D&D General How involved are your gods?

[CompleteKneeBiter]

So my next campaign is a homebrew setting where there are Gods of Civilization and Gods of the Wild (with more focus on Law vs Chaos than Good vs Evil), and I wanted to have some moments here and there where the party actually encounters a god or two. Something like what you see in the Percy Jackson books or in the He Who Fights with Monsters LitRPG (if you’re familiar).

So anyway, I was wondering if any of you ever run games where the gods are a little more “up close and personal.” Not that they wander the Earth as mortals all the time, but that the appearance of a god in the town square, during a battle, in a temple service, or in response to a fervent prayer is not rare, though still uncommon.

If so, what affect does this have on gameplay or the story (if at all)?

 

[dave2008]

Something like what you see in the Percy Jackson books or in the He Who Fights with Monsters LitRPG (if you’re familiar).

and Greek, Norse, Celtic and many other mythologies. Princess Mononoke too. I mean the idea of present gods is more common than distant gods really.

So anyway, I was wondering if any of you ever run games where the gods are a little more “up close and personal.” Not that they wander the Earth as mortals all the time, but that the appearance of a god in the town square, during a battle, in a temple service, or in response to a fervent prayer is not rare, though still uncommon.

If so, what affect does this have on gameplay or the story (if at all)?

I have not done so yet, but I did start building a campaign world that was all one world (with demiplanes of sort) and the god lived in that world or their domains are directly connected to it. So Tiamat lived at the dragon graveyard (yes that is a cartoon reference) and you could travel there on foot (sort off), or you could travel to the Gate of Dis, pass through it an enter Hell, take a flying ship (or animal) and visit Bahamut in his palace on the seven winds. That sort of thing.

However, I haven't run it yet - so no insights for you. Sorry!

 

[dave2008]

If so, what affect does this have on gameplay or the story (if at all)?

One plan I had was that a cleric needs to get an audience with their deity to be granted their power. So a cleric of Ra must get to their fire chariot in the sky and ask for Ra's blessing. Something like that.

This might be true for more than just clerics too. I had not completely decided, but to get the more superhuman abilities of D&D PCs, I was thinking you might have to get a god's blessing as well.

So a lot of the campaign could be a quest to find your god. Or that could all be backstory.

 

[cranberry]

After character creation, the gods have never come into play in any campaign I've been in or ran.

 

[Stormonu]

In my homebrew of Amberos, the gods are forbidden from direct interference and generally work through clerics. However, legend-wise the gods have sometimes snuck an avatar onto the world for mischievous or selfish reasons. I did have an instance where the PCs were secretly vessels of the good gods who were interested in confronting an evil they suspected was being perpetuated by an evil god. In the finale, the good gods "stepped out" of the PCs to engage the evil god, while the PCs dealt with the evil god's mortal champion. Defeat of a PC would mean the associated deity would be banished from the fight, but if the PCs could overcome the evil champion the associated evil god would be banished. As I recall, it was a pretty epic encounter and the players loved it; while the diety side of the fight was mostly narrated, the PCs actions against the champion had an effect on the bigger fight and effects from one side or the other would bleed into the other fight (there was one moment where the evil champion was getting hammered so called on the evil diety, who empowered the champion with a deadly spell. PC saved against the ensuing attack but still took a LOT of damage, but then they called on their associated diety for help and got the benefit of a Heal to counter the attack - at the cost of the diety being distracted from acting in the other fight).

One of the other homebrew campaigns I am working on, the gods have been slain. In a third, the gods secretly walk among the mortals interacting here and there, and may even engage in adventures themselves or with the likes of PCs.

 

[GuardianLurker]

To mangle a quote from the God of Magic about wizards: "They believe they did it all themselves."

At least currently. In past campaigns, the PCs have met deities and deity-level beings. I've found that it greatly reduces the scale and awe of the beings. Even when the deity in question isn't trying to appear as unassuming as possible. I mean, after meeting Fizban, how much awe and terror does Paladine generate in the Dragonlance Heroes?

I've found that I prefer to keep the actual deities off screen - while their plans, agents, and opponents might be active in the world, the gods themselves aren't.

 

[Yaarel]

The "gods" are irrelevant.

What matters is the spiritual traditions of various cultures, ranging from nontheistic to theistic.

Something becomes a "god" if an institution formally "worships" it. The term only refers to the tradition.

For one institution Asmodeus is a trickster spirit. For an other (Evil) institution, this Fiend is a "god". Asmodeus is what it is, regardless of how Humanoids title it.

Most spiritual traditions are animistic, and centered on the Material Plane, and the other planes have little or no relevance.

That said, the Divine classes like Paladin and Cleric exist, and these characters maintain a personal connection with the Astral Plane.

 

[Yaarel]

So anyway, I was wondering if any of you ever run games where the gods are a little more “up close and personal.” Not that they wander the Earth as mortals all the time, but that the appearance of a god in the town square, during a battle, in a temple service, or in response to a fervent prayer is not rare, though still uncommon.

If so, what affect does this have on gameplay or the story (if at all)?

The Celestials and Fiends and other Astrals are the immortals of the Astral Plane.

The Astral Plane is a realm of thoughts and ideals, a D&D version of the Jungian collective unconscious and its archetypes.

The archetype − the symbolism − is what matters. The domains of a "portfolio" are the collection of relevant interrelating archetypes. A figure such as Zeus would have a portfolio that includes sky, lightning-thunder, patriarchy, order, and so on.

If the archetype corresponds to a person, such as Zeus, then this is an "avatar" who personifies the archetypal concept. Even killing the avatar wont disrupt the archetype itself. The archetype can reform a new avatar later.

Sometimes the archetype manifests an avatar. Sometimes a normal player character can become this avatar. When a player character becomes an avatar, one can survive death by reforming again later, as long as the archetype persists.

The only way to "defeat" an archetype is to make it less relevant to the way that multiverse functions. Then the archetype becomes less vibrant and is merely residual thoughts.

 

[Alzrius]

As a general rule, gods in my campaigns are fairly interventionist. They'll often use proxies, omens, and other indirect methods, but only until the point where the PCs start to become fairly important in the overall region, showcasing that they're power-players who can alter the course of history in a way that affects a lot of people.

Once that happens, we start getting direct interventions. How direct is something else again, ranging from communiques through prophets/mediums and/or divination spells, up through personally meeting aspects (in the 1E and 3E sense of the term), (disguised) avatars, and sometimes even direct manifestations.

 

[Atomoctba]

Many regional pantheons/religions (not every religion in the campaign setting is polytheistic or believe in a "personified" god). Each one preaches they are right and they really believe that, but as a matter of faith. There are not any "real" proof of gods, even if most people say the fact we exist is the very proof of that.