Identifying Gods

[Oryan77]

When you introduce the PC's to a God for the first time and they were not expecting to meet the God, how do you describe the NPC to the players so they realize this is not just some powerful King, Wizard, or monster?

I seem to have a hard time getting the players to realize when they are in the presence of a God. It always comes across as being no different than if they were face to face with some really powerful mortal magic user. Even if I were to say, have the God show himself by making the water in the lake form into a large face that speaks with them, they might just think it's some type of water creature.

 

[Hjorimir]

I've always kept th gods more enigmatic really, which is one reason I never have to sell the players on the awe they should feel. Angels, on the other hand, do seem to inspire a sense of awe amongst my group whenever they come about. But, then again, this usually is a portent and that always puts them on edge.

Granted, I have a decently high mortality rate in my games, so the PCs tend to feel very fragile and tread carefully amongst powerful entities.

 

[Shemeska]

I've had actual deities show up in my games twice. Once, and my preferred method, was very subtle, and the 2nd time was overt, but for a reason.

The first time it was when a PC physically traveled to the domain of his deity on the outer planes, hoping to speak with a proxy, or perhaps a high ranking aasimon servitor of his god. The PC eventually met a small kid, perhaps 9 years old, playing with a tiny wooden horse and a little metal knight. The PC's deity had 'protection of children and the innocent' as part of his portfolio, and so the PC struck up a conversation with the kid. About a half hour later it dawns on PC and player alike that he's sitting there talking to an avatar of his deity.

Very very subtle, but enough hints to eventually make it dawn on him that he was in the presence of a true deity.


The second time the PCs saw an avatar of Odin marching before an army of Aasimon, and it was very stereotypically Odin, no question about it. Big giant figure, towering over ranks of aasimon, etc. Ignore the fact that Odin's avatar got waxed shortly thereafter by a very unamused archfiend.

 

[Crothian]

It depends on the god, some don't care if people think they are mortal...some will be really showy and demand to be whorshiped.

 

[Jubilee]

Unless a god is trying to mask his or her presence, I always imagined he or she would have an aura or feeling of power about them that would unmistakeably mark them as a god - for myself, I'd just flat out tell my players if that was the situation.

/ali

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

"Are you a god?"

"Ummm....no."

 

[Greg K]

The one time that I had a PC encounter his deity, the deity took the guise of the PC's best friend. The deity felt the character, a rogue, was not taking on challenges that tested his skills. The deity, therefore, led the PC on a series of adventures that truly tested the rogue's skills.

 

[Fish Priest]

If the deity is in a form completely un-commensurate with their skills. If that meteor swarm was not cast by a 60-year-old Archmage, but by a 6-year-old child. If that 350-lb, 5-foot-tall, white-bearded human has run alongside your horses for two hours in a cold-weather outfit without breaking a sweat (yes, I have made deity stats for Santa Claus).

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

Call me traditional, but I always figured that an encounter with a god should be a brain-melting experience since a living incarnation of reality itself is not something a mortal mind was intended to be capable of comprehending. Gods are elusive, and when you do encounter them, you end up like the guy from that movie, ¶. (not the main character, but his mentor, who dies from

Spoiler

calculating the nature of god

)

 

[The_Universe]

I think it's key to have described the deity in question in the past, and then make sure that the appearance matches with the idiom you've created.