Deity Supplement

[wynteriii]

For my next supplement I'm wanting to make a couple of deities that interact together. GM no longer have to spend time creating religions for the campaign, just use this supplement and relax. I would like to Basic Fantasy enthusiasts to post on this thread what they have used in the past and I'll make them work together.

[Metroknight]

The main problem that comes to mind for me is that everyone's campaign is different. How you view deities will be very different from me. All I will suggest is make the deities generic enough to allow each individual GM to tweak them or make a list of deities and what they are known to be associated with.

Examples :

Dugdor : Dwarven diety, Male, associated with digging and mining.
Erthanor : Elvish diety, Female, associated with music and dancing.
etc....

If you try to specify to much then that then you will end up limiting the use of your supplement in my opinion.

[wynteriii]

That's been the basic answer I've gotten, I'm hoping for a D&D style pantheon of Gods. I think that they were compatible for all settings, I'm tempted to go on to some other project and just use D&D Gods.

[Metroknight]

Unless you are really passionate about this, you will not get to much feedback for this supplement. I know I've left it up to my players to chose what they want but I've only included Deities in one game once. The rest of the times I didn't worry about deities much and just let the players play clerics of good. Any other details they got to create and supply. It worked for me.

[SmootRK]

I have used a variety of deities, varying greatly. For the most part, I use the deities only for their name and basic sphere of influence (much like what is mentioned above)... all very generic. The deities don't really have much to directly do in my campaigns, just background-dressing for the setting.

The exact way religion works will vary on how the GM decides deities interact amongst themselves, or even if they exist at all. I usually will tell players something like "the region your characters come from follows the basic worship patterns of Norse Mythology" (fyi - my favorite set of deities), or there are a just a few main groups of religious bodies, a monotheistic creator god (or technically trinity, based a little off real world Christianity) along with a nature worship group (druids) and a few sects worshiping other sorts of deities (look at material in the Morgansfort module for a great little 'basic' worship model.

Mostly what I would love to see in a supplement is some ways to differentiate radically different sorts of worship...
for instance:
Clerics of a poly-theistic society (think greek or norse) might draw power from a variety of gods, while another more specialized Priest might focus more closely on one (or a small group) of deities.
This differs from a mono-theistic centered sort of worship, where Priests worship a one and only sort of deity, and perhaps gives some attention to fighting the deity's diametric foe.
This also differs from how one might have a Totemic or Shamanistic or ancestor worship sort of pantheon.
This also differs from something akin to Law/Neutral/Chaos sort of religious inclination, which is more of adherence to a particular individual or societal inclination or mindset.
And then there is Nature or Earth Mother sort of worship.

It is all a lot to try to build around... and is another reason I tend to take it loosely and without much deity impact on the game. I don't even use alignment at all.

[Joe the Rat]

I built a pantheon out of the classical "inner planes" cosmology, setting up each around commonalities of deities associated with those elements, and picking specific cultures for the core theming (Basically Farmer Crom, Thor, Egyptian Amaterasu, Celtic Artemis, Maiden/Mother/Crone, and John Constantine.) I did another inspired by equal parts Marketstone, Westeros, and Thundarr the Barbarian. I had yet another building around calendars: 12 gods of civilization and society, representing a mix of classes and law/chaos alignments - and a parallel druidic faith for the natural world.

That was the past year. Without a campaign to go with it.

One approach would be to make lists of "Gods of X", and noting common traits and associated spheres of influence.

Sea Gods -
- The standard roles (oceans, ocean life, water)
- Other associated domains (earthquakes, trade, sustenance, storms, greed, change, horses, strength, chaos, darkness, life...)
- personality traits
- relations with other deity types
- cultures where s/he's found

Something along those lines.

The reason I'm suggesting go generic is that most GMs are going to build their own cultures, which will carry their own baggage and trappings. Having a big bag of brawny beings might help stir up some ideas, or make sure you don't forget something important. If farming is a major aspect of your setting, you should have some sort of agriculture or harvest deity - and it might be good to know what else might fit their job description (fertility, animals, wealth, insects, death, plants in general, light novels on economics, etc.)

What might be simpler is to throw together a Deities and Demigods -type deal, showcasing a few fictional pantheons with different types of themes or structures. Lay out some inspiration.

[wynteriii]

I'll put on the work list, thank you.

[Dimirag]

Another way could be done via a "quasi-class + specialization" approach:

When creating a Cleric (or another Divine Caster, the player can choose to follow a particular god.
In order to do this he can choose the Domains of Power related to that Deity.

Each Domain contains:
1- A spell List on its own.
2- A granted power or a modifier.
3- An Experience Percentage Increase

The limit to the quantity of Domains allowed depends on the God selected, which in turn depends on the setting or god created by the GM.

An example:
Death Domain:
1- All Necromantic Spells + New Necro Spells.
2 - A bonus to the Turning Roll.
3 - +10% Xp Required

[Solomoriah]

This is why the Western Lands (from BF1 Morgansfort) has religion done as it does. The "default" cleric is a follower of Tah (from one or the other church, of course); a player wishing for a non-standard deity can pretty much name his own, with the understanding that whatever deity his character worships is one of the "Hundred Gods" described in the module.