This is for the rpg called Gothire that i'm planning.

This time, it is about Divinities that may have impact on what happens and the Player characters.
Divinities from the Egyptian and Voodoo pantheons may be included, as well as possibly a few Babylonian and/or Sumerian ones.
As for the One God Faiths, they will rather be represented by some of the Sephira or "Aspects of God" that comes from the Kabbalah, but some roleplayers may be more familiar with them from the horror-rpg KULT, where I think they were known as Archons.
A few from the alleged "anti-sephira" may be included too, essentially the few I can handle or have a different view on than is common in their religions.
I may also add a few divinities, or similar, that i made up for that world.

Now the question is:
How best to include them?
A few ideas are these:
* Access to specific summons.
* Access to specific spells.
* Any PC may be aligned to one or more of those, thereby getting some limitations and some benefits.
* Places of Communion (from stone circles to churches) may make it easier to connect with a Divinity.
* Being aligned to one of those may increase the risk of getting dragged into a kind of divine war where everyone has their own agenda.

(Some may remember that I posted a similar topic some time ago, but I have a somewhat different approach now.)

One wonders, were those gods always around and available or were they denied access to the world for some reason? This may influence the history of the world and the flavor of the game. If the gods were denied access but are now making a comeback, what was preventing them from reaching the world? If they were always available why were they silent for 2000 years, or more? Or maybe they weren't silent. Maybe in your world they have always been manipulating human events behind the scenes? (Or in front of the scenes? Maybe during the War of the Roses the Yorkists were openly Ra worshipers while the Lancastrians were followers of Baldur.)

Maybe the basic conflict is between "gods as worship objects" and "gods as big monsters we can beat up?".
D&D's Deities and Demigods books have been wavering to and fro between the two approaches from time immemorial.

Quote from: Doughdee222;801412One wonders, were those gods always around and available or were they denied access to the world for some reason? This may influence the history of the world and the flavor of the game. If the gods were denied access but are now making a comeback, what was preventing them from reaching the world? If they were always available why were they silent for 2000 years, or more? Or maybe they weren't silent. Maybe in your world they have always been manipulating human events behind the scenes? (Or in front of the scenes? Maybe during the War of the Roses the Yorkists were openly Ra worshipers while the Lancastrians were followers of Baldur.)

Practically, they have always been around, but it may also be seen as a re-emergence due to the interest in Paganism and occultism has increased.

In the gameworld, the emergence of so called Deadites and Nightchildren also has summoned forth the Divinities and similar, as these generally disbelieve the regular authorities and expectations in the world, yet still seem to need something to believe in.
This is also a reason why the Norse and Greek-Roman Pantheons probably won't be included in this game, as they are too "mainstream".

The Deadites and Nightchildren is humans that has gotten several abilities that normally only monsters of myth(?) possess.
They do tend to need something they can rely on to explain their situation, and their chosen "Greater Beings", be they Ishtar, Damballah, Anubis, Lilith, Chesed or Malkuth, do not seem to mind helping out.

Quote from: Bloody Stupid Johnson;801440Maybe the basic conflict is between "gods as worship objects" and "gods as big monsters we can beat up?".
D&D's Deities and Demigods books have been wavering to and fro between the two approaches from time immemorial.

"Gods as giant monsters you can beat up" is either just that, or it is instead only avatars that may be temporarily beaten up ... but only if the PC's temporarily has superpowers or similar.
The actual Divinities are however usually Divine untouchables whose practical power and/or plane of existence makes them impossible to defeat.

I do like the avatars approach. Maybe not much difference between the deity's avatar and it just having big servant demons it can send to beat up the PCs, but its OK.
Would you have any part-deity PCs by any chance, a la Scion maybe?

Also wondering if you're familiar with Unknown Armies at all? I've only sort of browsed it, but I'm wondering if its sort of feel is anything like what you're after.

Quote from: Bloody Stupid Johnson;801613I do like the avatars approach. Maybe not much difference between the deity's avatar and it just having big servant demons it can send to beat up the PCs, but its OK.
Would you have any part-deity PCs by any chance, a la Scion maybe?

Also wondering if you're familiar with Unknown Armies at all? I've only sort of browsed it, but I'm wondering if its sort of feel is anything like what you're after.

Scion is close to the idea I have for avatars, but they're probably a degree or two more powerful.
However, they are not available for players.

Players are not much more than human level in power, at least to begin with.

The purpose of the divinities is mainly to add to the mood, and he possibilities available.
The enemies will instead usually be the actual monsters, but also "normal humans" that confuses the characters for actual monsters.

Example: PCs may look partially like a demon or a Vampire, and have some associated abilities.
However, they may be attacked by others of their kind, or by actual demons and vampires, or by witch hunters that think the characters are vampires and demons ....

EDIT:
No, I am not familiar with Unknown Armies, I have only heard(seen) the name on this site.
EDIT:
From its name I must say that it is not the mood i'm looking for, as I think more of "Fantastic Realism gone way too far, into gothic and pulp horror and movies" ....

Hm, twice now I have tried to give examples on what i'm aiming for, and found that I lack something, or that listing proper divinities may be unnecessary, that said divinities may be unnecessary altogether.
I ended up not posting those attempts.

But I do get the distinct feeling that the divinities is indeed necessary for the general mood of the setting.

So, what if I reduces the amounts of Divinities and similar?
Baron Samedi, Bast, Tipareth, Chesed, Binah, Malkuth, Lilith, Gamaliel.
Two Divinities, 4 Sephira, and 2 "other".
4 Femmes, and 3 Males, Tipareth is "Beauty" and might arguably be bi-gendered, neither or either due to that.

Hm, I at least managed to finish the list, but ... yet again:
Are they necessary?

What is the reason for their inclusion?
Mood.
Churches is partially safe havens, and/or important in some other way.
Seeking comfort in religion is not simple, as it may lead to aligning to any of the available Sephira, but those may be in feuds with each other, and with the divinities.

But still, any such feuds is in the background ...

It seem impossible to describe what i'm aiming for.
Heh, it might be because I don't really know what i'm aiming for.
Perhaps I just want to add them because of my own version of "rule of cool".
That is quite a ... unfitting reason to add them.

I am open for suggestions.

Someone elsewhere pointed out to me, that the known pantheons often is a mess of divinities that probably originally were remains from older myths, and/or from myths from neighbouring areas.

So, it is possible that the entities I mentioned above easily could become part of a kind of "Modern Pantheon".
Yes, that includes the Sephira or "Aspects of God", even though they otherwise is in a defined structure.

I did have the idea that that structure had gotten broken up in this game anyway, and this definition gives a good reason for it, too.

So now, the next step is to give them a slight hint of unity, that also has a kind of dark, brooding feel to it.