How many gods is too many gods?

[aco175]

I tried to make a listing of gods for my homebrew, but ended up copying the FR ones since the players knew them the best. The players did not get involved as much as I was in the gods and it was not worth my time to come up with all that since a good set was already made. The players still only know a few 'default' ones like Lathander, Tymora, and Chauntea.

During adventures another god may come into play in the form of a marking or symbol. Most of the time it is a cult of elemental or devil sort and not a cult of the paladin god Torm out to make everyone repent and convert. A cool idea, but may be a bit off-pudding for some.

 

[Ovinomancer]

BLUF: consider building the cultures of your works and then the pantheon that serves them. That way you aren't trying to figure out how to for in worship of this good or that, but instead already have a place but in and just need to sketch some details.

My last game had maybe a dozen. They were spread out across 4 main cultures and each was an avatar of a major affect of that culture. They all were, at ame point, mortals ergo ascended to godhood.

I built the cultures first and then the gods. The seafaring nation had a god of storms and naval might, a god of death at sea, and a good of fishermen. The military/farming nation that had some nasty treachery in its history had a god of protection and duty, a god of hearth and harvest, as a gid of murder and lies (currently out of favor). My desert culture had a god of tge sun, vengeance, and law abd a goid of the moon, hospitality, and succor, and a god of death, who mediated betwwen sun and moon. The last culture had a living god-emperor who was to oversee the proper order and heirarchy of thousands of minor dieties that caused the natural world to work.

It worked a peach. Each pantheon was vital to the culture it served, and each had different factions within the cultures that emphasized certain aspects.

My current game is multi-planar in origin and so has whatever gods the player want.

 

[guachi]

My campaign is set in Mystara and there are dozens of Immortals. If I counted there'd probably be over a hundred and each Immortal often is known by other names or epithets in different cultures. It can get confusing.

I approach this in several ways. For the PCs I'll tell them the Immortals that are most relevant to the individual. I'll also mention the Immortals that are relevant to the place the PCs are in. For example, I won't mention the Halfling High Heroes - Coberham Shadowglint, Nob Nar, Brindorhin - unless the PCs are in the Shire or there is a halfling PC. No use burying PCs in information.

When the PCs are adventuring in a location for an extended period I make sure to have the Immortals mentioned repeatedly - the NPCs will pray to them or the PCs will pass churches to them. By the time my players finished adventuring in Karameikos they were probably tired of hearing the names of the Immortal triumvurate of Halav, Zirchev, and Petra.

Eventually I made a PDF of Immortals relevant to the campaign and gave it to the PC who had expertise in Religion. The player could then do with it what she wanted.

 

[rgoodbb]

SKUA - The Sorcerer Kings Union of Athas, Have returned from their heated debates and have come back with the answer of 1.

1 is too many.

 

[Voi_D_ragon]

SKUA - The Sorcerer Kings Union of Athas, Have returned from their heated debates and have come back with the answer of 1.

1 is too many.

If this is a reference to something I'm supposed to know, I don't :/
If this is from your homebrew, I wanna know more

 

[Ancalagon]

Yoon Suin has take the approach that there are several hundreds of gods - some important, some less so. They are strange and peculiar, and all demand sacrifice.

I create them for fun really. And having *so many* means that if I ever need a cleric of X that believes Y and wants Z, if none of the deities I designed fit the bill... just make one more! Having an "open" pantheon leaves the GM a lot of room to maneuver.

The Memory Tree:  This ancient pippala tree's leaves constantly move, even when there is no wind.  It's fruit is said to fortify the memory, allowing one to remember long forgotten facts, but also retain new knowledge.  Demands sacrifice of blood, which is poured directly onto the roots.  The holy men tending to the tree dress in pure white.  Grants the domains of Knowledge or Nature.  

