If they do use 'real-world' gods I hope they manage to get their alignments correct. Deities and Demigods has Hermes listed as CG - this is not an appropriate alignment for a god that servers as messenger and neutral judge and arbitrator. However, it can be said that the Greek gods are decidedly chaotic in nature.
The New Core Pantheon
- Thread starter Gold Roger
- Start date
sdt said:
The name Hermes comes from the word herma which means "crossing stone or boundary". Like most greek gods his appearance and mannerisms changed over time but the ancient greeks most frequently associated him with commerce and travelers. He was also sometimes viewed as a trickster god which is probably where they got the CG alignment from. Of course, it's all moot if there's no alignment in 4E.
jolt
lukelightning
First Post
I loathe, loathe, loathe using real-world deities in D&D. If Thor, why not Vishnu? Why not Yahweh? I think it sets a bad precident.
Real world mythology also brings in baggage which I'd prefer to leave out. Thor is a Norse deity, which makes no sense in a world without Scandinavia. And people have varying degrees of knowledge of myth. It's tough as a DM when you have deity X in charge of such and such and a player says "actually she was a goddess of blah blah blah" or "My priest of X is excempt from the laws of the land, because in real life history they were exempt from secular law..."
And "real world" deities don't fit D&D's alignment system. Athena as patron of Paladins? The goddess who turned a woman into a spider just because she claimed to be a better weaver? Most deities in myths, including a certain very popular one, can only be seen as "good" if you start with the assumption that anything a god does is good by the very nature of the fact that anything a god does is good.
Real world mythology also brings in baggage which I'd prefer to leave out. Thor is a Norse deity, which makes no sense in a world without Scandinavia. And people have varying degrees of knowledge of myth. It's tough as a DM when you have deity X in charge of such and such and a player says "actually she was a goddess of blah blah blah" or "My priest of X is excempt from the laws of the land, because in real life history they were exempt from secular law..."
And "real world" deities don't fit D&D's alignment system. Athena as patron of Paladins? The goddess who turned a woman into a spider just because she claimed to be a better weaver? Most deities in myths, including a certain very popular one, can only be seen as "good" if you start with the assumption that anything a god does is good by the very nature of the fact that anything a god does is good.
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Simia Saturnalia
First Post
I'd like to ape this sentiment to the letter.lukelightning said:
sckeener
First Post
lukelightning said:
I have no problems with real world religions in my games. In my games the gods are gods over multiple prime material planes and as such it is quite possible for Thor to be in the same pantheon as Set on my world. In a way it is like Mulhorand in Forgotten realms, which imported their gods. My gods are also not static...the same way that Bast in Mulhorand moved on to become Sharess....
For me each prime material has its own divine realm in the outer planes...that way I can still have different afterlife versions for the same god depending on their prime material world.
and actually in one of my worlds that has been in play for 24 years Vishnu is a god. I've not done Yahweh yet though
lukelightning
First Post
sckeener said:
That's fine for individual campaigns, but I feel strongly that D&D's core, published rules should not include real-world deities for the reasons mentioned above. It reminds me of the old Deities and Demigods which happily stated up deities, including Hindu and Chinese deities. Seems a might disrespectful, especially considering the absence of a certain Jewish carpenter.
Klaus
First Post
Well, there's no unified myth for most real world mythologies, and the legends regarding those deities are often contradictory. So Athena may have been a very paladinesque deity, and she turned Ariadne into a spider because she was better at weaving... webs of deceit and intrigue! And so Ariadne becomes Lolth, Demon Queen of Spiders!lukelightning said:
See? Myth + D&D = fun!
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