The Creation

It was down to me, the bird and the wax tablet.
I was sitting in the train's restaurant, pretending to concentrate on the menu. Looking at the windows, one could have imagined that the train was advancing at a leisurly pace through the countryside. I knew better.
Perched on the opposite seat, the Demiurge Bird was looking at me. It had been looking at me for hours, with its presumably omniscient gaze, waiting for me to continue our earlier conversation. Waiting for me to give up.
In the end, I did.

• Alright. Tell me, I asked.
• Pick up the tablet, said the Demiurge Bird, and fill it.
• And then, I'll be a god?
• You'll be *a* god, it said, introducing some emphasis on the "a" that I couldn't quite understand.
• What should I write on the tablet?
• What god do you want to be?
• Is there more than one kind?

The Demiurge Bird didn't deign answer.
I gave up, once again. I picked up the stylus and starting fashioning my world.
The Demiurge Bird gave me all the time I needed to damn myself.

Divine Comedians is a game designed to let you play petty gods, with all their power, all their intrigues, and all the existential fears that come from not being entirely sure that they represent the highest power in their sandbox.
The first step before playing Divine Comedians is to create not only the characters, but the very setting in which their adventures will take place. By opposition to most role-playing games, the Game Master has a rather minor role at that stage, taking notes and acting as a facilitator rather than an omnipotent designer.
Let us see how this Session 0 takes place.

Core Rule: Rules are guidelines

In Divine Comedians, rules are guidelines, not divine commands. Feel free to modify, ignore or contradict a rule entirely, if it improves the story. This is true both during Session 0 and during Gameplay.

Important note

Session 0 takes time and energy. Depending on the role-playing games you are used to, it can take much more time and energy than you are used to.
The GM should make it clear to Players that Session 0 requires the involvement of everyone. If a Player is present but not participating, they will be missing out on much of the interest of Divine Comedians.
Also, don't hesitate to take breaks!

In the following sections, we'll see with considerable details and examples how a group of Comedians and their setting are created. The core concepts are the following:

• The game has five Attributes: Backstage (think Mount Olympus), Stage (the mundane world), Presence (whatever makes Comedian godlike beings), Whispers (their natural enemies) and Favour/Disfavour (luck and fate). Both Comedians and the setting itself are divided along these Attributes.
• Where most games have Players buy or roll for Attributes or Skills, Divine Comedians has them go through a Bidding War to determine who's strongest in each Attribute. No Skills, Comedians are above mere skills.
• Where most games are based either an a printed setting or one invented by the GM, in Divine Comedians, the setting is designed during Session 0 by Players asking questions from Players with higher bids in the relevant Attribute. It is later refined during gameplay by Players and GM asking further questions.
• Where most games have a more or less clear scale of what each Attribute or Skill lets characters do easily, written down in the rulebook, in Divine Comedians, the Levels Ladder is designed during Session 0 and later refined, once again by Players asking questions from Players with higher bids in the relevant Attribute. Again, it is later refined during gameplay by Players and GM asking further questions.
• More most games have inventories of some kind, possibly including lists of spells, Comedians typically have whatever they need unless it contradicts the story, as long as it matches the Levels Ladder. However, Players can create custom Props for their Comedian, whether these are magical objects, secret pathways, forbidden knowledge, cultists, affinity with elements, or anything they can think of. These are called Props and they let the Comedian cheat the Levels Ladder where it makes sense.

If you are ready, let's see how all of this works. Don't worry, there are many steps, but that's because we want the GM and table to take their time and enjoy building the world and their characters within it!