Worlds of Design: RPG Gods - Benign or Malign?

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Most RPG settings have some form of godhood. Yet there are some age-old questions that come into play as you create religions.

By Unknown author - Os Deuses Egípcios – IMAGICK, CC BY-SA 4.0, File:Deuses Egipcios.png - Wikimedia Commons​

Gods and “hokey religions” (to quote Han Solo in Star Wars a New Hope) are usually part of fantasy and science fiction role-playing games. From a world-building standpoint, you can approach religion as a form of philosophy, a way to guide one’s life, but a lot more people are into religion than philosophy. Rather than using a religion that resembles a modern day equivalent, let’s start from scratch by asking some fundamental questions:

How Many?​

How many gods are there? In human history, ancient gods often were members of a pantheon, a group of gods. So it is with many RPG campaigns and settings. Gods from these ancient pantheons (Greek and Roman most prominently) were superpowerful and immortal, but otherwise behaved much like humans. Less common was a single god, or a god who has an oppositional aspect (effectively another god) as in Manichaeism or Persia’s Zoroastrian religion (Ahura-Mazda and Ahriman). It has been uncommon to think that only “my” gods exist, and no others. The belief is more likely when there is only one (or two) god(s) in a religion rather than a pantheon. After all, if you can have a bunch of gods, why can't someone else, and those gods compete with one another?

Gender?​

Male vs female? Virtually all the ancient religions were heavily male-oriented, just as societies were heavily male-oriented. Some did have powerful goddesses often related to fertility. But male orientation is not necessary in a fantasy world in which women are often treated much differently than women in the ancient world. There is some notion that in prehistoric times, some religions were heavily female oriented.

Belief?​

Do you believe? Just as in the real world, some characters are going to want nothing to do with gods, while others will devote their lives to them. Some will assume that gods are only bad for humanity, others that gods provide great good for humanity. A GM/World-Builder can influence this strongly through the actual behavior of the gods.

Do You Have a Choice?​

Is there State Sponsorship (forcing everyone to conform)? In the real world, sometimes people are free to choose their religion, other times they are required to conform to the state religion. And you have cases where the laws are devised to encourage someone to convert (as when non-Muslims paid an additional tax in the early centuries of Arab expansion). The Roman Empire changed state sponsorship from their pagan religion to Christianity in the fourth century CE. And so on. The player characters could be religionists resisting state-imposed religion.

Divine Right?​

What about men/women worshiped as gods? There have been many times in human history that rulers justified their right to rule by declaring themselves to be gods. Among these are the Pharaohs, the later Roman emperors, and many medieval kings of Europe. For some it was just an excuse, but others seem to have really believed it.

Manifestations?​

How much do gods manifest in (appear or directly influence) the world? Some ancient gods, e.g. Greek, were thought to constantly meddle with the world. Egyptian gods were less present in the world. If gods do meddle with the world, how do they do it? Provide direction for worshipers (even holy war?)? Give boons to their most prominent worshipers?

Fear or Love?​

Do characters fear their god(s) (and for that matter, rulers), or love him/her/it/them? This depends on the priesthood, or on the behavior of the “actual god(s)”. It also depends on what the ruler thinks is best. It’s easy to make people fear him/her/it when the gods themselves are involved.

The Old Gods?​

What about the “old gods,” the ones who no longer have worshipers? Do they fade away entirely, or do they hang out in the background, so to speak—perhaps providing quest material for players? If they hang out, do they become neutral, or benign, or malign?

What Are They Really?​

"Gods" as Aliens - or Monsters. What are the gods, really? Perhaps they're all part of a big scam?

For an in-depth exploration of different ways to implement religion in your campaign (and answers to some of these questions), see Andrew “Corone” Peregrine’s excellent series of articles on the topic.

Your Turn: What questions did I miss?

 

[Lanefan]

How I answer that question for my game is that the egg(intelligent beings) came first. At some point a culture starter revering the sun, the sky, etc. and beings were "born" that embodied those beliefs and began answering prayers. This is why those gods are dependent on belief to survive.

Where I'm the exact opposite: the deities - well, five core ones, anyway - came first. (and I even have a backstory as to how they were created; they're not the first set of bozos to rule this universe, and the Great Old Ones might still be out there somewhere...)

 

[Galandris]

How I answer that question for my game is that the egg(intelligent beings) came first. At some point a culture starter revering the sun, the sky, etc. and beings were "born" that embodied those beliefs and began answering prayers. This is why those gods are dependent on belief to survive.

What can make interesting thing is the actual interest gods take into worshippers. For a time, I liked the deities to get power from worship concept, but I find it a little old now. I'd like to see something novel (that isn't immanent god that doesn't care either).

