Mwuahahaha, I hold in the power of my hands the almighty 1d20, capable of ruining your puny mortal existence. At least if I roll high enough, anyway. Thus are the powers of playing god in games. You control the gameplay, the plot, and even the outcome. Use this power wisely, or you may just be overthrown. Being immortal doesn't make you invincible. Just look at Cronos, Ymir, or any inexperienced Dungeon Master.

It's not all sacrifices and temples, you know. Gods in games have a lot of work to do, whether it's leading heroes around to attempt epic deeds or battling other Gods in cosmic games of Mahjong. And then there are the Gods who are actually helpful, providing guidance and support to whiny mortals. No matter what kind of God in gaming you happen to be, you're going to end up with enemies, and you need to be ready for them.

Another God becomes jealous of your followers, so he sends dragons after them. Do you help your followers out? Or do you smack the other God upside the head with a smelly tuna and go about your day? Your followers would probably appreciate a bit of help. Dragon slaying isn't easy even with the best of equipment. And if they do survive without your assistance, they tend to get resentful and occasionally haughty.

If you're not willing to help out against a dragon, then what good are you? Down with the deities! And if I can kill a dragon without you, then why should I keep giving you sacrifices of shiny baubles and virgin koalas? You have any idea how hard it is to find koalas around here in the first place?

Now, you don't have to slay the dragon for your followers; then they'd be asking you to do everything from slaying all evil everywhere to tying their sandals. A helpful nudge is all they really need. A temporary boost to their ability to survive a dragon attack and they'll understand. Unless they're thick-headed. Then they'll probably turn against you anyway. There's very little any God can do against stupidity. Not even intelligence modifiers seem to help.

It's a bit trickier when you're playing God by proxy. Having written the plot and guidelines and then leaving it all to players to figure out on their own, a lot can happen without the creator's divine nudging towards the correct path. No plot is foolproof. Fools are just too well built. Eventually your game will be played without you around to deal with disputes, confusion of where to go, or what to do. The better built your plot, the easier it'll be for the players to figure it all out and hopefully survive. But if you do it half-assed, then a lot of players are going to get eaten by a grue. And players tend to dislike such endings. I certainly do. Filthy carnivorous grues.

A good way of strengthening your plot and rules and inherent godhood is to break your game on purpose. Hear me out before you start throwing spears at me. Playtest your game with the intent of trying to break it. Follow the rules you've created but search for loopholes, plot holes, and problem areas where players can take too much advantage of the game and effectively overthrow your efforts. Seek these glitches out, review them, and fix whichever ones really go against the story and game you've built.

You don't have to fix them all. A few loopholes and possibilities for players to search for and try out make for a fun game. Just make sure that they don't abuse any powers excessively, otherwise you'll be joining other dearly departed Gods in the divine wastelands of forgotten gods. And they don't even have any pudding in the divine wastelands. A horrible place indeed. Try not to end up there.