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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 4983662" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dragon Magazine Issue 153: January 1990part 2/5The goals of the gods: Yeah, we've chosen our topic for the month. So what events are big enough to attract the attention of a deity, with their enormous cosmic power, and living space considerably less restricted than the average genie? Since they are also frequently petty, egotistical and vengeful, the answer is you'd be surprised. And since a lot of their interest is in playing cosmic games with/against other gods, once one has noticed you and taken an interest, the odds of others interfering in your life as well goes up exponentially. But this is as much about the way gods deal with one-another and their capabilities as it is about their goals. We get a strong reminder that they are not invincible or infallible in most mythologies. Skilled and lucky humans can best them, although they often wind up regretting it. They will dally with mortals, often producing exceptional offspring with the potential for great deeds and becoming full gods themselves. They can be overthrown, although again, not easily. It also has some slightly cleverer advice, such as pointing out that if their power is derived from worshippers, the ones who's portfolios are most important to everyday life are likely to get the most attention, and therefore wind up in charge. On the whole, I think following this advice in your campaign building will be beneficial for your game. Even at the top end, they're just people with limits, and personal likes and dislikes. If they weren't, they'd never do anything, and might as well not be there. And where's the fun in that? As above, so below: Ahh, here we have another problem with gods. When there are multiple pantheons with mutually contradictory origin stories and overlapping portfolios, how do you resolve the conflict? This is particularly a problem when you try and put monotheistic and polytheistic stuff into the same cosmology. Someone has to be wrong, and whichever side it is ain't going to be happy. The solution usually involves ruling in favour of the big one or two in some way, since monotheism is currently in vogue in the real world, and then leaving the big god distant, while the local pantheons bicker and interfere with people on a regular basis. This article chooses to draw heavily on babylonian dualistic myths which also got combined with many lesser gods to show how this might work. Not with quite as much style as it would later be managed in D:tF or Witchcraft, but still, perfectly serviceable. And another thing they haven't mentioned in the magazine before, which is pleasing to see. Course, if you design your world from scratch, you don't need to worry about this crap. And it's only really an issue if you want a kitchen sink universe using all the monsters in the books anyway. So this may or may not be a problem for you, but once again, forewarned is forearmed. Once again, I don't have a problem with this. Following in their footsteps: The Greek gods again? Yawn. So overplayed. The title is very appropriate in this case, as they encourage you to flesh out your characterization of priests of various gods by playing them as mini-me's of their masters. All together now. THAT'S NOT HOW IT WORKS! Do priests of our own god go around creating things and personally smiting anyone who breaks the rules of the bible? And actual historical priests of the greek gods were more oracles and the like. Plus there's also the fact that a lot of the time, they weren't priests of a specific god, but more a general spiritual intercessionary. And that's not even getting into the tendency of many gods, like mortal rulers, to be hypocrites who hold their servants to standards they themselves flout with impunity. I think this falls into the category of fail. Remember, diversity and specialisation within a hierarchy leads to maximum effectiveness. Trying to force all your employees into a cookie cutter mould will not be good for your cause, and should be reserved for dumb and/or oogy alien gods who have no appreciation of human frailty. Your place in the grand scheme: The alignment debates are raging a full force in the forum at the moment. It's no surprise that when supreme forces and cosmology are brought up, the place of good and evil, law and chaos in D&D's system becomes an issue to examine. Question is, is it defined by people and gods to some extent, or does it only define them, with good and evil being forces you can objectively measure the quantity and quality of in a person, place or action? Yet more pontification on how to handle clerics, gods, alignment and philosophy in your game, hopefully without offending anyone. Some of the bits I agree with, some I don't, but even in opposition, you define more about what you do like and intend to do in your own design process. Just remember, ability and ambition are not strongly correlated statistics, (probably my biggest gripe. ) and the people in charge are not often the most insightful. (It'd be a better world if that was true) Fiction: Firebearer by Lois Tilton. Still in theme here, with this little piece putting a slightly different spin on the legend of Prometheus. Deliberately low key, the protagonist of this story might not actually change anything in the long run, but they still tug on the heartstrings, creating a bittersweet little story that reminds us that even a small gesture can make a big difference to someone else's suffering. Another little life lesson that we would do well to try and imitate in reality.</blockquote>

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