 

[Cruentus]

My biggest stumbling blocks around religion in my RPG's are:
1) limiting them (so there aren't 80+ gods I have to keep track of, potentially)
2) deciding between the intervening type gods, and the "distant" gods who don't meddle
3) how to "justify" cleric spell acquisition in the face of "distant" gods who may or may not exist, and who don't meddle (if they do). Do I just have clerics carry on and get whatever spells they pray for? And if so, why? Where are they coming from? Or do I switch them to a more ritualistic/wizardly study of spells, since there is no divine source?

I'm finding that for my worldbuilding, I'm having greater success when I keep the adventuring fairly "local" and not realms hopping. If there are only 3 "gods" worshipped in this area, that's way more manageable. I just keep some stuff thumbnailed if the party visits the kingdom next door.

 

[RareBreed]

I find it interesting that there is

I suspect, it is the Western (Christian) culture, where many find it difficult to even imagine a "religion" that doesnt worship some kind of person.

You're probably right. When I talk about Taoist or Buddhist religion to other people, they immediately get hung up on "but who do they believe in?" or "who do they worship?". I think it is anathema for those with a Judeo-Christian background, and I suspect it's the same for Hindus as well (I could be wrong, since Brahman...the precursor concept to Brahma the creator...is more of a metaphysical concept of reality, and the anthropomorphization into Brahma came later.)

Now that I think about it, here's another factor for consideration in a fantasy religion

What's the afterlife like?
Some religions have no afterlife. When you die, you die. Other religions don't have an afterlife per se, but some form of reincarnation into a new body. For other religions, the ultimate goal is to die the final death and extinguish the "self" (for example, nirvana does not mean "heaven" or "bliss" as some think, in Pali, it literally means to "extinguish" or "cease to be"), and by doing this end the endless cycle of rebirth.

Believe it or not, some religions do not even have the concept of a soul. If your religion does, what happens to the soul after it sheds its mortal coil? Can you be resurrected? Does a jealous God of Death prevent all his subjects from leaving? How do new souls get created?

Do souls have a finite time period (ala Norse mythos)? Are souls gathered for some final apocalyptic showdown (ala Norse or Christian religions)?

If there is a verifiable afterlife for the denizens of your fantasy setting, how would this impact society? If you actually saw there was some kind of hell-like abyss waiting for you if you didn't do good....would you still be bad? Or as Dante said, "Better to be a ruler in hell than a servant in heaven"?

Pascal's Wager would no longer need apply.

 

[cbwjm]

What can make interesting thing is the actual interest gods take into worshippers. For a time, I liked the deities to get power from worship concept, but I find it a little old now. I'd like to see something novel (that isn't immanent god that doesn't care either).

One of the things I didn't like about the concept of gaining power from worshippers, is that you have a host of creator gods that created their followers, but without followers, gods would lose power, die, and then get cast out into the astral plane. I ended up changing that so that rather than dying, the lowest they could go was demigod but now I've scrapped the concept altogether. I guess it wasn't really one of those things that ever really came up in game, but as background lore, it really irked me.

 

[Maxperson]

What can make interesting thing is the actual interest gods take into worshippers. For a time, I liked the deities to get power from worship concept, but I find it a little old now. I'd like to see something novel (that isn't immanent god that doesn't care either).

See, I don't understand the "gods don't care" schtick. If the gods derive power from their worshippers, then it is in their best interest to care and ensure they stay and/or attract more. It's when their power isn't reliant on mortals that they can afford to stop caring(or pretending to care).

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

In my games, Gods are either wholly a basis of faith or are glorified, super-powerful Tulpas given power/created by the masses. So, a lot of equivalents of real-world gods exist (like a deity of Death, the Sun, and other facets of the world), but they either are like Eberron, where their existence is up for debate, or they're like the Planescape, where gods can be born just from enough people worshipping someone/something.

 

[RuinousPowers]

I think one of the most eye-opening supplements for me was The Mad Lands for GURPS with all the gods that you might placate, but really wanted to have nothing to do with.

Even the descriptions of the other gods in the setting that were actively worshipped were strange and made demands on their people, like never-ending building projects.

 

[Hussar]

I suspect, it is the Western (Christian) culture, where many find it difficult to even imagine a "religion" that doesnt worship some kind of person.

That's hardly limited to Western (Christian) culture though. History is replete with pantheons of gods worshipped by various peoples, including your own favorite source, the Norse. While sure there are faiths like Buddhism which don't, I'd probably guess that this is somewhat a minority of possibilities.

