"He wasn't the hero we deserved, but the hero we needed"

The gods in my setting were previously very active in the setting, something that resulted in a massive inter-species war, but are now absent for reasons unknown to the population of my setting. The reason the gods are no longer actively involved in the lives of their worshipers is because they're fighting a defensive war at the edge of the solar system against an invasion of Lovecraftian gods and demigods.

Lenny Lynch i like the idea of gods being involved if the character invokes them, pleases them, or upsets them. Otherwise, they just rather ignore the morals

Mortals

I like Gods who are actual people, like Greek Gods. No single person, no matter how powerful, can attend to every single worshipper, nor would they frankly want to. They'd want to follow their own agendas, and those agendas might be completely selfish like "boning as many hot women as I can," "research the fabric of magic and reality," or "pretend to be a mortal and go on awesome adventures."

The Beck animals. .. thanks for the tip

this!

Not to mention the fun stories that come from something like akatosh/auriel/alduin.

Agreed, but what percentage of players ever pay attention to those distinctions. Heck, Bethesda themselves don't always pay attention. Skyrim was just copy paste imperial pantheon, we get only hints of the Nord pantheon.

ghosturiel such a silly god for such a silly people. Dandelion is the only one of his kind, no matter how lesser races misinterpret him

"I love lamp! I.. love carpet" That'd be a interesting role play, dump int and just get access to weather type domains. Use a trident and hand grenade equivalent.

Desk Tablelamp demands the blood of apostates!

Are you in Daleport?

So...Pixar?

Just bought that book you mentioned (Lexicon) and already i can see how useful it is. Thank you for your reccomerdraston

I occasionally craft a version of "Death" as the "Ethereal Usher"... Kind of a pale, scrawny guy who just guides you to your proper place. He has a tall staff, but the thing on top is a "spiritualistic indicator" that pulls and points the way... OR sometimes it's just a big lamp... lighting the way through the spirit world(s) to final planes or resting places... The whole thing is usually pretty funny. Everyone looking for a grim reaper or some other awful undeathly variant, and then THE Death shows up, "Nope, those things are monsters... You're just looking for little ol' me." ;o)

I figure Death is the only god. One that favors no one. He is friends to those who accept their ultimate fate.

copyandpaste505 the talk of death and your profile pic are worrying

I mean when the symbol of the Grim Reaper from mainly monotheistic Europe was imported to Japan it was turned into a god of death by the mostly polytheistic Japanese people.

The other players weren't cross she was a demigod and they weren't?

@@dubuyajay9964 No I have a feeling they figured it out for awhile; she on the other hand didn't dawn on her of what she was. Since the blast would have killed her for sure, I think they where glad that her character was saved. AND now they had a demigod in the party to help was also a bonus to them.

Somewhat ironically, that fell to Artemis. Hera was also considered a goddess of childbirth. Then, if you want to get really specific and esoteric, there was EILEITHYIA (Ilithyia), goddess of childbirth and labour pains.

Also, googling those names reminded me that it was rare for them to be reduced to the god-of-one-thing. Many were associated with multiple domains (wisdom and law and warfare, hunting and virginity), which can tell you how their worshippers thought about the relationships between those things *and* add further complexity to their personalities.

They were also batshit crazy and downright evil, so trying to give them D&D style alignments to make them seem like a diverse pantheon fails miserably.

Andrew Swart The only time he comes early is when he's with a girl. Just marvelous.

Andrew, I think we all got that joke. Still, thanks captain obvious.

ThorsShadow I was degrading him, not explaining a self evident joke.

Look into the mythologies of Apollo of the Greeks and Romans, and Amaterasu of the Japanese.

It was either: A random coincidence. Or: Divine intervention. ... Your choice ... Same same but different ... One thing is coincidence with youtube videos, another is coincidence with the players... The latter is the toughest to get! Do you have a feeling that your players will run off for to smoke giggle weed while saying "hummm" for to connect them selves to the cosmic energies?

Holy wars, ho!

Literally godfather

That is probably my bad. I'll double check the lists. I do absolutely apologize if we missed your name in the credits!

How to be a Great Game Master I fully accept your apology! Thank you for the quick response! If there are any issues regarding the Patreon service itself please do let me know through either Facebook or email. Keep up the good work my friend!

not in terms of violence. Only sexwise.

TheSuperQuail Yeah, the 36 Sermons had some great stuff that you wouldn't see allowed these days. Then there's barbed Khajiiti cocks from Daggerfall.

