Gods in Fantasy - Less is More

    I have an issue with how deities are often depicted in TTRPGs. Playing video games, namely Lords of the Fallen and Fear and Hunger, have brought this into clear relief.

Gods in D&D

    In the Forgotten Realms, there are gods for everything. There are gods for every alignment. Gods for paladins, gods for fighters, gods for druids, gods for wizards. The elves have their gods. The dwarves have their gods. So do the gnomes, halflings, and orcs.

    The goblins have a god. The trolls have a god. The sahuagin, the bullywugs, the derro, the lizardfolk, the centaur: all these and more have their own gods. That's not even close to half.

    This is excessive. The vaults of heaven are full to bursting.

Design by Checklist

    Why give a god to every single alignment, class, race, monster and concept? I think the designers were thinking, "What if some player, somewhere, wants a god of X? We better add one." This is what I call "design by checklist." Rather than introducing a god because they have a cool idea for one, or because it adds something to the story or world, they add it out of sheer obligation.

    The result is a profusion of bland, uninspired, forgettable gods. "Forgettable" is an important point. With dozens and dozens of gods, there's no way your players will ever remember or appreciate them. You probably won't remember them, either. Imagine trying to portray a world where the gods are active in the world, with their own conflicting agendas. The more there are, the more unmanageable they are.

The Better Way - Gods in Lords of the Fallen

    In Lords of the Fallen (2023), there are four gods. Orius, the god of light and order, Adyr, the god of fire and chaos, the Pale Mother, the goddess of death and decay, the First of the Beasts, a primordial nature god.

    That's it. Really, only the first three are important to the story. The game Fear and Hunger does something similar with its four-ish "Old Gods," but there are a handful of other ones. Lords of the Fallen illustrates this concept better.

    So what are the benefits of having so much fewer gods? In my opinion:

1. Easy to remember, for both the players and the GM. If you can't remember them, they might as well not exist.
2. Potential for greater depth. With only a handful, it's easy for the GM to give them more detail and show that to the players. And if you try to give rich, deep detail on several gods, one, that's a lot of work, and two, it will mostly go to waste. You can't give the spotlight to several dozen gods.
3. Greater impact on the world. The same gods will be influential wherever the players go. When one god acts, the entire world knows it, as opposed to just the one tiny region of the world where they are known and relevant.
4. Stronger association with magic. In real life, religion and magic are closely intertwined, whereas much of modern fantasy tends to arbitrarily separate them. In Lords of the Fallen, fire magic is the specialty of Adyr, the god of chaos. In Fear and Hunger, it's strongly associated with Gro-goroth, the god of destruction. When you see an enemy cast a fireball, it says something meaningful about them and their background or allegiances.

Conclusion

    Creativity is just as much about what you exclude as what you include. When you world build, I recommend erring on the side of fewer gods, rather than more. It's easier to make, easier to remember, and keeps them from feeling disposable.