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How many gods is too many gods?
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<blockquote data-quote="DEFCON 1" data-source="post: 7402681" data-attributes="member: 7006"><p>You can have as many you want... but just bear in mind you're probably only going to see two or three actually have any place in the game you end up running. So my advice is to not go too deep on fleshing them all out, but rather wait until you see which one or two your players latch onto. Then you can just worry about fleshing out the churches for those one or two and perhaps a third one that might be the antagonist church to the one your player selected.</p><p></p><p>The biggest thing in my experience (and I've had some lively discussions about this in another thread) is that the more deities you have... the more every single aspect of societal life gets its own deity... the more monolithic the DM and players see that god and those that worship of it. Rather than realizing that every god has different aspects to their domain, they should have many sects that place different mportance to the different parts of the domain, and those that worship it can be split up into many different factions.</p><p></p><p>Even something simple life a 'God of Life' can and would have many different sects that focus on different parts of what 'Life' is, and some of them could not only be diametrically opposed, but some could actually come to blows and have holy wars about which of their beliefs is "right".</p><p></p><p>- Does every person have the right to live? Should you take in the less-fortunate and help them survive?</p><p>- Does every animal have the right to live? If you kill an animal are you spitting in the face of your god?</p><p>- Do plants deserve the same rights as humanoids and animals?</p><p>- Is the circle of life the foundation of all existence? Is it the priest's job to help see the circle of life revolve?</p><p>- Is using magic to heal someone spitting in the face in the natural order of the circle of life?</p><p>- Is killing things a <em>part</em> of the circle of life and thus there's nothing wrong with it? It's nature's way?</p><p></p><p>And these are just several examples of the different parts of a 'God of Life' that each would have their own sect and worshippers. Some would be out and out pacifists, others would find killing things to part of the life cycle of all things. And both sides would disagree <em>vehementally</em> with each other.</p><p></p><p>THIS is the kind of thing that can inspire us to not have to bother creating huge pantheons of gods. You can have just one or two or three and still find infinite ways to distinguish the peoples who worship them. It isn't really necessary to split hairs and have a God of Death *and* a God of Disease *and* a God of Murder *and* a God of War etc. etc. if you want different people to react different ways to the same thing.</p><p></p><p>So if you want a huge pantheon, that's cool... but it really isn't necessary. Especially considering your players are only going to be touching upon one or two of them when you play anyway.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="DEFCON 1, post: 7402681, member: 7006"] You can have as many you want... but just bear in mind you're probably only going to see two or three actually have any place in the game you end up running. So my advice is to not go too deep on fleshing them all out, but rather wait until you see which one or two your players latch onto. Then you can just worry about fleshing out the churches for those one or two and perhaps a third one that might be the antagonist church to the one your player selected. The biggest thing in my experience (and I've had some lively discussions about this in another thread) is that the more deities you have... the more every single aspect of societal life gets its own deity... the more monolithic the DM and players see that god and those that worship of it. Rather than realizing that every god has different aspects to their domain, they should have many sects that place different mportance to the different parts of the domain, and those that worship it can be split up into many different factions. Even something simple life a 'God of Life' can and would have many different sects that focus on different parts of what 'Life' is, and some of them could not only be diametrically opposed, but some could actually come to blows and have holy wars about which of their beliefs is "right". - Does every person have the right to live? Should you take in the less-fortunate and help them survive? - Does every animal have the right to live? If you kill an animal are you spitting in the face of your god? - Do plants deserve the same rights as humanoids and animals? - Is the circle of life the foundation of all existence? Is it the priest's job to help see the circle of life revolve? - Is using magic to heal someone spitting in the face in the natural order of the circle of life? - Is killing things a [I]part[/I] of the circle of life and thus there's nothing wrong with it? It's nature's way? And these are just several examples of the different parts of a 'God of Life' that each would have their own sect and worshippers. Some would be out and out pacifists, others would find killing things to part of the life cycle of all things. And both sides would disagree [I]vehementally[/I] with each other. THIS is the kind of thing that can inspire us to not have to bother creating huge pantheons of gods. You can have just one or two or three and still find infinite ways to distinguish the peoples who worship them. It isn't really necessary to split hairs and have a God of Death *and* a God of Disease *and* a God of Murder *and* a God of War etc. etc. if you want different people to react different ways to the same thing. So if you want a huge pantheon, that's cool... but it really isn't necessary. Especially considering your players are only going to be touching upon one or two of them when you play anyway. [/QUOTE]
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