy about using them... however, both sides understood that open war with everything they had was a losing proposal. This would lead to Mutually Assured Destruction, or MAD for short. And what was the point of fighting a war that would literally destroy everything and everyone?

Not much, since you ask.

The result of this was that both nations (and to some extent their allies) entered into proxy wars. They would offer arms, training, funding, and backing to a force they didn't directly control, and which was going to take actions they approved of. One of the most famous, of course, was the U.S. training the mujahideen fighters who would act as guerrilla forces against Soviet-held targets and interests. This would, of course, bite the U.S. when the very forces they trained turned on them because their interests no longer aligned (this will become important later). However, the point was that while both sides of the Cold War were engaged in spycraft, building up proxies and influence, etc., they could not take direct, overt action against one another without setting off the powder keg.

You can take this same setup, and apply it to the worldbuilding for your game.

Perhaps, in the long ago, the gods warred on the world. This incident may have been an apocalyptic event, nearly destroying everything. This would, naturally, have led to the sides who wanted to rule (not just destroy) the world to withdrawing, each menacing the other to keep them off the material plane as much as possible. They would build influence through religions, through selecting personal agents in the form of clerics, paladins, oracles, witches, and warlocks. They may even influence others, sending their lesser servants to act as guides and backers, ensuring that those who may not really be invested in one side or the other can still act in service to one of the great powers who is jockeying for position on the board.

How You Can Use This Setup

If you choose to put this setup in place, it provides you a great deal of interesting leeway when it comes to your plot, and the position of your party in the Great Game. If you need a convenient way to give out loot, divine intervention could literally lead your party to find items that are far greater than they should normally have (as in the TikTok example above with the holy avenger), which might lead to them asking what they need such items to do? It might lead your party, no matter how small they are in level, being used to fight in a series of proxy actions that seem unconnected, but when viewed from a divine perspective are all parts of a great whole. You could even use this setup to create antagonists, such as proxies who once fought for a given divine power, but who have now turned their backs to fight against that same divine power, once their initial enemies were overcome (told you to remember the mujahideen).

As the Game Master, you can choose to make this the blatant setup of your campaign, with the PCs playing a role in the ongoing divine power struggle for dominance and influence. Or you can choose to leave that running in the background, only occasionally cropping up to intersect with the adventures your PCs are currently on. Which one you choose is up to you!

However, if you're looking for some extra inspiration, consider checking out some of the following:

- Keeping Gods Mysterious Maintains Their Mystique In Your Game: A simple collection of advice for making sure the divine stay beyond the common experience of mortals.

- Gods of Sundara (Pathfinder and DND 5E): The unique setup for gods in my Sundara: Dawn of a New Age setting may be of interest for folks who are looking for a Cold War style setup.

- 100 Random Oracular Pronouncements: The gods often speak through oracles, but if you need unique pronouncements to drive the PCs in a particular direction, this may be of some assistance.

Also, if you need a little advice for keeping the cloak and dagger in the divine, check out the video I made about this very topic below!

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Fluff post. To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel, or my Rumble channel The Literary Mercenary! Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, my hardboiled gangland noir series starring a bruiser of a Maine Coon with Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!

It's 2022, And You Can Finally Find Me on YouTube and TikTok

There's an old saying that tells us insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, yet expecting a different result. And in a racket that requires you to command as many eyeballs as possible in order to make sure you can reach a big enough audience to actually keep the lights on and tacos in your tummy, this hits particularly close to home. I've been running this blog for going on a decade, and while I have no intention of stopping, I have decided to try branching out into other mediums at the repeated urging of several of my readers.

So if you're one of the people out there who've been waiting to see me on YouTube and/or TikTok, you'll find me guest-starring on the Azukail Games channel, and regularly updating my own content on TableTopTips! So before you do anything else make sure to subscribe there to stay on top of all the updates.

