Of course, you could just use real mythologies, or make up your own stuff.
I use Norse, Greek, Greyhawk (Gygax's inventions are pretty good), and a combo of American Indian + Sumerian, as interpreted by AD&D, for the different human cultures in my campaign.
Most gamers are at least passingly familiar with Thor and Athena and friends, so why not use them?
That's what I normally do, but I find that most players still treat them as vague concepts. My hope is that if I create a mythology specifically for my campaign setting they'll give it more thought.
Well, it really depends on the nature of the gods in the campaign- maybe they don't exist because people made them up, they might even just be super-powerful outsiders.
That's the way I see standard DND gods. The only thing that makes them different from other outsiders is that people worship them. They aren't really that important.
As to what questions need to be answered by religions, think carefully about this: in a dnd game world, creatures can learn the true answers to most questions. The gods are demonstrably real, magic works, there are divinations to answer your questions. What happens after you die? You can find out, by dying and coming back.
Not in my campaigns. Some questions are better left unanswered.
Of course, there's also the option of having ontological flux, where the answers o those questions depend on the circumstances and whom you ask.
I'm doing a bit of that in my campaign. If you ask people from Mythros (my Europe/Christendom) who the Lord is and they'll tell you it's Mithras. Ask people from Jangdor (Arabia) and they'll tell you it's Bahamet-Ra. Yes, I'm using real dieties as a basis to give a general generic image of what the god exemplifies to casual mythology buffs (most gamers) but then modify them heavily to fit the campaign's feel. Northerners claim that Mithras became the primary diety after driving Tiamet to hell when she imprisoned Bahamet-Ra and attempted to take control of creation. Southerners claim that Mithras is a pretender and that Bahamet-Ra is still supreme. Of course many wars have been fought over this.
Take a look at
these deities I've created for Urbis...
There's some interesting ideas there. I especially like the concept of lesser dieties withdrawing from the world as they become greater gods.
Common to what? (I actually can't even think of a rain goddess off the top of my head)
Ok, you caught me. That's just what I do in my world, and to be honest it seems terribly cliche. Some religion had to do that before, right?
Go find Green Ronin's Book of the Righteous. It has a fully realized Mythology that feels Real. It has gods, explains where they came from, what their relation to one another is, and how their existance has impacted the world and it's inhabitants. It also gives the gods some personality beyond their alignments and portfolios, with all the qualities and flaws one would expect from pantheistic deities.
I've played in games using that reference, but I never really liked the mythology. I never could really put my finger on why though.
Per the books, D&D gods aren't created by man to fulfill purposes. They simply are, like mountains or the sun. Or you. What's your purpose?
D&D Gods aren't mythological. They actually show up occasionally, and send Angels of Vengeance down to battle Primordials or enforce edicts.
Then they don't deserve worship. I'm strong so worship me doesn't seem like a valid reason to found a religion.
I think there's actually a very good, and surprisingly simple, reason for why deities tend to be two-dimensional....
The released diety books don't really accomplish what I'm looking for. They tell you the dogma of the god and what their followers are expected to do, but not how they interact with the world. Ok, so and so is the rain goddess, but why does it rain?
Gods needing, or at least benefitting, from worshippers is a very wide belief pre-monotheism. It's at the root of sacrifice - the god benefits from your sacrifice, maybe he rewards you in turn. D&D does tend towards a crypto-monotheist approach though; there are no rules for what benefits you get for sacrificing a hecatomb to Apollo, unless you count Cleric spell components.
I've always just thought of these offerings pleasing the gods, them actually needing sacrifices is an interesting idea. It's not just worship that gives them strength, but specific rites including ritual sacrifice.
slwoyach,
I'm not sure you'd call my Harqual Mythology organic but feel free to take a look.
The Mythology & History of Harqual
Let me know what you think.
It looks like you do a lot of the same things I do, as far as taking existing gods and adapting them to your setting while changing them quite a bit.