WoBek Jozefa: A donkey. God of swearing and of urgently telling people to stop before they hurt themselves or cause a scene. "medium" gray is their holy color. Shrine in the Old Quarters

Va Qabu, the little dog of sleep and clouds. He desires cheese for sacrifices. His followers are expected to paint their dwelling purple. A minor cult, kept alive by the fact it's popular with particularly lazy slugpeople. Shrine in the Golden Triangle. Kalo Shofi is the high priestess.

Baakoo, the Lord of Light: despite imposing title, minor cult of candle and lamp makers – he's the god of light making instruments, not light itself. Color is orange yellow (flame). Sacrifice is fuel (must be plant/animal origin) that is burnt. A bright colored lizard. Shrine on the Red Bank. Sole slugman follower is the "fireslug", Po Loma for the sea star company

Dyson, the Hoarder of Maps. An orang-outang. Holy color is dark grey. Demand sacrifice of beer. The shrine doubles as an archive, where many maps are collected. Domains granted are knowledge or Nature. Paid tribute to by both cartographers and those who depend on maps for their success/survival.

I will make them on demand

 

[Shiroiken]

It really depends on how you want to go about it. Greyhawk has hundreds of deities, as does the Realms. Dragonlance has only about 2 dozen, and Dark Sun doesn't really have any. Your setup is particularly well thought out, but I would suggest a few minor changes:

8 Overdieties - This works pretty well, but I would just consider them the Greater Gods, because that's how you describe them. I would try to make sure that their alignments are fairly spread out, or perhaps just unaligned (since they are above such things). In general they probably won't have much in the way of direct followers, but they may receive homage in the temples of the 32, since they are the creators.

32 Greater Gods - These should be the lesser gods, as they are more active with the world, having the majority of the temples. I would consider reducing this number down, because it makes more sense for there to be more of the racial gods. Swapping the 32 and 20 should work fine.

20 Racial Gods - These should be the demi-gods of your world. They probably don't have a lot of direct worship, like the overgods, except among those of the same race. There should be more of these than the 32, and might be tied into their church. They can provide spells, but on a limited basis, so there shouldn't be as many clerics/druids/paladins/rangers as the others.

I would organize your religions as such: the lesser gods hold the majority of worshipers, but each of these religions also offers worship to a greater god, plus one or more demi-gods. The specifics of the demi-gods could also be regional, so a demi-god may not be worshiped in all areas. This way allows for each temple/church/religion to provide information on multiple deities, which helps expand knowledge to your players.

To provide the information to the players, I'd suggest you have only 2 or 3 religions in your starting area. Provide them with the details of those religions, which should provide somewhere between 6-15 deities to start with. You could also detail a few other religions where are foes of the local religions, but that information is less specific. As you expand the campaign, you can add in new religions as desired.

 

[Caliban]

If this is a reference to something I'm supposed to know, I don't :/
If this is from your homebrew, I wanna know more

The Dark Sun D&D setting, on the world of Athas.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Sun

No gods, instead clerics draw power from the elemental planes.

 

[cbwjm]

I'd say, create as many gods as you'd like (mainly because it can be a fun exercise) and then when a player wants to know of a god for their cleric domain or they want to swear a paladin oath to a church or even want their wizard with the acolyte background to have a patron god then you can tell them specifically what they want to know. For instance, if a cleric wants to run with the war domain then you just need to tell them about the gods that grant that domain and explain their portfolios (eg Honourable combat, conquest, or tactical warfare).

As others have said, your players may only really pay attention to a small handful, the cleric needs his god, the paladin might be oathbound to a church and then depending on the campaign, other gods and their followers might be introduced such as in a story arc involving the PCs stopping the church of Bane from subverting a region. That's only 3 gods mentioned, others might not even make an appearance.

 

[Doug McCrae]

Current state of the art in rpg world design seems to be to focus on factions because they are most likely to interact with the PCs in a meaningful way. If a particular religious group is an important faction then write it up. If not, then don't. Players of clerics and other religiously inclined PCs can create their own gods if desired.