I was basing mine of of yours, and didn't change that. Break other god's Manifestations, kill other gods, find external sources.However, I simply allow them to gain levels and ranks by acquiring QP (with an optional rule for a divine Olympics as in the Immortal Rules). Speaking of which, how are you envisioning characters / gods gain QP?
The "you get a fraction of the QP you are exposed to" past demigod means that inter-god conflict is negative sum; it reduces the total QP in play. So external sources of QP provide a campaign drive.
I get it; but when I came up with the manifestation idea, I realized that a church could be just another manifestation. As important to a god as their signature hammer, no more no less. Sucks to lose it, but it isn't a source of their power; rather, it is a place their power is grounded.Also, I do allow god to gain power from worshipers (it is an optional rule), but it is not required and only a small amount. It gives them a reason to have worshipers and be interested in them.
So part of the point of rules is to provide an engine to create story.I both like and don't like the idea of linking advancement to world building. It is fun idea and might be fun to play, but it seems oddly restricting for a god to depending on "world-building" to advance.
(a) I want gods to have fun toys.
(b) If fun toys are free, they aren't as fun.
(c) If fun toys are expensive, players don't to play with them much.
(d) If fun toys are sub-optimal, you get an annoying conflict in the player's experience.
So making a limited number of fun toys free as part of advancement.
The idea that "thor's hammer" actually contains a bit of Thor's divine essence is a really cool one. If you extend this to all of a God's works -- plane, forts, angels -- it provides you with fun toys, in limited numbers, that the god wants to both protect and use.
Instead of "wave your hand, rainbow bridge" or "spend 100 years using crafting rules, rainbow bridge" it is "become a power, rainbow bridge".
The god doesn't get "I can teleport anywhere in creation because I'm a greater power", it gets "I control a rainbow bridge that lets me teleport anywhere in creation, because I am a power, and invested some of my QP in it". They have "godlike power", but not arbitrary godlike power -- their godlike powers are tied to their manifestations.
I mean, a greater power's "plane" rank 4 manifestation might be "a prime material plane". That is pretty darn impressive; literally a campaign setting as a "class feature". At the same time, they aren't making prime material planes willy-nilly (it is 5%+ of that greater god's divine power budget), nor does it require a time-skip of a few million years of god-crafting. A rank 4 "allies" might be a pantheon.
Where is the story being generated if they can do anything?I want more freedom for my gods.
Restrictions provide scaffolding to create a story.
I started from the QP->artifact and QP->advancement ideas, and ran with it. Make it QP->artifact->advancement, and every god has weak points, every god can be whittled away at, and (most importantly) every god changes the universe.
Now, some solitary NPC god could have some strange set of manifestations that are hidden or whatever.
This also gives "outer beings" like the far realm a reason why they are pushing into this universe and ... manifesting. Their manifestations in this realm anchor their powers to this realm. Fighting and purging those manifestations is like keeping termites from eating your house.