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Style
Divine Quests is a 10 page pdf with 7 pages of content that retails for $0.75. Although marketed as a supplement to the AGES Gaming Divinity system, there's relatively little system specific content, making the product appropriate for anyone with an interest in the subject matter. The layout is simple and functional, as if it was laid out in Word and exported to pdf. There are two pieces of internal art that help reinforce the mythological feel of the product, without taking up much space in the small work. The text is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs
2.5 License.
Substance
Essentially, this product is a collection of 50 plot hooks for games where the characters are Gods. Although system nonspecific, most of the plot hooks have a fairly mythological bent to them. Developing and maintaining worshipers, striving for MacGuffins, assorted moral quandaries to test the players as much as the characters. There are also a variety of more modern hooks, such as how Virtual Reality relates to the divine. The plot hooks themselves are each one paragraph and fairly bare bones. They present the genesis seed for a scenario, but it's up to the group or GM to flesh those hooks out into something gameable. For those familiar with the concept of 'Kickers' from Sorcerer and other indie games, several of these plot hooks qualify. Here's what's going on, something needs done, but it's entirely up to the PCs to decide on what that something will be.
In some of the plot hooks, one can see the influence of the base Divinity system. Several hooks reference Rationality, which is apparently a force that's anathema to the Divine. Another game concept referenced is the Omniverse. Having only read Divine Quests, I'm assuming that the Omniverse is a combination of our universe, with all the possible inhabitable planets, and possibly other realities altogether. One plot hook explicitly has the PCs traveling to an undeveloped world to convert the natives into worshipers for their pantheon. If one wasn't running a campaign where the Divine and Rational are at odds, or multiple worlds/realities, that could limit the utility of those related plot hooks.
All in all, I'm impressed with Divine Quests. The supplement is basically brain candy, seed crystals for imagination. While the plot hooks are somewhat unformed, I feel they are better for that. Even if a customer were playing the Divinity System, the author couldn't possibly envision what that customer's group looked like. Are they playing grim Norse Gods fatalistically delaying an inevitable Ragnarok? Are they proud, arrogant, Mediterranean deities capriciously toying with the lives of mortals? Are they the newly formed Gods of Technology and Information trying to protect humanity from the jealous wrath of Gods no longer needed or worshiped? Regardless, the GM can find something in this supplement that sparks his creative juices, and that's pretty good for something that costs the same as a can of soda.
Finally, because this is a Creative Commons game, I'm just going to copy and past one of my favorite plot hooks, one that's inspired me to pick back up Nobilis, or give the author's Divinity a try.
35. Doom and Gloom The PCs have learned that in the future they will be defeated and sent into the Void after their powers are absorbed. Three beings control the fate of everything in the Omniverse. The only way to undo this future is to somehow gain control of the tools of Fate. Will the PCs be able to save themselves? What will happen if they gain control over Fate?
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