Lord Zardoz
Explorer
Gods and Artifacts: Use them or why have them?
In some of my more recent game, I have been making a direct effort to involve gods and artifacts in my game much more often. The reasoning is simple enough.
- Why have a pantheon of gods that never actually do anything directly ever?
Self explanatory. The gods either do something in your campaign, or they do not.
- It focuses the players attention.
If you have multiple plot hooks going on in your game, it might not be obvious which ones are important to the long term plot arcs, especially if you have to choose from "the fetch quest from the mysterious wizard", the "mission from a powerful noble lord", "the mystery surrounding recent goblin attacks in several towns", and "the recent falling star impact that lit up the sky". But if one of those hooks came about by way of direct communication with a god, then that one is probably going to stick out.
- Using a god will give you better suspension of disbelief if you need to suddenly hand wave something.
Gods and artifacts by definition exist just outside the rules that everything else in game need to follow. Your players might ask why the powerful necromancer was able to do something the players are not allowed to do. They wont ask why a god can do things their characters cannot.
END COMMUNICATION
In some of my more recent game, I have been making a direct effort to involve gods and artifacts in my game much more often. The reasoning is simple enough.
- Why have a pantheon of gods that never actually do anything directly ever?
Self explanatory. The gods either do something in your campaign, or they do not.
- It focuses the players attention.
If you have multiple plot hooks going on in your game, it might not be obvious which ones are important to the long term plot arcs, especially if you have to choose from "the fetch quest from the mysterious wizard", the "mission from a powerful noble lord", "the mystery surrounding recent goblin attacks in several towns", and "the recent falling star impact that lit up the sky". But if one of those hooks came about by way of direct communication with a god, then that one is probably going to stick out.
- Using a god will give you better suspension of disbelief if you need to suddenly hand wave something.
Gods and artifacts by definition exist just outside the rules that everything else in game need to follow. Your players might ask why the powerful necromancer was able to do something the players are not allowed to do. They wont ask why a god can do things their characters cannot.
END COMMUNICATION