Before I get into the nitty gritty this week, make sure you subscribe to my weekly newsletter! And if you've got some cash to spare now that the holidays are done (and you'd like to help me keep the content flowing) consider becoming a Patreon patron.

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Lights, Camera, Action?

People have been asking me for years why I didn't make video content to go along with my various blogs and articles. After all, there are dozens of popular YouTube channels, podcasts, and more out there, and it's quickly become a really popular way for players and Game Masters alike to consume their content... so why wasn't I leaping in on that with both feet?

Well, there are a lot of reasons.

First and foremost, you can't just start a YouTube channel, put up some videos, and get paid. As I said in Writers on YouTube? Prepare For an Uphill Battle, the platform has a rather high bar for you to even earn a side hustle as a creator. You need a minimum of a thousand subscribers, along with thousands of hours of watched content in the past year. So unless you get really lucky and something goes viral, leading thousands of people to subscribe and share your video to hell and back, this could take a year or more of work just so you can maybe start getting paid. And it isn't retroactive; you don't get back pay for all the watched hours you earned to get to that point.

When I helped out on Dungeon Keeper Radio for a year and change, and we barely got halfway past the subscriber goal, and nowhere near the watched content goal. TikTok is even stingier when it comes to getting money into creators' hands, with most people's income coming from sponsorships and their audience rather than from the platform directly (no matter how popular they are as creators).

That's bad enough, but there's more.

Secondly, creating video content is a whole different beast than writing blogs and articles. Because while I could still write a snappy script, and I could still make use of the various branches of knowledge I possess, I'd have to learn a whole new set of skills. From editing videos, to adding sound effects, to finding fresh angles and topics, all of that is stuff I wasn't really trained to do. Beyond that, it would require getting hold of new materials and tools, in addition to figuring out how to use them.

So, in short, it would have taken a lot of energy for me to learn a bunch of new skills, and to put several months to several years into this endeavor while likely not earning any extra income, and making no sales. And now that I've gotten started, I can confirm, this is a lot to try to squeeze into an already packed schedule of writing dozens of articles and several game supplements a month.

So Why Did I Finally Do It?

There's another phrase out there that often gets bandied about by folks trying to make a living doing what I do. "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take." So while it is definitely unlikely that I will make a living (or even an additional, small side income) making video content, I figured I should at least give it my best shot and see what I can manage.

However, I'm hedging my bets.

This is why, for example, I'm choosing to help out on the Azukail Games YouTube page instead of trying to make my own channel. This allows me to collaborate with other creators, and it means that all of us are bending our efforts toward getting views, monetizing the channel, and getting more eyes on the stuff we make. It also means that we can all reap the rewards once we reach that goal. this allows me to create content as I have time and energy, and to ask for help and tips from others so it's not just me trying to do everything all on my own. Again.

As for TikTok... well, I don't actually expect to make any real money off of it. Mostly it was just to test the waters, and to see what I see. Currently my most popular piece of advice, Game Masters, Liven Up Your Taverns, hasn't even broken 1k views. The platform doesn't let me share sales links for my supplements, and the extremely short-form video means I need to get to the point quickly... but who knows, it just might be the thing that catches folks' eyes and leads them to the rest of my work. And even if it doesn't, those videos are far easier to produce, so they take up far less in terms of time, energy, and resources.

What Can You Do To Help?

As with anything else, if you want to see me actually produce more video content, then help support the endeavor! Share videos you enjoy, leave some likes, and subscribe to the Azukail Games YouTube channel, and TableTopTips if you want to see them get bigger. If you've got suggestions for topics you'd like to see me cover regarding game design, or about any of my products, then leave them in the comments below! And, of course, if you become a Patreon patron that support would allow me to make more time for creating more varied content, rather than focusing purely on things that have the biggest paycheck attached to them.

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday. To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the YouTube channel Dungeon Keeper Radio. Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my cat noir thriller Marked Territory, its sequel Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!