RoundRobin0 aayyy my boi would you mind destroying this city as they used to be my good boys old chums but they dissed my clothing and stopped being so diddly darn nice so would you mind me asking my good buddy pal amigo if you would help out a fellow mate and smite them for it

Nicholas Roberts so basically a homebrew gm who wants to be in an official rulebook

Pathfinder? The system has rules for almost everything, so much so that making a ruling on something may disrupt the "balance".

I don't think giving an animal a basic ability to open and close its mouth quickly would do that. About all you have would be a bite that does slashing rather than piercing, and if that's broken then I can make something just as broken by grabbing the nearest ANYTHING SHARP. Besides, it's not just pathfinder, generally any game I'm in that has a skittish gm makes it where suggesting the slightest unconventional thing has me trying to calm them down for hours. Pathfinder, World of Darkness, Anima, Scion, anything.

Sounds like your GM is too anxious and not good at winging it. I know the feeling of panic when things go completely differently and in your head, you are desperately grasping for something to counter. Perhaps your DM just isn't good yet and needs some practice at randomness?

Of course, but I'm asking if there's anything mr HTBAGGM here knows that could help.

364dragonrider I would recommend having a discussion with the gm in question and show them some of Guy's videos on DMing...or really any video about DMing that could help them improve. Don't tell them they are bad at it, necessarily, but approach it as if it wouldn't hurt them to watch a few. There are other channels that have videos about ways to improve your approach. I have a book on my Kindle that is helping a friend of mine add more storytelling to his campaigns than he usually does. It's helped to lessen the time we fight in his Pathfinder campaign. Granted it all comes down to the GM/DM deciding to be proactive. Your only other solutions are to either tell him he's being dickish or to play with a different dm. :/

I prefer the Kratos school of theology.

This is actually something of a pet peeve of mine. In christianity, humans are destined to be with God. The bible is very clear about the meaning of life. D&D pantheons don't have much of a theology or philosophy. If I'd have to extrapolate a theory from what I know about D&D or Pathfinder, it's this: Gods send their clerics to the people of the material plane in order to convert them to worshippers. When a worshipper dies, their soul goes to the realm of the god they worshipped were it becomes either a petitioner or part of the plane itself. Petitioners can become powerful outsiders who fight on behalf of the gods in skirmishes such as the blood war. Therefore I must conclude that the purpose of mortals in a D&D setting is to provide souls to strengthen the outer plane or fight in the army of a god. The fact that this is basically slavery and that the gods must then all be lawful evil makes more sense when you realize that the symetrical shape of the outer planes seems like an odd thing if half of the universe is chaotic. There is an in game reason for this, but that seems to be more of a poor excuse. The great wheel cosmology doesn't make any sense to me. That might have something to do with alignment though.

You know half the D&D pantheons are either heavily influenced by or straight lifted from pantheons in actual history, right? And yes, the more followers a god has, the more their power grows. That's the whole point of them trying to shove their worship down people's throats. They are also constantly scheming to gain more power. If they weren't banned from directly fighting each other by an even more powerful being, they'd wreck the world in the blink of an eye. I believe they've tried to pull that shit before too. Time of Troubles anyone?

Ps. My God are very involved in the sense that the also live on this planet and were people in the past

Patrick Roelant My advice is to make as much useless information as humanly possible. I do this when working on a game revolving around a gang war in a attempt to make the part of the city they live in feel lived in. You don’t really need the information on random people, but on places, it does help.

Perhaps you can use an idea I have been thinking about: Let the group get some real estate in the city, and you then create the city it is in! First examine the characters for to find something they can have in common, and then think up some real estate they are all related to. Example: Two character both have skills in cooking, two others are(or can be!) hunters. Then the real estate can be a restaurant renown for its wild game dishes. And some of the characters have a common ancestor which they are(or you make them) the grand children of. Start out the campaign by having the characters get together at a funeral (of that common ancestor some of them have). After the funeral they join together at the resolving of the deceased last will and testament. There they learn they have inherited the restaurant! This way you create the restaurant in such a way that all the characters have a connection (strong enough to be chosen to inherit it!) to the restaurant. (Thus you give the individually created characters something that bind them together!) The advantage you get by using such approach, is you connect the characters to the restaurant which then again is connected to the city, and thereby the characters all have a root in the city! (Thus you bind the group to the city!) And now it is about getting the story/action going! (You have the topmost plot-line in place: The restaurants rise to fame!) Let them figure out that the restaurant has been neglected due to the now deceased been sick for a long time, and could not find anyone competent enough (I have the experience thus I am the best -problem) to take it over. Have a neighbouring lot be for sale, and have been so for a long time. (Two reasons: To demotivate the group from just selling the restaurant just after they inherit it, as there are no buyers for it. And: For the group to buy, to expand the restaurant into, when they become ambitious!) I think that would be such a solid start that it feels like the story almost make itself! They need to hire staff to run the restaurant... While they are out hunting wild game... Even wilder game... To attract picky eaters... Furniture... Decoration... Other competing restaurants... Advertising (Not the incident with rats in the kitchen)... --- The restaurant was just an example. Another option is a mansion. Gives them a home and space for a library, a laboratory, a forge, etc. ... It is about thinking up something the characters will see as a common goal to build up! --- Weak spot by this approach is that it can be difficult to replace a character (as the new character was not in the last will and testament.).

