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Message: <blockquote data-quote="jgsugden" data-source="post: 8546992" data-attributes="member: 2629">I think it is a nice backdrop, and provides considerations that we as DMs/GMs should consider for in depth world building, but there are distinct differences between what the model, which relates to real world religion, does for us and what is needed for a fantasy world, especially those where a person might have coffee with their God.  We don't just have stories and myths to consider - we have history.  We don't just have people falling to the floor on command when they are overwhelmed by emotion - we have people struck down by force because they failed a DC 25 saving throw made at disadvantage when the God made their presence felt.  The Gods work in mysterious ways, but they also work in directly visible and manifested ways that show their hands directly.  As such, I think rather than approaching them as religions like we have in our world, we need to focus on them as historical figures and write their story to determine how they'll impact their worlds.  That is what I have done over 40 years.For my homebrew world, I found that the best course of action was to 'walk it down' from the origin of the world to modern day.  I sat down with some notebooks (once upon a time) and began to write the story of my world.  The goal of this approach was to create the Gods as NPCs with their own distinct personalities, goals, and concerns ... and to see how that would influence the world, including those that worship them.  I had a lot of time and enthusiasm then - as this was before I had video games, I was allowed only 30 minutes of TV a day, and I had a group of friends that were SUPER enthusiastic about D&D.My tome(s) of lore for my campaign is in outline form and begins with my primary universe gaining a limited form of sentience, and then creating two forces (The Positive Energy Plane, known as the Light; and the Negative Energy Plane, known as the Dark).  Those two forces spawn the first three Gods (Tiamut, Bahamut and Vorel), who in turn (accidentally) create Primordials, Dragons and Giants.  12 of those beings discover power sources that allow them to become Gods, with some of them being cast down and replaced over ~7000 years.  They eventually spawn Angels, Elves, Dwarves and Devils.  Then, the Fallen Archangel Asmodeus discovers that mortals (like Elves and Dwarves) can provide greater power to the Gods through Pact or Worship, and everything explodes with the 12 Gods raising many Lesser Gods from mortality to divinity to serve them and each God creating one or more heritages of intelligent people with the free will so that those free willed beings can worship the Gods, or make pacts with the Gods.  Then the Far Realm crashes into the main reality, shattering it and creating Demon Lords, Far Realm Powers (like Cthulhu), etc... who in turn also seek power from mortals.  This is the modern version - it evolved over time to incorporate new ideas I really liked as they came out, such as the Far Realm, Transitive Planes (Shadowfell, Feywild), etc...I started world building back in 1982.  What I did was walk through history, starting at the beginning, and using an outline format I spent time thinking about the role of each of these major players as they came into power, and how they interacted with that core storyline, and what it means for that individual being to have worshippers, or to gain power via pact. I started with one consolidated document, but then realized it was too hard to follow and started to create partner documents that were more specific to a particular power, place, etc...   It has grown and grown and grown and grown.  I moved it to a digital format in the late 1980s.  If I were to do it again today, I'd make a wiki format rather than separate word documents, but I'm down the rabbit hole already and the thoughts of troubleshooting conversion of it gives me nightmares.  I've done major rewrites of it three times now to adjust the lore substantially (twice for in game revisions to the timeline caused by the climax of a campaign that involved time travel, and once when I rebooted the entire universe after moving to a new location and desiring to fix certain elements of the setting that were problematic (and to rename all of the Gods to use more accessible names from D&D lore rather than my homebrew names).  Those efforts have made life difficult enough without the technology hassle of moving the documents to new format and checking for problems in the final product.The current assembly is around 1000 separate documents, which grew from a few to dozens to hundreds over time.<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">I have a separate timeline document for each God or Power (There are 185, including Demon Lords, Far Realms Powers, Archdevils, Archfey, Lesser Gods, DemiGods, Greater Gods, and Elder Gods (which is a different concept than Far Realms Powers like Cthulhu). </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">I have a consolidated time document for each pantheon (There are 20 - they're mostly small with 3 to 6 Gods in it, but the Archfiends and Demon Lords are larger). </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">I have a consoldidated timeline for the entire universe.  (It is massive)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">I have timelines for different regions in my world, including Planes, Continents, Major Cities, etc... (I have over 800, but many have only a couple sentences as they've never been more than a part of a backstory for a PC.).  </li> </ul>When I want to add to the lore, I start reading the universal, region(s), pantheon(s) and God(s) involved and make sure that I don't see any contradictions.  Then I update the relevant timeline documents to include the new addition.  Each of the ~185 powers has been given undivided attention every few years.  I sit down with them occasionally, read one through, and consider what they might be missing that would make for a better universe.  I think about their story and consider how they developed, how they interact with their followers, and why they remain relevant.  It includes who their primary worshippers are, what the edicts of the religion require, how often the being gets directly involved in the affairs of mortals, etc...  I am a huge believer in the idea that power corrupts, so there are very few of these beings that are truly benevolent.  I usually go through a pantheon in order starting with the Greater God, then the Lesser Gods, then any Demi Gods ... and then I transition to the Pantheons that most connect to them that I have not done recently to capitalize upon my refreshed familiarity.I believe this is an amazingly effective approach to take for a setting that will exist for decades, but you need to START SMALL and build into the larger construct.  For example, If I were to reboot today, I'd start with just a single universal document in outline format and then only build separate documents for powers when they became relevant. I would also start with a menu of ~12 powers/Gods for players to consider - knowing there were more out there, but that their PCs do not know about them.  Then, when bored or inspired, I'd add more to the 'off screen' elements to flesh out more and more and add them to the available information for PCs.</blockquote>

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