Pantheons-worldwide or local?

[MulhorandSage]

It depends on the feeling I'm going for. In a campaign with a Bronze Age flavor, I'd have lots of local deities - one or two per major city - and throw out as many weird cults as I can. In other eras, the divine world would be consolidated into a few national and racial pantheons, or I might move toward monothiesm with demonic cults substituting as deities for the bad guys. I'm happiest when the divine world is not so cut and dried that you get a static pantheon ruling a region or the entire world for millennia, but that's a taste issue. (Too often I've seen GMs portray their love of small, neat pantheons as something that's objectively better than other approaches, especially when talking about the Realms, whose messy pantheons and multitude of deities gets unfairly slammed).

 

[the Jester]

I like a mixture that leaves the absolute truth unclear.

 

[RSKennan]

The world is big enough for paradoxes. There are national/ethnic pantheons, but there are also "usurper gods" that want to be worshipped as individuals. Beyond those, there is the Mother; the spirit of the world, and all those that sprang from her. Each faith believes their gods created everything. They might be right.

 

[Roadkill101]

I use a bit of both.
In my homebrew campaign I have nine Over-deities (Powers hereafter) and many semi-divine beings worshipped at the regional levels. At the top of this Pantheon is the Mother Creator (who is a neutral figure) followed by the her twin children (one male and one female, representing order and choas).
The twins involvement with "humanity" resulted in the complete anhilation of all life on one of two planets, after becoming personally involved in an eons long series of Holy wars.
In steps the Mother Creator, banishing her children from this part of her cosmos for a long time and declares the war over. Then She finds six of the most faithful people loyal to Her, and raises them up to take Her childrens places to govern "humanity" in Their place with the stricture they may not fight amongst themselves nor allow "humanity" to fight over themselves.
The spheres of influence over which each of the six are in charge of don't overlap (very much) diametrically, which further suppresses any conflicts of doctrine. Furthermore some of the spheres of which a single Power oversee's may conflict, for example the deity of health and life is also over death and disease.
At the regional level, how the local populace follows the Powers will vary. Some places focus more or less on just one or two of the Powers (with the exception to the Mother Creator, she has a strong following everywhere), while in other places the focus is more evenly spread out among the Powers. Along the same vein, the local populaces attention to a Powers spheres of influence will vary.
The minor regional deities focus typically on a specific aspect(s) of a an Over-diety's spheres of influence and are not bound to the no-conflict rule. Which allows for the occasional "Holy" skirmish or violent resolution to doctrinal differences. These sorts of deities are more like living saints than actual divinities and have very little say in regard to a followers spirit in the afterlife.
I should like to point out that I use my own magic system, based on schools (not the D&D schools BTW) and there is no such thing as divine magic as granted by a deity (and hence no clerics). This is not to say that Priests don't use magic, some do, but none of the spells are granted by a divine being by being a devotee of that divinity.