Here follows a description of how things are to go.
PCs and the GM
Three Pantheons (v2) is primarily a sandbox game, meant to give the players the highest possible degree of freedom, while hopefully maintaining a relatively constant set of groups and locales. There are no set objectives save those that the players and characters create themselves, much as in real life. Which side of any given plot hook a character ends up on is free-flowing.
Plot hooks can be ignored, there is no obligation to follow them up. Conversely, not everything is a plot hook, per se. Sometimes things simply happen that aren't much tied to anything important.
Sometimes the PCs can have a critical impact in a given scenario, other times there will be almost nothing that can be done. Some forces are dependant on people, others aren't, realism will be key here. That said, there will be lots of opportunity to surprise the GM with solutions and actions from outside the box.
It is my policy that if a character doesn't know something, it's best that the player doesn't either. This prevents unintentional leaking, and keeps my options open for as long as possible, which is important for plot-point creation. Information that is readily-accessible, like something that'd be found in a google-search, will be freely distributed whenever players want to ask questions, though they're liable to be "accepted" answers, rather than correct ones.
Originally, I had attempted to avoid the use of character shields, but this proved difficult to manage in a freeform setting. However, I did discover that there are a great many ways for a "loss" to carry weight even without death of a character. Consequently, wins and losses will both occur, as the situations warrant. Diplomacy, stealth, subterfuge, or force, there are multiple ways into and out of everything, and no retcons, which SHOULD all serve to make each decision carry some weight.
Setting Overview
The premise for the setting is that up until August 10, 2001, history is precisely as normal. At that time, three regions of the earth suddenly revert into a state of diety-controlled magic and mayhem. Specificly, Scandinavia, Greece, and Egypt all lose the capacity for modern technology to function, as they return to being dominated by their classical pantheons and populated by an array of mythos and humans. The specifics on this are in the Timeline chapter.
However, from our perspective in the year 2020, these three realms of magic have been around for 19 years, plenty of time for trade and diplomacy and time to have taken some of the edge off of the aftershocks. People and goods move freely in and out of these areas, for good and ill. The complex geopolitical and interpersonal relations that the new array of species and religions creates forms the backdrop against which our game is set. The play itself tends to deal with moving in and out of the realms for a myriad of reasons, be they for purposes of adventure, commerce, religion, research, or anything else.
This allows for modern individuals to conflict with some of the classic staples of mythology, in tandem with how the setting itself does. None of this Whitewolf faffing around in the shadows, everyone knows these things exist, and there are entire sectors of industry and politics built around it. Our characters have seen fit to get a piece of the action, in one way or another, and it's certain that extremes of good and ill will result.
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