Deities and Demigods
What do you think about the element of Deities and Demigods in RPGing? Would you rather if they were simply left out or do you appreciate their presence in the storyline?
I personally believe that the presence of deities and demigods within the RPG arena is very important. The games without would really lack the depth of influence for the characters and NPC's to a point that I feel the atmosphere would be changed dramatically. They do add a very needed point to nearly every good storyline.
I think that there can´t be a straight answer.
Firstly, deities are a must in the worlds´ history. Real deities or invented by religion, they usually are a fundamental part of the background.
But that doesn´t mean that there should be that kind of powers in the storyline. It depends on the game, characters, and kind of adventure. They can be useful, but not if the GM abuses of them.
It varies too much with the circunstances to say something definitive, I think.
I like the use of the demigod and deities in the AD&D world. They are the ones who can come and tap your charatcter on the shoulder no matter what your lvl and tell you NO you should not do that. Then again if you send one of the greater devils to your gods home plane you effectively remove that devil from the game.
I think the gods are important both for story and character motivations but also because in a realm where there are so many uneducated people religion becomes increasingly important. therefore to make a realistic high fantasy rpg you need to have religion be a factor.
I don't think I've ever seen any character reach the level of godhood. Actually I'm not much into the religious thing in any RPG but thn again I don't play the cleric either.
Fighting a demigod is more interesting than trying to become one. Makes for a great scenario when you have all these religious fanatics trying to kill your character.