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Re: (TFT) New monster --> Tahquitz

While I never enjoyed this type of power gaming, there is
an unappreciated tradition of mortals fighting gods.

-Ty Beard


    'I drive a nail through god's hand.  How much experience do I get?'
The divine theory of high rent. By constantly plaguing the characters with hunger, the need for water, clothing, shelter I find I can siphon off a lot of cash quickly. They are beseiged by charges, fees, mandatory tips, and a complete absence of free information. Everything costs money, a lot of it, and constantly. The characters really feel the pressure. Very soon they realize that the only way they are going to get ahead is to make a big score. Even fourty percent of a big treasure will get them to risk life and limb. Of course, once they find the loot there are the problems of moving it. Particularly if it is more than they can carry at once. And where are they going to move it to. Do they really have a safe place to store it?
This is the impact of divine forces. All pervasive, unescapeable, yet basic. Very basic. Like being able to eat for the day.
There are other divine powers like breathing, actual encumberance, the distance noise travels, even spotting hidden doors. The key to divine power is that all of creation is confronted by them. It's like the guy who made the bubble gum company. He became a millionaire. Five cents at a time. My biggest failing as a GM is inconsistency. Sometimes I would remember to check encumberance, sometimes I wouldn't bother. It's like on some subconcious level I was saying to my players "ahhh, don't worry about how heavy things are. The deity of Gravity is sleeping late this day." I mean really. When was the last time a squad of town guard was sent to find the party and demand back dues for the wizard, merc, and scholar's guilds. I have a feeling that in most campaigns the wizard characters have gone their entire lives without paying one cent to the guild. This is like saying the desire for money is in a coma, but only for NPCs.
But none of this is really the point. What happens if one does attack the divine. Can one drive a stake through the heart of high rent? How does one bleed dry the weight of gold so it can be moved effortlessly. Is there a way to blind thirst, so it can't find you?
I submit that demi-gods are actually those who have trancended the neccessities of life. They never go hungry. Their clothes are always clean and new. And they have lots of money, no one knows where it is, but they have instant access to it. This is the fantasy. That one can just wave their hand and the broken sword is whole again. One doesn't need to mount an armed expedition just to find a smithy. This is what makes the spells magical. A flight spell somehow suspends the law of gravity. By making the basics more real it gives greater power to the spells. Even the most basic ones. I feel that Steve Jackson's aversion to actively played gods is the right move. At the time he wrote it most people's ideas of dieties was a D&D package of bigger numbers. Yet at the same time Steve Jackson moved away from avatars his game mechanics are more consistent and intuitive.
In conclusion I would like to say that the Taqhuitz is just right. (Of course I'm not sure if after what I've said above, that Rick Smith would actually want me to be agreeing with him.) It's big and strong, yet strangely weak and fearfull. It seems to be interested in inscrutable minuta. And some how it knows that its demize will come from the most unlikely and innocent place. Maybe a seven year old boy armed with a stick of butter. 

    David Michael Grouchy II


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