The Romans were tolerant of other religions because they didn't really take their own pantheon(s) seriously... They just adopted whatever they stumbled upon, "Romanized" it and called it a day, adding to the ever growing list and litany of Romanized (romanticized) things in Roman society... What set the Israelites aside, along with a lot of the general middle-east, was the existence of "monotheism" and so difficult were some of these "religions" that they'd riot in streets and gang together to murder "heretics"... Heresy, before then, was basically a crime against nature in some manner, and usually termed more about the nature of the crime (pun intended) than anything religiously centered as "heresy" in so many words. A major sticking point with Christians was their complete disdain for working through the tax and census time, which they (at that time) believed (factually, btw) was the time when their messiah was born... This caused problems because there was still a fairly monumental economy going on, complete with large work-force driven companies, not unlike the corporations we have today, and every worker (in that day, cuz "technology") was NEEDED desperately to show up for the tax audit for the business... When tax time came around, the Christians vanished home to sit out their "Christmas Holiday" and that dumped all the excess workload on the Pagans... which didn't go well... Keep in mind, here, common folk were considerably less considerate back then,considerably more violent (or prone to violence) and vindictive (much like their stories about the gods... oddly)... SO after hours, with the irritation of "being dumped on and abandoned" fresh in mind, the Pagans would circulate through towns to find these miscreant Christians and burn their houses down with their holiday spirits locked inside (along with families, kids, and pets)... Noel, (Winter Solstice) is a favored holiday around the world (from Pagans) SO the Christians who found out about the Pagan villagers who were prone to killing Christians "just for being good Christians" would also sift around the villages, and burn Pagan houses down... (complete with families, kids, and pets)... Now, Rome was originally Pagan, so it's not surprising that Christianity got the raw end of the civilized deal (outlawed through Rome "proper") until around 400 AD (?) when Constantine took the "helm" and had his say... That's where this "Cult of Yeshwah bin Yosef" business was technically turned into the "Roman Orthodox Catholic Church" with Constantine's blessings, and he was himself baptized to add Imperial credibility to the "New Savior" of mankind, a polite Greek kid named "Iesous Cristos" (Jesus Christ as of 12th/13th century... whenever they invented the "J"...) Constantine made his proclamations from Mycea, where he'd basically met with whoever among the cult leaders had balls enough to show up, and determined what was and was not acceptable for the Roman Holy Bible... INCLUDING that Christmas was NO LONGER during tax time, apparently they'd "accidentally" gotten the dates wrong some 400 years earlier, and it was actually about the same time as NOEL (winter solstice = Dec. 25 ish)...To prevent ANY damn body burning ANY damn homes down... so cut it out... (lolz) I love this history lesson, honestly... It's a lot of fun if you can set aside the micro-management religio-heretical crapula and get into the story... Politics, and fighting in the streets... "Hardline" Christians get so pissed about it, too... kind of a bonus. ;o)

Jeremiah Abbott That's pretty vague still. Define his goals. Well, we know he's the son of the god of death, but how did he get conceived? And where? Does he desire this heritage? Is he acting out of duty or greed? What is the thing he wants badly, but is having trouble getting? Also, make him elusive, epic. Don't go showing him every other session or something, just tease his existence, this behemoth of a monster that lurks in the shadows of the world and is plotting this... this what? Disaster? Ritual? Does he want to kill the god of death so he gets the title faster (or at all)? Does he need x amount of souls for sacrifice to be considered a worthy successor? These are some good points to explore. You don't need to set everything in stone, just the general and important parts, the rest you should adapt as the game goes. But motivation is key.

