God Rules: Players Guide (5e)

[Upper_Krust]

While still over a month away from release (I know, sorry), I thought I would share the cover, logo and title of the new book and see what you all thought. Cover art is by Carlos Villas (though I have made a few tweaks to the runes myself). I am working on the new website and will hopefully get that up and running soon and you can see a bunch of the interior art. Trying to keep the book to 400 pages, but it might slip past that amount.

 

[Akira Whitlock]

Exciting to see more material published.
Text wise how much lore will be packed into these two books? I really enjoyed the plot Hooks on the bestiary and the flavor texts for the IHB.

 

[Upper_Krust]

Howdy Akira buddy!

Exciting to see more material published.

Yes its about time.

Text wise how much lore will be packed into these two books?

As much as possible*, though I am starting to get a bit self-conscious about the page count going over 400 pages.

I don't want the book to become unwieldy at the table (if that makes any sense).

*That said, there are about 20 stat-blocks in the book (some sample immortals for either Purviews or Divine Ranks and others summoned by Epic Spells) and I have condensed to 2 pages (including 1 page for the art). So its a short write-up + Lore (I folded the Lore and Adventure Ideas into the same thing) + Realm details in one column and then the stat-block in the other column.

But in the Bestiary, named immortals with Realms and 'big' monsters will get 4-page treatment rather than 2.

I really enjoyed the plot Hooks on the bestiary and the flavor texts for the IHB.

I think aside from the rules themselves (this book is basically a simplified 5e Ascension + Grimoire + Gods & Monsters all rolled into one) the big new 'thing' is the new dimensional structure. Which has some new dimensions and all the 'old' dimensions from 3.5E are split into two (along a Michael Moorcock law-chaos style split).

ie. Kuvachim is the 8th dimension which you all know as the Diamond Heaven, basically an infinite diamond wall where every facet is a different multiverse. But now there is also its counterpart Bohu, which are the black facets on the wall. These are dead multiverses. Except that all the black facets lead to the same nasty place. So its a sort of cosmic chess game where diamond and black 'pieces' battle across an infinite playing board.

Space being at a premium and this being a Player's Guide, not a Setting Guide, I can't detail these dimensions more than a handful of paragraphs. Plus I know if I try to add more pages the whole thing will snowball into another chapter and I would rather save that for another book.

Obviously Epic Bestiary 1 (with 100+ Epic Monsters) will detail monsters from some of these realms and dimensions (again as space allows).

 

[Distracted DM]

Looking forward to checking this out!

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hey Distracted DM buddy!

Looking forward to checking this out!

I'm interested to see what people think of the simplification of the 3.5e Immortals Handbook mechanics as well as all the new features.

Plus there are a few gods in the book inspired by famous comic book villains I think you will get a kick out of.

 

[ArcanistDragonborn]

It's fantastic to finally see this book come to fruition! Hopefully, all will go well on the final stretch towards release!

-Arcane

 

[Upper_Krust]

Hey Arcanist amigo!

It's fantastic to finally see this book come to fruition! Hopefully, all will go well on the final stretch towards release!

-Arcane

Still a 'bit' to go, we are not in the countdown month just yet, but its going good.

 

[MazzelDazzle]

I am very eager to see any bit of content. We're getting closer and closer and I can't contain myself!

 

[Upper_Krust]

Cheers MazzleDazzle mate!

I am very eager to see any bit of content. We're getting closer and closer and I can't contain myself!

I think the big difference between this book and my 3.5E stuff is going to be the quality of the art and the sheer amount of the art.

The cover I posted is a wrap-around double page illustration of the God Reaper.

There are at least 9 double page spreads of art (one starts off each of the 7 chapters) and probably another 10 where text gets overlaid onto part of a double-page spread. The Divinity chapter has 8 three-quarter page illustrations showcasing the Epic Tier, Immortal Tier, Temporal Tier, Sidereal Tier, Hypereal Tier, Eternal Tier, Perpetual Tier and Supernal Tier. On top of that there are likely about 70+ pages of full colour art and maybe 50 pieces of column length character art.

I saw the art preview for the 2024 PHB and noticed they were doing the same portal 'trick' I was of using in my book. Of course they probably have 100+ people working on the PHB and I'm basically doing everything myself except the art.

So while I am guilty of letting ambition get the better of me (as per usual) for crazily wanting art production approaching the quality of the bigger companies I think ultimately it will pay off in the long run when people are reading the end product. So bare with me just a bit longer.

 

[LunarSquid]

Hey hey, a very welcome update!

It looks awesome, super excited to hear more about the project.