Suggestion: Base it around storytelling.
After whatever great feat happens, the player or ally makes a Record roll, and the more successful that is, the greater the impact on the next era.
Have the players play as spirits or gods playing with the weave of fate- it explains the episodic playstyle and you can have the stats that stay the same.
So the player plays Nobilis playing D&D.

>>312930
Storytelling or the storytelling system?

>>312947
Not the system.
Like each PC chooses a Champion to move around and do things in each Age, then gets abilities to change things to help the progression of the Champion.

>>312948
Random example:
Three players are playing, controlling the characters North Wind, South Wind, and East Wind. West Wind was a jerk and only came for two sessions.
North Wind has the traits Physical Focus, Artifact Cache, and Tactician's Boon. Heroes he chooses gain great strength, one or several of his artifacts, and draw on his tactical knowledge. These are coupled with the drawbacks Required Starter (The chosen needs a fair amount of physical strength to begin with), Uncertain Provenance (The artifacts might go funky at the worst times), and Voices of the Dead (The tactical advice is flavored as having a few wise tacticians nattering important advice, unfortunately they don't stop at military strategy.)
For his first Champion, North Wind grabs a chieftain from a tribe of pseudo-vikings, tells him to conquer the weak southerners, and gives him a magic axe and two spirits of past war leaders.
Unfortunately, this brings him into conflict with South Wind, who was going to run a nice, tidy philosopher-kingdom using his Foreknowledge, Advanced Tech, and Silver Tongue gifts. Of course, the resulting war opens the gates of the monasteries East Wind was making use of, then the DM surprises everyone by having the peoples West Wind abandoned show up and start killing everyone, forcing North Wind's barbarian chieftain, South Wind's roguish king, and East Wind's warrior-priest to work together...
The Champions would have individual merits on their own, of course. Maybe have the person to the left make a choice of three or four?
Anyway, once that threat has been dealt with, the players move onto the next era. North, South, and East Wind roll depending on how much or well they affected the story, or how many significant events they affected. North Wind rolls the best, and decrees that technology won't advance much; he likes this age of heroism. This crimps South Wind's style, though, so he declares (since he's next in line; East Wind's early isolation hurts him here) that the ghosts of the dead have begun rising, immune to weapons and unfazed by soldiery. This goes well with East Wind's choices, though, and he alters North's proclamation that technology stagnate by having a few brilliant minds from South Winds Champion's Kingdom be given church support. The DM decides this is for the purposes of hunting ghosts, and the choice of champions comes up again...

>>312953
Separately, the game you're looking for is Diaspora.
You'd have to kitbash the Arc rules, though.

Maybe have it like American Gods where mythological deitys and material ones (IE: phones, internet etc) also being Gods

>>312955
I was thinking less gods and more independently powerful spirits with restrictions on actions.
Gods could certainly come into play, though...
The main reason I don't want to have the PCs be gods is the possible feedback loop if they go RELIGION RELIGION RELIGION

I don't feel I was clear enough with the Champions, so have ANOTHER EXAMPLE THING
The barbarian chieftain North Wind chooses has the traits HUGE (Drunkard), Leader of Men (Rough Edges), and Family Connections (Competitive Asshole). These are added to the gifts that North Wind grants, and Sven Buggered-a-Bear would have a set of stats on his own.

One thing about this it that you'd need to homebrew a new system and have alot of historical knowledge.

Have PCs use the following:
Ideology: One that fits around how a country/government should run.
Philosophy: Objectivism, Transhumanism etc.
Religion/Mythological Religion: Religious Sect or Atheist which is further classified by fundamentalist/orthodox, moderate and secular, the latter two not being available at first.
Concepts :Fantasy: Magic, Willpower; Science: Technology, Laws of Physics. etc etc

They're sorta kinda different.

Actually, Plato was thinking along broadly similar lines when he made a distinction between reality and surface appearance. Plato thought that "reality" resided in his Eternal "Forms" -- Truth, Justice, Beauty, Piety, for example -- and everything on earth -- law, government, beautiful people, pious observances, etc. -- were just pale imitations of these Forms. Plato's Republic, which was ruled by the Philosopher-kings, was essentially some sort of heavenly home for these perfect Forms, which provided the initial causes for everything that happened on earth.

Plato's student Aristotle thought this was a pretty stupid conception of the world. He thought that reality was contained within the nature or mechanisms of things themselves, not in their surface forms. Aristotle thought that reality was contained within the nature or mechanisms of things themselves, not in their surface forms. He thought of things not in terms of some transcendent ideal (as Plato did) but in terms of their function, or telos. So a chair is not any good insofar as it partakes of some ideal of chairness but because it works as a chair.

Aristotle: Surfaces/ideals being the controlling forces. More generalized, broader.
-Skeptic: Reality is what we make of it. The best argument/force is the truth.

Plato: Belief in underlying mechanics/proof. Good for the scientific method. Supports monotheistic religions and can also support secularism.
-Dualist: Belief in God as a 'nice guy'. Reality is shaped by ones own experience, and with the help of a God/gods, can nudge reality in ones favor.
-Kant: Society and individuals are a result of historical trends, fixed numerical laws.

This?

Well, hello Loki.