When all we had were the original 3 core books in the late 70s (PH, DMG and MM) our group didn't put much attention on the clerics' and players particular gods (it was enough to know the alignment). The DM sometimes offered this info to the player, but usually not. They didn't have much info on "official" TSR gods and dieties, and the players controlling clerics thought of their PCs in a generic way anyhow (ie cool spell casters, looked at in a very similar to the way MUs, the only difference was they could wear armor and prayed for spells).
However, once "Demigods and Dieties" became popular, it seemed (in our group anyway) the more generic "spell casting cleric" switched to annoying "evangilist" clierc, out to spread the faith; and this new introduction became somewhat of a distraction (to the game) as some players really "hammed" it up. It seemed every plot weaved by the DM included elements of religion (which really turned me off). No longer was the cleric purely a spell caster (that had to prey now and then to rememorize) suddenly his back story, and duties to his diety became a major (and vocal) part of the game for him. The players who didn't want to get sucked into this level of detail, found themselves having to just to keep up.
Personally, I found this entire trend to be a big negative evolution of AD&D1 (perhaps worse then anything introduced in UA, as it was more fundamental). It seemed like the focus of the game switched for clerics (and paladins even) from "whats out there" and pure adventure to "how does this all related to my diety", perhaps the first big step into self-evaluation. Sure, sometimes this can be neat, but it became overdone.
This trend in clerics and their dieties continued into 2E, and 3E (to the point that it now defines the class).
So the question is, do you prefer the early 1E generic cleric days (where all you really got from your DM was perhaps the diety's name and your alignment) and the focus was purely spell casting. Or do you prefer the diety specifics, with all the bells and whistles? And do you, at some point, find this diety focus (often taken to an extreme by players and DMs) to be destracting to the rest of the game? Also, does general knowledge of the pantheon improve the game for you, or does it make it seem too uniform and less mysterious?
However, once "Demigods and Dieties" became popular, it seemed (in our group anyway) the more generic "spell casting cleric" switched to annoying "evangilist" clierc, out to spread the faith; and this new introduction became somewhat of a distraction (to the game) as some players really "hammed" it up. It seemed every plot weaved by the DM included elements of religion (which really turned me off). No longer was the cleric purely a spell caster (that had to prey now and then to rememorize) suddenly his back story, and duties to his diety became a major (and vocal) part of the game for him. The players who didn't want to get sucked into this level of detail, found themselves having to just to keep up.
Personally, I found this entire trend to be a big negative evolution of AD&D1 (perhaps worse then anything introduced in UA, as it was more fundamental). It seemed like the focus of the game switched for clerics (and paladins even) from "whats out there" and pure adventure to "how does this all related to my diety", perhaps the first big step into self-evaluation. Sure, sometimes this can be neat, but it became overdone.
This trend in clerics and their dieties continued into 2E, and 3E (to the point that it now defines the class).
So the question is, do you prefer the early 1E generic cleric days (where all you really got from your DM was perhaps the diety's name and your alignment) and the focus was purely spell casting. Or do you prefer the diety specifics, with all the bells and whistles? And do you, at some point, find this diety focus (often taken to an extreme by players and DMs) to be destracting to the rest of the game? Also, does general knowledge of the pantheon improve the game for you, or does it make it seem too uniform and less mysterious?
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