Besides this rulebook, you’ll want a notebook for tracking your character’s abilities and for remembering details about your character’s adventures. You’ll want a pencil so that you can easily change what you write and a pencil sharpener to keep your pencil sharp.
You will also need a set of dice. Look for a 10-die set: it will include one each of all the dice, plus an extra ten-sided die (for rolling d100) and three extra six-sided dice (for rolling abilities). You can also buy your dice separately. You’ll want four six-sided dice, one eight-sided die, one ten-sided die, and one twenty-sided die. If you’re a completist, a sorceror, or an Adventure Guide, you’ll also want a four-sided die, a twelve-sided die, and a ten-sided die with tens on it. Any game store will have them.
Go to http://godsmonsters.com/Game/Dice/ for a demonstration of what these dice look like and how to read them.
Players and Guides
There must be at least three players, four is usually best, and five is fine. Four is often best because it provides the opportunity to roleplay a narrative of three unique heroes: warrior, thief, and one of the supernatural archetypes.
One of the players will be the Adventure Guide. The Adventure Guide will present the adventures to the rest of the players, who will take the role of heroes in this fantasy world. Each player has a character; the Guide’s character is the world.
If the characters enter a town, the people living in that town are the Guide’s responsibility. If the characters open a trapped chest, the Guide not only knows what the trap is, but also what treasures or horrors are inside the chest. The Guide may choose to use treasures, horrors, towns, or complete adventures that were written by someone else. But the effectiveness and tenor of the adventure remain the Guide’s responsibility.
This is not to say that players cannot offer input to the Guide, nor that the Guide may not request such input. Both are recommended. But in the end, the Guide is the world that the characters interact with.
The other players have full control of their hero, their character in the game. When they say “jump”, their character jumps—or tries to. Whether they succeed depends on how effective their ideas are, how lucky their dice are, and what mojo they’re willing to sacrifice.
Do I need to read all this?
If you’re not the Adventure Guide, all you really need to read is the first section, up to Character Archetypes, and possibly up through Sample Characters. The Adventure Guide can help you with the rest of the rules when they become relevant. You do not need to read the Adventure Guide’s Handbook or the Encounter Guide, and shouldn’t, as they will spoil some of the surprises for you.
