Defy the Gods Quick Start
A downloadable game
The world is against you.
A single sword stroke or kiss can change everything.
Your glorious destiny beckons—but beware the monster you may become.
Dare to write your own epic.
Defy the Gods is a queer sword & sorcery adventure-romance set in fantasy ancient Mesopotamia. It's inspired by Clash of the Titans, Conan and Princess Mononoke. Fight jealous gods and cruel tyrants in a world of blood and bronze. Win hearts, betray them, give your own, and slowly rise to monstrous, godlike power.
This is the Quick Start. The full game recently had a successful Kickstarter! You can follow its progress at https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hecticelectron/defy-the-gods-rpg/
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Development log
- Updated Rules7 days ago
- New play sheets available with Quick Start16 days ago
- Last 48 hours to back Defy the Gods!Jul 08, 2025
- New character sheets!Jun 17, 2025
- Full Quick Start now available!Jun 10, 2025
- Updated layoutMay 24, 2025
- New files and live Kickstarter!Apr 30, 2025
- Updated FilesFeb 04, 2025
Comments
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When the full game gets released, will it become available for anyone who purchased this quickstart or will it be a stand-alone purchase? Either way, congratulations on successfully getting it funded! We need more queer content.
Played this at Gencon and really clicked with the system. Character creation has so many good, evocative options to explore, and the use of Epithets adds a fun new dimension to the stardard PBTA. I got the quickstart there - can't wait for the full verison!
This game looks awesome so far! Will definitely back it when I get the funds to. If I may ask, though, how does Sorcery work exactly? I understand the mechanic from how it was described (roll a bunch of dice and look for patterns) but from what I can see I don't think the Sorcerer sheet actually explains that anywhere, or describes how the dice pool works.
Thanks for calling my attention to that! I've updated the PDF
Played this at BigBadCon a couple of days ago, it was great fun. The setting is quite imaginative and the Epithet system adds it's own flavor. I played the Sorcerer which had a mechanic I've not seen before where you cast a spell by rolling dice and looking for patterns, if you don't get any matches then Chaos reigns. Which is glorious.
Thank you, Faye! It was wonderful to have you at the table.
I am playtesting this and it is glorious!! The world we built and the mechanics mesh so well and I’m so excited everytime I get to play in the chaos we have created!
Thank you! Glad you’re enjoying it.
This was the most exciting game I playtested at METATOPIA. Really looking forward to seeing how it's progressed since then.
Thanks, Michael! I’m eager to hear what you think.