The Campaign Builder's Guild

Quote from: RaelifinErm. On topic...
I think that's a gross oversimplification, Bill. Fantasy means anything, not just high fantasy. There have been countless wonders of fantasy worldbuilding with little divine impact at all. I say that gritty fantasy is just as good as high.

Keep in mind, I'm only talking about D&D settings, worlds where godhood and divine magic work as they're assumed to work in the current D&D rules. If an RPG worldbuilder wants things to be grittier, he or she should use somewhat different rules. If you're just writing fantasy fiction, or if you're using a different roleplaying system, go nuts.

There seem to be two approaches to divinity in current fantasy worldbuilding: either gods are treated the way they're treated in their own myths and classic literature like the Iliad, or they're treated as a postmodern comment on religion itself. I've seen an awful lot of the latter approach lately, so I'm trying the former. I think that D&D in particular is a poor medium for making statements and making the players think seriously about real-world issues. (There are systems that do this well, however. My favorite one is Shock.) In my games, it's all about having fun.

Oh, okay.

Curse my setting-neutral bias. ;)

Raelfin I love your ideas on gods and culture, you always aim for truest versimilitude.

My main idea for deities is to think of how to unify cosmology. My main idea for the mythos of the world New Edom is in is that the gods are of different families descended from the same pair of creators. Amid this there are also those who worship beings that are not true gods or concepts that are purely philosophical. I think that sometimes you need false gods in a game, or gods that are really just monsters that are given sacrifices, or idols that have magical power but no sentience, etc. That makes for fun sometimes.

One could even argue that the typical pantheon is based on the roman pantheon, which in turn is greek in origin. In the greek pantheon, Zeus is son of Chronos, a titain and half-brother of Echidna. Echidna is mother of many monsters, including say, the hydra, which is thus the cousin of Zeus. As it is clear that the greek gods are not omnipotent, one might say that they are nothing but "monsters" that are given sacrifices.

I always look at this as a campaign building site, not a d20 or D&D world building site.  So it's important to properly label system specific comments as such.  I wouldn't be here if this was a d20 site.  

[blockquote=KALIN]LC you bring up many questions for which i am yet to discover an answer to, and i feel compelled to ask some of my own of the members of the CBG,
If you setting has deities, how do they communicate their wishes to mortals? How do you integrate your deities into folklore, myth, songs etc? do you write out each myth or song?[/blockquote]
Well, the first thing is the level of intervention you want to have.  Even before the deities and their portfolio/areas/aspects/domains, it will help you if you 'top-down' the thing and start with that.
I find that 'religion' and 'afterlife' are 2 belief concepts that go together.  Many low-intervention settings use afterlife beliefs to keep worshippers in line.  This fits under the 'why do people believe/where does fath come from?' department.
Once you have a handle on the level of interaction, THEN you can start worrying about how they interact.  The cosmic chessgame is a fun way to look at the deities, but what are the rules that the deities are really playing by?  Do the deities need worshippers?  Do they really care?  A fundamental determinate of the DP (demonpoint, a powerscale for the Celestials) scale for my own setting is based on the amount of worship they receive.  No mortals have any idea of this, or the inscrutable ways of the Celestials...but I like having a dynamic for the behaviors of the creatures at the top of the food chain.
I also am declaring personal alligiance to the anti-anthropopathy camp.  People can do as they will, but I belive that while mortals may ascribe human passions and logic to the Mightiest (which can show up in mortal fables, etc), there cannot/should not be a complete understanding 'on the ground'.
I have no idea if this makes my game 'fun'.  Perhaps the longevity of my game is based on a prolonged player-masochism... :dots:

I tend to agree with LordVreeg, largely because I think it emphasizes the differences too between those really in the know, those somewhat in the know, and the ignorant.

You also need to decide how important religion is to day to day life.