Call them what you want. Worshipers, Thralls, Devotees or even Groupies.

The character with this Power is able to draw on the psychic energy of any being who is completely devoted tho the character or their cause. Suggestions are one point of power for every Devotee or one point towards an attribute for every 10 or 100(depends on your game) Devotees the character may have.

Just think of anything you may have read where the old Gods indicated they had lost their powers as they began to lose their followers. They were gaining Power from their Worshipers and translating that into Characteristics beyond imagining.

I have been hinting at an idea for years now about gods.   To be a god, in my game, you must fit two critieria,  you must have knowledge of the language of creation to the poing that you can grant sorcerous power and you absorb souls.

Worshipers souls ( their total experience points) go to their god when they die.    This is how the god gains experience and therefore power.    God  ( the big kahuna) is cool with this cause the total experience points of the god goes to HIM when the god dies.

Think of a droplet of water.  People are tiny drops and their droplet combines with the lake that is their god when they die.   And the lake combines with God when the god dies.   So, in effect,  godhood is a kind of spiritual feudalism.

In the game sense for it to be an actual power for let's say an NPC Villian it's more controlled. A few hundred Devotees all packed into the Dread Temple and The High Priest is now Supercharged.

Look at the Power in another way for short term and call it Absorbtion Power: Sacrifice. Now give all the stolen stats to the receiver of the Absorbtion for a short time. Sacrifice the Winner of the Lacrosse Game so your God ends up with the Best stats since the assumption is only the strongest most gifted would win.

Oh, By the way. You should be scared of what I have in mind. Or maybe Silent Fury should.

One of our GMs did something very much like this, for some Middle Eastern gods.  Their power level was totally dependent on how many worshippers and followers they had.  The heroes used disinformation and counter-brainwashing techniques on the masses to lessen their power.

The Cougar wrote on Jun 6^th, 2011 at 5:24pm:


Very cool idea, Cougar!  Often our heroes go straight for the main baddie, and this would be an excellent way of making that suddenly not the best strategy.

Gerry,

Bumping this up for you.

This is very similar to a gang in my game called the Bones Gang.  They start with getting tattoos on their hands of the bones in the hand - start with fingers as an initiate, move up to the hand, the forearm, the arm, eventually covering the upper body like a Yakuza tattoo.

The tattoos are a power focusing point where each guy in the tree provides 1/10 of his power and HP to the guy above him in the tree.  This passes on up and up as it progresses.

The players have only ever met members of the fingers and hands style so far.  If we get to play again, they'll see more of this in action, eventually dealing with Papa Bones (the leader of the gang) - had to edit and correct the name.  Found my notes and it was Papa Bones (going for a very voodoo final theme with this gang).

I'm running a game where the characters are slowly supposed to realize that in the world of superheroes.. they are the nascent awakening of the Modern New Gods... {sort of like Niel Gaimen's - American God's Novel} not all superheroes fall into this category but some very special few do.  All the players - perhaps... will become these New Modern Gods.  But the old gods in some fashion or another may still be out there.

One of the characters is called Umbra [Body Power - {2x End}, Non-corporal {not vs light powers}, Darkness, Devitalization Ray, Paralysis Ray, Item: Staff of the Anaad {Death Touch, Revitalization}]... she is aware or at least believes herself to be the reincarnation of [Ahmose-Nefertari] the deified Egyptian Queen long dead.

My npc who is there as an adventure foil and to give some direction in the story and some added firepower as needed for the small group is Sun Phoenix [Natural Weapon/Power-blast 'starsword', Willpower, Wings, Heightened CHR, Mutant power {part light control/part flame powers}, Body Power {2x CON, longevity}]

They just fought off and managed to kill.. much to my surprise the 'Star Devouer', summoned by Maratukku, and cultists.. with some minor help from Mother Superior... also a 'divinely empowered' villian/zealot.. {they are not sure about her}.  I included her as she was a great npc complication as she saw Umbra as a vile pegan sinner! 

But when the Star Devourer showed up... all 1,100,000lbs of Bhole - Cthulian monster controlled by the Old Ones servant Maratukku who is possessed of one of Marduk [the ancient Babylonian God's] secret 50 names... let's just say Mother Superior felt that there was a need for compromise in the face of Cosmic Eldritch "True Evil"! 

It was Umbra's death touch power from her 'Staff of the Anaad' that EVENTUALLY killed the Star Devourer... plus she revived, eventually, all those slain in its rampage... something Mother Superior could not do with the power of her belief!

Great Game.

...the next adventure is the Earth Empress.. also a divinely 'sort of' empowered foe.  A New Old Goddess!

However, I'm not sure how to introduce divine power in the group.  You can't really develop new powers in the game system.  though you could simulate it with a Invention or two.

Perhaps I could urge them to each 'invent' some signature item as their {unknown to them} "Divine Focus".. that they eventually add the Absorption power worshipers too?

Suggestions?

This sucks. I would reply to my own post but there would be a bunch of Spoilers for John and Silent Fury. Not that he gets to play him much but with Gerry adding a character we should increase.

I am still actually stuck on the Absorption of Worshippers Stats so far.

I was looking to base it off Charisma and Level but not sure how to brake it up. I figure with a character like Gerry is creating he already has a crazy Charisma of 40 I believe. Now really he should have much more followers than that with such a high charisma but I would say he has 40 absolutely DEVOTED followers. Zealot types.

It's almost more like a Psionic Power than absorbtion. I see it like he is absorbing just based off the fact that the followers are thinking of either him or the "Cause" that day which is what is transferring the power.
Not proximity and Absorbtion really or you get stuck with limited ranges. I don't see the Old Gods being stuck with that type of limitation.

In regards to the Inventions I agree with Majestic though I would let them Take the items from defeated foes. Instead of having internal charges I would let the character be the living Battery and only Meta Humans with the special abilities could actually use them. To normals they would just be useless.

I have changed this up a little.

The Character gains devote Followers equal to their Charisma score. They may have more followers but the absolute core Zealots are the ones tied to the power.

Based off average Stats of 10 for each score the Character may Absorb either Power Points or Stats form these individuals. 10% of either.

Example a Character with a Cha of 15 can Absorb of to 15 points of Stats from the Thralls and assign them however they like.

If the Character chooses to Absorb PR points instead they can absorb 10% of the total for the group. We use an additional Stat of Will so the average person has 50PR. 15X50=750x10%=75 Pr. This regenerates as whatever rules you use for Power Regenerating. It is being filtered through other individuals who are assumed to be not exerting themselves.

Increase the overall Power by increasing your Charisma. The Gm and Player can think of other ways to increase also.

A nasty and evil Character may choose to actually train in increasing the percentage they may Absorb. Keep in mind these are actual points being taken from other individuals who trust the Character. Increasing the percent decreases their Stats or Power Points. It may not Kill them but it makes them more vulnerable.

Bump

I'd recommend making Regeneration work free of charge (no PR or action cost) between-turns.  The Regeneration as written is pretty weak sauce (enough so that most of my players discard it for another power).

Good point.  And you're right, in movies, it seems like they often take an action (of course much of that is for effect).

Bumping this up for my own use, and to make it easier to find. I also fixed a typo.