Angels. Angels are great. Get as many as you can. Angels are like agents or operatives -- they can do things for you when you aren't there. You can't be multiple places at once (God reserves that privilege), so angels have to shill for you. You can't teleport either, but you can manifest yourself in various ways. These are generally only audiovisual manifestations, or appearances in dreams -- you can't do anything physical that way. Get angels any way you can: haggle with the GM, trade strength points for angels if you can. You don't need much strength anyway.
Strength is actually three different qualities. You can be strong, you can look strong, and you can do strong things. The first one gives you the other two automatically. However, you can get the second two other ways, which is all you need. Looking strong is also a bonus of charisma, and as a god, you get an intrinsic +5 charisma bonus. Doing strong things can be accomplished with angels, or magic.
As you can see, creativity is a huge bonus. And you can't get that bonus by rolling it -- you have to have that one yourself.
There are various types of angels, cherubim, seraphim, and so forth. Don't attempt to get a complete set (doing so constitutes hubris, a sin -- only God gets a complete set).
So, what do you do when you're a god? Basically, anything you want. However your spirit moves you. One common thing to do is get some converts or worshippers or some such. Don't bother soul collecting, somebody else (Satan) is already playing that game. You can invent bizarre rituals and see if you can jolly folks into doing them. Nudity is good -- when people were created, they were created by a known jokester. It's tempting to go have sex with your followers, but it's hard to do (recent reductions in manifestation powers), and it's been done (Baron Samedi and Zeus). Ritual killings have been (if you'll excuse the pun) done to death (Axolotl).
Genetic engineering can be diverting, if you're patient. You can mold your people into your favourite form over the course of several tens of thousand years (Robert Palmer, however, found a faster way).
Another thing to consider is your appearance. Your terrifying visage, terrible mein, or whatever. This can be fixed or mutable. Many opt for fixed, so their people can recognize them easily. But if you're out for trickery, the ability to change form can be most helpful. You can look like anything, but popular choices tend to be recognizably like earth-life. The humans (and many other animals, actually) have built-in recognition for things like mouths and eyes, so it's good to have those, and make them memorable in some way (huge, odd colour, glowing, etc.) Some gods look just like an existing animal (Set, Gonesh) or person (Yahweh, Santa, Bob). Many are chimeras (Sphinx), or humans-with-modifications (Mercury, Shiva). Some (Tnotichlitlan) are wild imaginative abstractions. And anything else (pickle, trash can, paramecium) is a possibility, if you like. Plants are good, if you want to be subtle about it. And there are always astronomical objects (Gaea, Apollo).
So, what's the point of being a god? So you can do god-things, of course! But, what is a god thing to do? Regrettably, it's an open field, and can include basically anything. Imagination is called for.
Manifestations are an easy start. You can make your face (if you have one) appear in butter, fruits, or the light shining through a tree. The more subtle, the better, because once one person notices you, there will be an argument over whether the vision is real, and whether you are real. Anything that gets people talking about you is useful.
You can also send messages to particular people, as voices in their heads or whatever. Exhorting them to go on wild killing sprees is old hat, but you can help people decide to dump abusive lovers, change careers, wear lots of orange, anything you like. Again, attracting attention is useful. Benefitting society gets you points, too. Remember: as a god, you are a source of Kharma -- make it good.
You can totally run wild in dreams -- anything goes there. You can have someone dream of a physical manifestation of you. In the dream world, you can fly people around, melt huge cities, write in the sky, have sex with an elephant, whatever rolls your socks down (if you have socks). You don't have to worry so much about subtlety in dreams -- this can be a handy time to sit right down and tell your prophets what the deal is -- if you want to. You can regale them with endless stories about enchanted fish for years if you prefer.
You can also answer prayers, if the answer is essentially dependent on luck anyway. If someone's running late for work and prays for a green light, you can do that. Especially if they're known to thank you afterward -- "thanks" does constitute a prayer. It's dangerous to grant wishes concerning gambling, unless the gambler is making a useful point, or raising money for a good cause. Curing illness, letting people find lost things, and test answers are generally good Kharma, and are allowed pretty often. Watch the consequences though -- go read the extant genii literature for hints on how things interoperate and backfire. Remember, you don't get to be all-knowing automatically: you have to study for it, pay attention, and have a fine sense of irony ("God is an iron" -- Spider Robinson). Do consult with Eris if she's available -- her advice is generally good, but be careful -- she doesn't take new upstart gods any more seriously than she takes people. For that matter, she doesn't take established elder gods very seriously either.
The rules have changed on Miracles. Initially, new gods got a few miracles to get them started. To create the sense of awe and wonder that leaves an impression on people. First it was seven, for all time. However, gods would come and go so frequently, and have so little sense of eternity, that miracles were happening all the time, using up energy and diluting the effect. So the rules were changed, and you started out with three miracles, and could earn more with enough time, hard work, and diligence. This helped, but there were still too many miracles from newhorn gods in a hurry. So the rules were changed again. Now, you have to earn all your miracles. You can, however, get a miracle dispensation in extreme circumstances, if you fill out all the paperwork, and justify your miracle before the tribunal. Generally, it isn't worth it -- and it does a wonder for dissuading all the new gods that show up from doing random things to inflate their egos (a primary reason to become a god, and not a good one).