Additionally, when we're talking about fantasy genre, having philosophical faiths (as in faiths with no deities) means that it's a bit harder to write stories. Or, to put it better, it's a whole lot easier to write a story about gods than philosophies. Considering right now the Netflix show The Sandman is incredibly popular, I'd say that there's some legs to the notion that having actual beings that the writer can point to and say, "Yup, right there is the deity of dreams" makes for somewhat more compelling narratives than, "Well, when we dream, we are approaching visions of some state of being that you can achieve."

 

[Yaarel]

gods worshipped, including your own favorite source, the Norse.

Except that didnt happen.

animism ≠ theism

Heh, but it kinda makes the point: Westerners today find it difficult to imagine a religion without worshiping a person.

 

[Hussar]

Except that didnt happen.

animism ≠ theism

Heh, but it kinda makes the point: Westerners today find it difficult to imagine a religion without worshiping a person.

Ok, I'm a bit confused. No one worshipped Odin? These were all just fictional characters?

 

[Maxperson]

Except that didnt happen.

animism ≠ theism

Heh, but it kinda makes the point: Westerners today find it difficult to imagine a religion without worshiping a person.

Animism is literally in the DMG, as are Forces and philosophies, so clearly it can be imagined just fine.

 

[MGibster]

Last time I designed a religion for a D&D campaign, I kept asking myself "Why should this matter to the players?" The sad truth of the matter, is that religion doens't make a big difference in D&D. I don't know if it ever has. Of course, perhaps your campaigns in the past or present are ones where religion was immensely important, but I certainly don't see evidence of that in published materials or from my own personal experience. (And, yes, I'm well aware I'm not the end all be all of D&D experience.)

So with all this talk about religion in a campaign I have to ask you this question: What does it matter? How does this affect game play? And I don't mean that in a snarky manner. If I sit down at your table to play a game, why does religion matter to my character?

 

[Hussar]

Last time I designed a religion for a D&D campaign, I kept asking myself "Why should this matter to the players?" The sad truth of the matter, is that religion doens't make a big difference in D&D. I don't know if it ever has. Of course, perhaps your campaigns in the past or present are ones where religion was immensely important, but I certainly don't see evidence of that in published materials or from my own personal experience. (And, yes, I'm well aware I'm not the end all be all of D&D experience.)

So with all this talk about religion in a campaign I have to ask you this question: What does it matter? How does this affect game play? And I don't mean that in a snarky manner. If I sit down at your table to play a game, why does religion matter to my character?

I agree. Religion, by and large, is something that most players don't seem to want to bother with too much. Even the cleric or druid players I've seen over the years don't pay much attention to their actual faith. They're basically just "casters" with healing spells. It is something of a proud nail to me that paladins get all this bad rep for being difficult to play, but, a priest of Heironeous, a character that should be every bit as restrictive to play as a traditional paladin, isn't held to any sort of standard.

So, yeah, I tend to think that most of the religion stuff is mostly for the DM. It's setting, largely for settings sake, because it rarely actually comes up in play. Even really heavy handed things like the Cataclysm in Krynn or the Wall of the Faithless in Forgotten Realms really has largely zero impact on actual play, despite having tons written about it.

Divine characters are something that needs a lot of player buy in to matter. Otherwise, it just gets completely glossed over.

Fun to think about though. From a world building perspective, it's hugely important. Faith shapes culture and vice versa to such a huge degree. Wars are fought over faith. Faiths can absolutely drive the conflict in a campaign. Easily. But, again, when the rubber meets the road, I find most players just don't want to think about it too much. They just don't care.

 

[R_Chance]

Religion in my game / world started out as a result of the Cleric in OD&D. It seemed pretty medieval (and we started out playing Chainmail medieval miniatures) so I set up a "medieval" / European type church. I settled on three gods (a Trinity; Order, Wisdom, and Necessity) with (eventually) dozens of saints representing various aspects of the gods. Dwarves and Elves didn't have Clerics at first. They got them later and I developed the "Old Gods" for them. Ascended ancient Dwarves and Elves. For them religion is more of a feudal relationship than it is with Humans. As I moved from original D&D, to AD&D (1E) and 2E AD&D it gained in complexity and depth. And the backstory of the religions filled out. The various churches / religions are well fleshed out, the inter-relationship of the various gods / religions is known, and I've developed a lot of lore / background for them.

Occasionally I think of how I would do it from the ground up, but I'm attached to my setting and its divine ecosystem. I can trot out lists of deities / saints for new Clerical characters. There are a lot of options. They know the organization, rituals, goals, etc. of the one they choose (handouts are a thing) and how it relates to others and the world. It works pretty well.

