[WB] Gods

[Versus]

For a recent RP I've been DMing, I whipped up a quick pantheon of gods for the setting. I'd never actually spent much time trying to invent a system of worship from scratch, but I found it surprisingly fun. It's something I'll probably want to flesh out a bit more.

I'm curious to hear about others' experiences doing the same. How do you make your pantheon recognizable/accessible to the player(s) without making it overly derivative? Or flip it around: how do you make it original and thorough enough without overwhelming the player(s) with esoterica? What mythological brainwaves have you been really excited about?

 

[Crimson King]

Well I have come to there being three kinds of Gods.

All Powerful Gods who act on whims and answer prayer to look God.

Gods who do not give a shit but grant miracles to cults to shut them up and they go back to their business.

Desperate Gods who need prayer badly, so try hard with those prayers as it gives strength and life to them.

 

[skyfetcher]

This would need to be handled a bit differently if the gods have anything more than abstract roles, but I like to take it a step further and embrace the uncertainty, the contradictions that come from thinking it through. Basically, a set of ideas, and instead of making one universally canon, make them all and their own derivatives a form of canon, then finding why people see it that way; what evidence, social differences or historical events made them see a different set of divinities, add or remove them, change focus, change details and so on.

 

[Skald Father]

I've created a lot of pantheons for RPs but also for tabletop RPGs as well. What has worked the best for me in the past is to have all of that information readily available if the player asks, but don't force it onto them. What knowledge they want they may discover in the RP as they progress. I tend to find it is enough to give two paragraphs of information on each god in a pantheon unless the game focuses on a more religious aspect. I often ask players in my homebrew worlds to approach things from a naive place and learn as they go - this helps a lot if you have players or partners that are RPing younger characters or characters that aren't from the region that the writing or game is primarily in.

It can be difficult though, because of course you want all of your hard work acknowledged, but I've found pushing a ton of detail on them too early can drive them away too fast!