Reconciling so many gods

[Exiled Prince]

Seeing the other thread on gods I wonder what others think about what gods to include and not to include. I myself want to include them all.
Greyhawk, Pathfinder, real world mythology,all of it. But how do you do that without making it a muddy mess?

[Studpuffin]

Various polytheistic religions can always turn into a bloody mess.

I use "in game syncretism" to solve most of the problems. If a god is very much the same as another... then they likely share churches. So Heironeous, Iomedae, Torm and such would likely all utilize the same temples. Its up to the character to choose whatever name they want for that god.

[Rezdave]

Studpuffin wrote:

I use "in game syncretism" to solve most of the problems.

I do something similar, where the same "power" might take different names in different regional, cultural or even racial pantheons. For example, in my world the worship of Apollo, Corellan Larethian, Lathander and Pelor would all end up at the same destination. Note that an individual Power might vary their race and gender from one pantheon to another. Many "human" or "cosmopolitan" deities are in aspect and even name simply "borrow-deities" from older, elven or dwarven racial pantheons with which migrating humans came into contact.

Also portfolios will vary a bit. Deities require worship, and will get into a pantheon however they can. If the Goddess of Magic from one pantheon needs to become a God of Sorcerers in another, then so be it. If she becomes Patron of Witches and is then associate with Women and Deceivers in another pantheon, then so be it. Imagine the portfolios of a single deity looking like a Venn diagram of largely overlapping circles, but with varying sizes and locations by pantheon with the occasional outlier ("I could barely get a toe into this pantheon, so I had to take dominion over this thing that is incredibly minor in a few of my other aspects").

In fact, in my world it's not always up to the deity what is in their portfolio. Their priesthoods and even worshippers can define the aspects and portfolios of a deity to a large degree ("I normally don't do spring rains as a god of Agriculture, but my worshippers in this region really want me to, so I guess I'll have to put up with it or else someone else will take my place").

FWIW,

Rez

[DM Wellard]

As any good modern witch would tell you.."All godesses are aspects of the one GODDESS"

But seriously check out the wiki entries on the Greek Gods just to see how many variations there were in worship within the SAME pantheon

[StabbittyDoom]

For my campaign setting I defined regions that are governed by a particular pantheon, and other regions are governed by another. Of course, this can create "wars" between pantheons for influence, but at least it's interesting. These regions are big enough that most don't know that there are pantheons other than their own.
Of course, combining this with differing interpretations of the same god could make a very complex and (if done right) interesting/fun deific presence.

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

Exiled Prince wrote:

But how do you do that without making it a muddy mess?

Massive celestial bureaucracies. Sure it's still a mess, but it's a dynamic mess as opposed to a chaotic one.

[DivineAspect]

Exiled Prince wrote:

Seeing the other thread on gods I wonder what others think about what gods to include and not to include. I myself want to include them all.

Greyhawk, Pathfinder, real world mythology,all of it. But how do you do that without making it a muddy mess?

Pick one fictional set, leave real world mythology out of it, and don't let people bring real world stuff (historical or current) into it, it just causes problems.

[Grifter]

Have a mix of gods in my games. I have always been partial to the gods of Faerun but my players seemed to like the ones from Greyhawk. Since I run games for everyones enjoyment I made them my staple and bring in Faerun gods when needed.

Also last game I decided that I was going to use the Chaos gods from Warhammer and that was a big hit between them. The fight between themselves and the sorcerer of Nurgle with his aspiring champion and plaguebearers is part of our gaming groups lore now.