So, a laundry list of questions is great for building a new religious system. I like it, in theory. Time answered all those questions for me though

 

[Lanefan]

I'm finding that for my worldbuilding, I'm having greater success when I keep the adventuring fairly "local" and not realms hopping. If there are only 3 "gods" worshipped in this area, that's way more manageable. I just keep some stuff thumbnailed if the party visits the kingdom next door.

Whicn IME is just fine until the inevitable happens: someone decides to play a Cleric from said kingdom next door; on which I have to come up with that kingdom's pantheon then and there so as to allow the player a choice as to which deity said Cleric will follow.

I prefer to go the other route (that being, perhaps, the route of overkill) and sort out pantheons for all the local or nearby-ish cultures and species ahead of time, before play even begins. Even then, as I've been finding in my current campaign, it might not be enough: the adventuring area has recently changed to a different part of the continent, with different cultures and yes, different deities. Result: I had to dream up a whole new pantheon to suit a faux-Spanish culture almost on the fly.

 

[Lanefan]

So with all this talk about religion in a campaign I have to ask you this question: What does it matter? How does this affect game play? And I don't mean that in a snarky manner. If I sit down at your table to play a game, why does religion matter to my character?

It might not, unless you're a Cleric or a Paladin.

But if you're one of the faith-based classes it should matter a great deal to what makes your character tick as a character and to how you play it. For example, I'd expect a Cleric or Paladin* to a deity of secrets to be played somewhat differently than a Cleric to a deity of promiscuous love or to a deity of warfare and strife.

* - better note here that I allow Paladins to be any of LG, CG, LE or CE, as long as they dial it to eleven.

 

[Lanefan]

I agree. Religion, by and large, is something that most players don't seem to want to bother with too much. Even the cleric or druid players I've seen over the years don't pay much attention to their actual faith. They're basically just "casters" with healing spells. It is something of a proud nail to me that paladins get all this bad rep for being difficult to play, but, a priest of Heironeous, a character that should be every bit as restrictive to play as a traditional paladin, isn't held to any sort of standard.

Agreed.

I once tried playing a Cleric who would only minister to the faithful. In practice this meant she wouldn't cast beneficial spells on you (i.e. cures, mostly) unless you were of her own faith...which, as you might imagine, went over real well with the "heathens" who made up the rest of her party. In one case it literally came down to her saying to a downed comrade "Convert or die"; the comrade converted (or at least was convincing enough that my Cleric bought it), the cure was cast, and his life was saved.

By the end of her career - which came within just a few sessions courtesy of some foes or other - the rest of the party were lining up to kill her.

Even with that, I'm surprised we don't see a lot more of this: even mildly fanatical Clerics putting their religion ahead of the party.

Fun to think about though. From a world building perspective, it's hugely important. Faith shapes culture and vice versa to such a huge degree. Wars are fought over faith. Faiths can absolutely drive the conflict in a campaign. Easily. But, again, when the rubber meets the road, I find most players just don't want to think about it too much. They just don't care.

IME some care and some don't; the bigger issue can be that those who do care care in different directions and-or about different things than does the DM, and believe me that can lead to headaches.

 

[Yaarel]

Ok, I'm a bit confused. No one worshipped Odin?

Correct. No Norse "worshiped" Odin. The Norse had a nontheistic animistic worldview.

There were no "temples", there were no "priests", and people never prayed to Odin in times of need.

Odin (Óðinn) is the sky itself, especially its cycle of seasons.

There were certain human individuals, certain families, who felt a "friendship" with Odin. These individuals set up a small shrine in their own home. There, they can offer their friend some food, to thank him for the good weather they are currently enjoying. Maybe there is a timely spring to start planting crops.

Additionally, the sky inspires various natural features in the sky to move in the season cycles that they do, such as sun an moon, planets, and stars, and patterns of weather. Sometimes the sky can inspire humans too. The sky can be a kind of muse, to help form a good idea for a new song, political strategy, even new insight during a mystical trance. A human can thank the sky for a being inspirational too.

During the Viking Period, almost no one in Norway befriended Odin, considering its seasons too treacherous. Norwegians were, by far, more like to form friendships with the summer storms that kept the arctic threats away, namely Thor (Þórr). But in Denmark, humans are friendlier with Odin.

It is an animistic world view. There is no polytheism. Not in Scandinavia, anyway.

 

[Yaarel]

For D&D, animism is more like fey and archfey. Nature is alive − even sentient! Some features of nature are very powerful.

But there is no assumption to "worship" an archfey.

There might be a particular human who an archfey considers a friend.

Animism feels more like that.

Unlike D&D fey, animism is never otherworldly.

The features of nature in the material plane are sentient.