The Campaign Builder's Guild

i was less along the lines of 'battling gods are gonna solve all the world's problems' and more 'battling gods are the freaking problems'--pcs have to run if they see some big nasties moving to fight each other, they have to move to keep some big nasty from getting awakened by cultists, might have to lure one away from city-forts, etc.

keeping them asleep is a good story...letting them wake up and munch on cities is lame

well, i mean, if a god's a purple worm, they can ATTACK IT

if they kill it, all it's clerics loose their powers, and the cults die out =D
if the god is 'the anthropomorphic principle'--that's a bit harder to do.

Quote from: brainfacewell, i mean, if a god's a purple worm, they can ATTACK IT

if they kill it, all it's clerics loose their powers, and the cults die out =D
if the god is 'the anthropomorphic principle'--that's a bit harder to do.

I kind of assumed the latter...if the totem gods were just run of the mill monsters they wouldn't really seem all that god-like. I can see something on the power level of a Tarresque being worshipped as the anthropomorphic embodiment of the destruction domain. It is a unique epic creature worthy of worship in my humble opinion. That's why I don't think setting them lose  upon cities is a good idea, unless we're delving into epic play, in which case sure go for it. But there would most likely be some serious repurcussions for killing a god...clerics won't stand by idle and let it happen.

ehh, i was kinda thinking some 'gods' would be like, cr 10 or so, and the REALLY nasty ones would be 'torrasque level'

but they'd be gods and not just monsters specifically because they'd have clerics and followers, and maybe minions of a similiar theme to them. and if they died, all of their minions would be royally messed up. (and cities and towns would be scared shitless of them, but adventurers could tackle the lesser gods) basically, the FLUFF would make them gods. i mean, that's where i'm going.

i'm just not that impressed with normal gods in campaign settings, because they pretty much do nothing. i mean, some spot might have books devoted to them, or an altar for them, but it's basically just a god's CLERICS you worry about. hypothetically, the gods are badassed, but effectively, they're just concepts.

I can see how that would be possible. Like a wise sphinx as the totem god of some Egyptian style culture. It would be his immortality, and worshippers that really made him powerful, and not his CR.

Big warring monsters still seems very un-god-like to me. That seems more like a bad "B" movie, which it's charm, but no substance.

So if we're insisting on using strictly a totem-based religious system, then I would see only specific, OGL monsters to represent certain cultures, and not certain ideals.  FOr instance, I would think the "Kraken God" would represent a certain sea-faring civilization, but not represent something like "Evil," or "Protection," or "the Sea."  I like the idea of each culture having their own god...

but then, of course, you run into the problem of, in all honestly, what's the likeliness that every culture in the world just happened to pick a creature to "sponsor" them...

So, are we thinking that the gods actually live, breath, and walk on the planet?  Like the gods in "The Belgariad?"

Maybe the creature picked them. In cases of intelligent and powerful totem gods this could work fine. Dragons, Pheonixes, Sphinxes, etc...not so easy with Krakens and things of that nature, but theoretically people would only have to witness their power and be impressed or frightened enough for cult-like worship to spring up.

QuoteSo, are we thinking that the gods actually live, breath, and walk on the planet? Like the gods in "The Belgariad?"

seems that way...

Quote from: brainfacehypothetically, the gods are badassed, but effectively, they're just concepts.

Personally, I like the idea of worshipping concepts.  For instance, what about a world where true deities don't exist, and "divine spells" are actually a form of enlightenment of the "inner self?"  Then, you have religions that spring up based solely on concepts.  People would worship "The Sun," and "The Harvest," and "The Wanderer," (who may just be an entirely made-up aspect of a mythological protector of people who travel, or something along those lines).  The clerics then, devoted to specific ideas, reach enlightenment based on those ideas around level 1, and are able to manipulate their chi (or whatever you want to call it) based on the portfolio of the concept they follow....

Well, it's not totems, but I'm not sold on totems anyway, so I'm going to keep on coming up with other ideas.

LOL...I really should post my Sulos pantheon just for you Ishy.
Everything you want, I've already done for my world.

1. The gods may have never been real at all
2. Over-arching churches
3. Concept themes (The wanderer is one of my deities)

Yeesh it's just uncanny

-Nasty-

Well, I've already requested a few toimes that you post it in full over here, cuz I don't really go over to WotC much anymore ;)

I just sent it to ya via PM

P.S. I'm waiting for the personal home page thing...I want it all in one place rather than scattered all over the boards. I could take this forum over with the quantity of material I've got, and that just seem intrusive and overbearing to me...I'm already boarderline arrogant and obnoxious, so I try to tone it down for the good of my fellows.  :1337: LOL

Dang, you all started without me?

Ok, I liek the gods walking(ironic, no?), I think a Roc would make a sweet god...  I also think the culture-->God idea isn't so cool, no offense.  I like the big few gods, but various churches idea...

Anybody need my help, PM me.

Ishy; I like the idea of the multiple religions within 1 pantheon. In order to embody this most accurately, I vote that you make one deity for each domain. This way, a cleric actually chooses a religion rather than a deity, and their choice of religion determines what deities their two choices of domains come from.

The only other way to think of it is that if each settlement or people had a deity, it would be because that deity shelters the people from something horrible.

And I do agree; they all have to be OGL creatures. I say we should stick to animals, or the more animal-like creatures. I could get started on advancing some animals to rediculous heights and giving them divine ranks, but the question is do we want them all to have the same power level (combat wise), or will they be tiered by their divine rank?