The god game, like any great game, has many facets. One of these is collecting points. There are several kinds of god points, each kind having its own rules for collection and prizes and bonuses. Sounds like a game show, doesn't it? If you enjoy game shows, collecting things, or sources of nonlinear chaos, points are an activity worth considering. This list is by no means comprehensive (check the Book Of All Knowledge for a complete list, rules, and details), but hits on the better-known varieties, and gives a feel for how these things are set up.
Kharma points are one of the few sorts that are shared between gods and mortals. For mortals, the rules are easy: do good, and good will come to you. Do evil, and ill will come to you. It's not obvious or straightforward or instantaneous, but that's the general setup. Various belief systems have been attached to Kharma points by assorted gods, but the basic operation is fixed. As a god, you also can participate in the Kharma point arena. Like mortals, you can create Kharma points that didn't before exist, except you can do so more efficiently, and on a grander scale. Actions that make life better for a lot of people (and don't harm others) are best. But you can accumulate a bunch of 'em just by doing small, safe favours for individual people really often. What can you do with Kharma points? Three things, basically. First, you can have your people reincarnated in better forms (it's up to you what constitutes a better form) or maintained in a better eternal hereafter (again, what this entails is up to you). If you accumulate a massive enough dose of Kharma, you can trade it in on a miracle, with the provision that the miracle is a positive-Kharma event (this is decided by a quorum of your peers and elders). You can also use Kharma points to curry favour with your fellow gods (better living quarters, favours, votes, ecumenical unions, etc.).
Good points are like Kharma points, but are more arbitrary, and are god-only. They are also unipolar -- you can gain or lose Kharma points, but you can only gain good points. Also, you can't sell or trade them for anything, as they are scoring points only. After a long career, you will probably amass a huge quantity of good points, unless you actively try not to. Good points are not too hard to earn, but you need a lot of them to be useful. What they are good for is bragging rights and title/tenure/power. When you accumulate various levels of good points, you can petition for various titles (both seniority titles such as "elder", and domain titles such as "lord of things that boil"). You also get tenure in your areas of operation, so that lesser gods (ie, those with fewer good points) have to submit to your decisions of territory. You also get power in the form of voting rights. After you acquire enough good points to vote on various issues, more points give your votes more power. Obviously, the senior gods will wield enormous voting power because of this. This is intentional, embodying the assumption that after having done billions of good deeds, you have some judgement on how they should be done.
Evil points work just like good points, but pertain to evil deeds. They are a lot easier to acquire, and a lot more useless. If you're careless or thoughtless in your actions, they'll pile up fairly fast. If you take your position as a god seriously, and use your abilities with forethought and restraint, you won't get too many. Like good points, they entitle you to various perks, but the evil perks are over evil domains. The seniority titles are of the "the feared" type, the domain titles are of the "prince of stench" sort. The areas of operation are fairly dull and unpleasant. And you get voting rights on issues of interest mostly to evildoers ("Shall we grant Dwight, god of halitosis, the ability to let sufferers breathe fire?"). There are some gods who actively try to be evil gods, and acquire mostly evil points -- as the points pile up incredibly fast when you try like this, there are a few consortia of evil power where the highest ranking members possess trillions of evil points, and hold absolute sway in their various areas of expertise. They tend to be fairly dull and politically unassailable, and are best not to tangle with.
Contrary to many mortals' expectations, the good guys are a lot more fun. They throw the best parties, listen to the best music (most of the interesting musicians follow one or another of the "good" gods), eat the best food, and have the shortest, most interesting meetings. When it comes right down to it, most activities that are enjoyable are kharmically positive. And there is no limit to the number of ways good can be created and enjoyed. Evil, on the other hand, is fairly limited -- while there are a lot of ways to hurt someone, they're all basically just ways to hurt someone.
A lot of the contrary evidence to the above is not the work of us gods -- the mortals invented the idea that sex was bad (and they certainly don't all agree on it!). We gods are all in favour of sex, as it can't help but be interesting. Same for music, art, and many other pursuits. Anything necessary for the maintenance of life (eating, procreating, sleeping) is by definition good. Some of these things are declared "sins" by various gods (and many more mortals), but such arbitrary declarations have no meaning outside the systems in which they're instituted.
Now that you have a quick sample of the workings of the god system, you may or may not be interested. If you choose to be a god, you must simply petition an existing god for admission. Most gods welcome newcomers, and will happily sponser applicants.
If you'd rather not be a god (and most mortals like being mortals, actually), but want to be associated with the god system, there are several ways to accomplish this. If you'd like to ally yourself with a newer god, you can investigate the possibility of being a prophet. Most new gods want to spread the word of their existence, and are happy to embrace new evangelists. Finding and choosing such a god entails a certain amount of effort, faith, and creativity (you have to become aware of said god, and then you have to get the god in question to notice you). More established gods, with large standing congregations, generally support some sort of sainthood and/or a clergical system, which is normally well documented.
If you want to just be a convert or believer, you can simply find a prophet or congregation that is allied with a god you can approve of, and follow whatever procedures (if any) are prescribed for joining.
John Rehwinkel