Forums » RP Discussion » Deities?

Correct me if this is in the wrong forum, but I was just curious as to how many people here had any characters of their own that are gods, goddesses, demigods or are just considered deities in some way, shape or form. I'm really interested in them lately, and since I imagine them to be so flexible in terms of what you can do with them, I'm kind of excited to hear about what other people have come up with, if there are any.

I've had characters in the past that have been mistaken for or claimed to be deities, but not actually been one. But hey, kind of typical thing for a Red Dragon to do if she has the clout

Nada... I've been playing DnD settings for a very long time, and to be completely honest, I think a deity is a being of such immense power that no single player should be behind any deity. This simply stems from the fact that any deity can affect the entire 'game world' as it were with ease, and ultimately will end in one or another form of power-play.

That being said, I remember some character sheets on here referring to the characters as deities...

^ I guess a work around though would be having a deity character specific RP. I mean if you look at the entire D&D universe god wars aren't unheard of; and I think it sounds like a pretty fun dynamic having a god hierarchy that could, whilst effecting the universe in some way shape or form, butt heads as equals.

I don't think it would be fair to have a deity interacting/warring against a non-deity character, unless severe limitations were put in place - which would essentially make RPing as a deity limited and boring. But against other deities it could maybe work.

My two cents would be that just about any character regardless of their own might is fair game to roleplay as long as one feels confident enough that they understand the core essence of the character, deity or no, and know not to step out of the bounds of what the other roleplayer might feel comfortable with (I suggest discussion with the partner on this point). I mean, I absolutely would NOT go so far as to recommend roleplaying The One Above All or something absolutely insane like that, but other than this it all depends on the RP and the possible greater plot in mind. Of course, it works best when a being of this height is of a central role or in some way wouldn't overstep their function in the story; either, say, having a deity as your main villain or deferring to the mentioned god wars example.

Of course I might be biased because of two of my characters but NAAAAWWWWWWW.

Well, I do have this character written up, and I've got a fair few pantheons rolling around in my head.

I think it's perfectly reasonable to play a god, as long as you know how gods work. And that they aren't actually immortal. Gods die in mythology all the time (albeit always at the hands of another god or by their own hand). Set murders his brother Osiris. Most of the Norse gods are fated to die when the Ragnarok occurs. Coatlicue is slain by her daughter Coyolxauhqui, and then her son Huitzilopochtli dismembers the matricidal sister. Mot murders Baal. Izanami is killed while giving birth to Kagutsuchi, and his father Izanami dismembers him in grief. Zeus strikes the Titan Menoitios down with a thunderbolt. Chiron is wounded by one of his protege Heracles' arrows poisoned with hydra venom, and in his agony he relinquishes his immortality so death can free him from the pain.

My faction has a native religion that has a played God who logs on once in a blue moon, and elder, stronger members of the ruling caste could potentially challenge him for his title, and become a God, but they'd have to stop being main characters and become pseudo-NPCs.

^ I have to disagree to an extent, RP is about having the ability to do whatever you would want, but that being said I do respect your choices and views on the mater.

Personally I do have some characters that are powerful enough to be a god, and might loosely own such a title, but they never do anything along the lines of anything overpowered or instakilling something or someone of a reasonable power or skill (As power means nothing with out the kill to wield it.) But I also started rping in a group where there where played gods as well as NPC ones because of peoples views on it.
Point of the story is, Guidelines! If you are wanting to make a divine character Go for it ^^ there is never a 100% chance someone will rp with you using that character or a 100% they wont. You just need to find someone ok with it, and I am sure as long as you don't go to overboard with anything to more or less enforce what YOU want in an RP and remember people don't like they're characters controlled all's well that ends well ya?
{Hush I know I took the long road for this}

IMO, a deity in most RP situations should be a tool for the player to guide the story at most. The reason I say that no one person should be behind a deity is because from experience, most players who want to play gods simply lack the tact to do so without any form of powerplay. That being said, obviously there has to be a DM behind them when the story necessitates. I guess what I meant to say was that I wouldn't play a deity myself in fier of abusing it, unless I created a plotline where godly interaction was part of the scenario.

This is my deity character that I made as an experiment. Her very first page is a warning explaining that she is a deity and that if they have a problem with such characters then they are free to go check out my other ones.

She does get some rp, but she is the one being approached for it about 90% of the time, the other 10% is rps where I either know the person or a couple of times when a deity character seemed extremely reasonable for a certain character/plot. On the very rare occasions when I approach, I make it very clear what kind of character Kariah is and tell them that I understand if they are not comfortable with her.

I think it is possible to rp with deities, but it's not something for the novice roleplayer due to how easy it is to cause drama and arguments with one. Communication is always extremely important in rp, but I believe it is doubly so when using godly characters.

As for Kariah, I gave her some weaknesses and as a limiter I gave her a very strict moral code about the use of her powers. She's not going to just rush into a scene and fix everything because she believes that things should be left to mortals unless a situation truly demands divine intervention aka something like the Godzilla Thershold. She also hates to fight and thus will almost never be the aggressor save for the aforementioned situation above.

To the OP's question, I do have one deity character in the working stages. However in my world/multiverse, she prefers to relinquish her powers and walk among humans/mortals because she finds them curious creatures to learn from so she can improve herself as a goddess. (I.e. a case of the older/more omnipresent you are as a god, the greater the wish to live and walk among mortals.)

And to add my small cent in this conversation, I think it honestly depends on what setting and story the deity character is in, and of course that "Variance of Mortality in a God," as it will: is the deity character so all mighty or omnipresent that they see no need for mortal interaction, or are they more down to earth, maybe even envious of mortals that they might wish to live among them for a time? Of course, care must be taken for both sides of the equation and all the inbetweens as all can become overpowered in many different ways.

I do agree, though, that it takes some skill and communication to successfully play a deity god, even if as an overseer of sorts. And I have to concur as well that pitting a god against another god or immortal is a good counter for power play, especially if we're delving more into war gods and whatnot.