From: Robert A. Howard
>So I was just wondering. Do any of you use deities as NPCs in your games?
Or have annoying but humerous Gods or other powerful peoples who don't go
around threatening people (well, not with instant death) or cure all their
ails and whims... but just enjoy occasionally popping in and annoying them?
>
I have a high-level druid that serves that function. Pretty much all
powerful as far as the party goes, but enough of a loony old git to make
them think twice about involving him (the last time the druid's guild asked
him to observe a PC druid he turned up as a seagull and 'observed' on the
party with helmet-spattering accuracy). He's also frequently unavailable
(the party can tell this when they wander around his wood for a half hour
and can't find his house anywhere).
As well as entertaining me I've also found that the old hands in the
campaign like introducing new players to stuff like this. Part of what kept
my campaign running for so long (ten years plus with a game duration of over
twenty years) was that the players enjoyed being part of the history and
detail of the world. Knowing the ins and outs of dealing with the world's
powerful entities is part of that familiarity.
While it's good to remind the party that the really powerful parties they
turn to for assistance have personalities - hobbies, vendettas, loves,
forgetfulness - I don't like doing this with deities. Partly because most of
my deities are truly powerful but also because deities in my world are a
manifestation of their worshippers and I have trouble settling this with
flippant personalities. Also my party trivialises so much on their own
that I don't want to give them material to trivialise the gods.
I also tend to keep the gods distant. Most of the interaction players have
with the gods is via priests or holy sites. Only the few characters that
have reached high priest level are at the point where they can speak with
the god and I try to keep the conversations fairly heavy-weight. I know I'm
on the right track when the players pause for two minutes of furious
whispering between each carefully worded sentence.
Chris.
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