Shiroe-san he isnt the son. Just claims to be. He has conquered the central kingdom, and threatens all of the continent. Due to a war in the far distant past between dragons, they cannot harm each other personally, by their patron god this treaty was formed, to prevent the world from being torn apart. Dragons shun and act as though this dracolich, Xenrodiin, soes not exist, his name has been stricken from all accounts. There are 4 main sets of kingdoms, to the north lies a heavily European inspired geography. To the south lies a more africa geography. To the east lies the rainforest, where the kingdoms are ruled by dragons. In the middle, lies the ruined desert, that is currently owned by Xenrodiins' forces. He wishes to bring death to all the mortal world, only then can he ascend to his rightful place. The gos of death, sees the dracolich, whom he gave the power of lichdom, as a threat, and a insult. Every 70 years a god is born as a mortal, in doing so this keeps the primordials(elder ones) far locked in limbo. These mortals, called legacies, are nothing special, most are normal folk. But those that aren't are exceptional people well known in some form(as mortals the god has no power beyond what their monthly celestial power is, or personal power)(think of skyrim with the star signs) 9.5/10 a legacy is fake, as everyone important claims to be one. Only Paladins, and Clerics to the gods of(secrets, magic, fire) can tell them as legacies. (Gods do participate in mortal affairs, but are spiritual.) feel free to ask more it helps me to progress and weed out problems

Jeremiah Abbott Good, good. Now all we need is how he's going to end all life. Relics of power? Maybe through old fashioned war. If so, he needs a powerful army (the most powerful army, in fact), so maybe undead and abyssal/elementals. He could also open a portal to the abyss, letting demonic chaos and destruction run wild. Also, don't forget to get into his mindset. He's going to try really hard to do this, so every plan he has must have a plan B, as I imagine he's pretty paranoid since he's against the whole world basically. Oh, and don't discard possible evil allies to be villain (he's already the nemesis after all, the BBEG). So maybe a Congress of liches that were promised power for their cooperation, or, if you go for that abyss idea, a prince of the abyss could be a very nice surprise BBEG that is even stronger than the dracolich, if you want to extend the campaing. That's the next step.

Shiroe-san well honestly this is the affairs ongoing in the current timeline. Hes not actually the nemesis at first, first entrance into this world will be non affiliated with a specifc kingdom(unless someone had like specifc background) adventurers that slowly get dragged into a war. Xenrodiin has an army of clerics/zealots. They believe the best thing to so in service to him(the next god) is to die again. They undergo select training, so that when they die, they fully retain combat expertise, necromancy is influence of the spirit if the god of death, it is spoken through Xuvarii, the language of the dead. His army is half undead and half living. In life Xenrodiin was a Green Dragon, his poisonoud breath attack inducing different effects based off race, humans(if they survived/stayed near the fumes) were charmed, their minds fogged. Being the smallest among his hatchmates, he naturally craved power and influence over others.

Jeremiah Abbott I see. So what's preventing him from destroying everything right off the bat?

No powers. That's the trade off with deities. Otherwise they are not interested in story and it just becomes a hack-slash game.

I might agree, Guy... That's definitely ONE way to do it... There's a slight alternative, that can get pretty entertaining... Send their deity of choice down in various forms to make their PC's life absolute lunacy... Argue with them, conspire against them... occasionally light a very literal fire under their ass when they're not doing "the job" properly... You can have all kinds of entertaining interactions between a "fat-mouthed faithless preacher" and his "deity"... Think of "From Dusk till Dawn"... George Clooney is talking to the Priest who'd lost his wife, year-ish (or more) earlier to a car accident... "Listen Jacob... A faithless preacher is worthless to us. A servant of God can bless the water and make it a weapon. A faithless preacher is no use to me, Jacob, but a servant of God can put two sticks together and shove it up their demonic asses. So what's it going to be, Jacob? Are you just another faithless preacher? OR are you a mean motherfucking servant of God?!" AND then Jacob says... "I'm a mean mm-mmm servant of God." ...That's if you can build from the initial humor onset... AND if you want the dramatic climax as the demonic (undead? vampiric? just moldy?) hoards are closing in or beating down the doors... Frankly, I'd probably start small. Sure, with no actual faith, you don't get no power... simple... BUT signs... symbols... occasional NPC's who do know a bit about the deity, pointing some stuff out. Let the PC roll for knowledge checks, a little bit... BUT build on it... Through the Story and craft, teach the guy or gal this interesting and useful religion, reward them when they show and do well... but don't be afraid to kibosh when they "wander off the path" as long as you start funny and grow this faith in their investment. Power gamers tend to come around to RP easier with a touch of coaching and some good humor than just blindsiding them with consequences that suck all the time. They just need to learn the POWER of Narrative craft. ;o)

Follow a principle, not the whims of a deity.