Inspired by magical realism and mythos across the world, this game borrows bits and bobs from American Gods and The Old Guard to develop a character-driven RP set in a fictional Appalachian town. With a population of just under 2000 people, Goodluck is innocuous enough to not catch the world's attention. Whether it starts snowing in July or raining frogs, few people are ever around to notice. And the ones who are just shrug and call it home.
It begs the question, though...if belief is enough to make gods real, what do worship and divinity and blessings look like in the 21st century? What's it like to be a human amongst gods? And if omnipotence is hanging out in a diner in Kentucky, who's pulling the world's strings?
im sorry, this might be obvious, but do you have a list of taken gods? or some suggestions of powerful gods you would like to see
Ooo, I'll make a page with taken gods listed out later this evening, but for now, I'll just list them here:
Ares (Greek)
Aristaeus (Greek)
Athena (Greek)
Eros (Greek)
Lugh (Irish)
The Morrigan (Celtic)
Papa Legba (Haitian Vodou)
As you can see, we're heavy on Greek gods--which is all good, we love 'em! But for the sake of some variety, it'd be cool to see gods from other pantheons. We typically hesitate to make too many specific suggestions, 'cause above all else, we like to welcome characters that inspire YOU. But off the top of my head, here's a variety of deities I've really loved learning about over the years that could make cool characters:
how would yall feel about some (greek) death gods coming into town? makaria, thanatos, keres, ect?
We'd welcome it! We've already got The Morrigan, which while not exclusively a death god, still dabbles in that trade. So there'd certainly be a place for them!
“People believe, thought Shadow. It’s what people do. They believe. And then they will not take responsibility for their beliefs; they conjure things, and do not trust the conjurations. People populate the darkness; with ghosts, with gods, with electrons, with tales. People imagine, and people believe: and it is that belief, that rock-solid belief, that makes things happen.”
Name: Nicolas "Nico" Bakirtzis
Being: God
Occupation: Maker and seller of goods (herbal remedies, cheese, wine, honey, etc.)
Traits: Impulsive, Inconsiderate, Focused
Headcanons:
He’s planted a vegetable and herb garden surrounding his trailer.
He tends to wander off and disappear for days at a time, usually not giving much of an explanation for his retreats.
He’s in the process of trying to acquire a herd of sheep, which is what most of his proceeds from selling his things go to. He’s put a small stall in front of his trailer, where people can buy his wares. It’s unmanned and works on a trust basis.
Bio:
Nico does not care much for their old life. Initially born as the mortal son of Apollo, and raised by his mother Cyrene, he was fed Ambrosia and elevated into the ranks of the Greek Pantheon. Being raised by Cyrene, who preferred shepherding and hunting over “womanly” crafts and arts, Nico soon enough found their passion - shepherding as they spent days on the field with their mother and useful arts, filling in the gaps in their life that her mother’s rejection left.
Nico never cared much for godly affairs, instead spending their immortal life learning, acquiring and perfecting whatever skills their godly relatives would teach them. From healing, beekeeping, agriculture, animal husbandry to stonemasonry, blacksmithing, weaving and more - Nico was soaking up knowledge and learning. He was never a truly popular god, one with legends and stories weaved around him, but with his domains, there was always enough worship going around to keep him going. Even when he left Greece, to travel the world and learn.
The years between them leaving Greece and coming to Goodluck are a blur, mostly spent in pursuit of knowledge. The industrialization presented a struggle - the arts changing, shifting, both becoming more potent but estranged from what they had once been, turning from art into something Nico could barely recognize, even as he learned their methods.
Goodluck provided a safe haven from a world where somebody like Nico had become obsolete and his domains had become bastardized versions of what they once were. Nico retreated to the trailer park, setting up his own trailer out of which he lives. They make most of what they can themselves, practicing the arts in ways which they were meant to, even as memory of such times are fading.
How did your character end up in Goodluck? Was the journey arduous? Was it pure serendipity? Maybe they're a local (or near enough to it), but why do they stay?
Like all tasks, this one is optional. It's meant to be an opportunity for character development and can be purely text-based or include images and links to audio. Whatever helps you tell their story!
(Please tag with #goodluck.task so we can follow along!)
Name: Max(ine) Ophir
Being: City Spirit without a city
Occupation: odd jobs— minor mechanical fixes, painting houses, handyman work, she's already intrigued by moonshine making.
Traits: blunt/direct, curious/nosy to the point of discomfort at times, restless explorer
Headcanons:
She's spent a large part of her time since her city drowned learning about what she is, visiting other city spirits. She's no longer powerful enough to communicate with them easily though.
Loves hands-on work.
Bio:
Max came to be in a town called Ophir, a logging town in Washington state. She's young enough that she still remembers it: a moment of wavering consciousness that caught first small and smoky and then grew as the town grew. At first she wasn’t strong enough to even have form, was simply a presence, once that grew in small increments with every house built, with every resident who made the place their home, was grateful to be there. She watched, and did what she could for those who loved Ophir: small favors, small pieces of luck, some not noticed because they were small aversions preventing disaster.
The town grown, and so did Max. Electricity arrived and she took joyfully to the wires, watching the people, her people, a as presence singing like electricity. She could be a person now, but felt it a poor imitation at first. And so she came to Ophir as a stranger, one who the residents felt oddly tender towards, as if Max was so long lost but distantly loved relative. She worked manual labor, hands on the city she loved.
And then the government came. The town was to be drowned, though that wasn’t the word they used. The truth was couched in promises of relocation money, for the good of the state, a brand new city built at the shores of the lake. It would be years before the project was completed but already people who’d once loved Ophir began to move away. Some stubborn folks stayed and Max clung to their love, until they too were dragged away. And then the town was drowned and Max was alone. She’s been wandering over the land since then, traveling light and working odd jobs, looking for a place to call home.
We do! We basically treat tumblr like the canon receptacle to keep things organized and archive-able, so that's where standard threads are written back and forth. But discord is totally open to in-character stuff, and any IC interaction that happens on discord that you want to treat as "canon" material, you post it to tumblr.
Most channels are hidden until you apply and are accepted, but our general chat is public so folks can check it out: Goodluck Discord
Since the eclipse earlier in the week, residents of Goodluck have observed strange animal behavior and curious weather-related phenomena. But as odd as it's been, none of it interrupted their day-to-day lives.
...Until a tourist on a road trip uploaded a video that she'd captured while passing through Goodluck and the damn thing went viral. All it shows is two short, pale figures, bearded and holding hands as they dart away from the road into the tree-line. But something about their eyes has people unsettled, so now news stations and self-professed cryptozoologists are nosing around town, demanding answers.
Most of the fine people of Goodluck are irritated, stuck dealing with absurd inquiries from conspiracy theorists when they've got better things to do. But others want answers as well.
What the hell is roaming out in the woods?
(All town plot drops are meant to provide context and be a possible inciting incident. Participation is entirely optional. Your characters don't have to engage in any threads that address it, but it's still going on around them.)
Hey there! Quick question - would you accept a character embodying Cerberus, or the Minotaur? Not quite demigods, but god-adjacent, haha. Thanks for your time!
Absolutely. As long as the character has a human form/face claim to present as, then that totally works! I mean hell, one guy's a leprechaun, lol. For the sake of classification in the application, we'd consider the character a demigod, but each character can have whatever relationship to godliness or humanness you like!
