Gods are an important part of most RPG's. Omnipotent beings provide GM's with a wide variety of storyline plots. They give players something to believe in or fight for. They embody ideologies of a game world, highlighting the lines of good and evil.

Gods can be a welcome and rewarding addition to a game. When used improperly, Gods can also spoil an otherwise excellent game.

Listed below are some guidelines which will hopefully prevent divine beings from getting out of control.

This section contains things which are absolutely not allowed. These are not suggestions, they are rules.

#1: GM's or players which control a specific god may never use that god to give rewards, powers, and items to a PC he also controls.

A player which controls a god may also play a character that worships that god, however, that player may never use this to his advantage. Using your god to strengthen your character is cheating plain and simple.

To avoid this conflict of interest the player has two options.

A. Don't ask for or accept any favors from a god you control.

B. Ask another GM to play the god for you.

Note: This does not mean you tell the GM what the god would do. If your going to give the GM instructions, you might as well not bother with the charade of handing over control. If you ask a GM to play your god, then you must accept that GM's portrayal of the god and be willing to accept the outcome as decided by that GM's discretion.

Note: NPC's do not fall under this rule.

This section contains guidelines to using gods. These are not rules but they are strong suggestions.

Don't over use gods.

Gods are not ultra powerful NPC's. They should not be reduced to this role. Gods are omnipotent beings with powers, knowledge, and influence that meer mortals can only dream of. They are Special, use them like they are special.

The less direct contact the players have with the gods the better. If players see and talk to a god on a daily weekly or even monthly basis, the encounters become less and less exciting. Rather than "OMG its the god of magic!" which is the fitting and desired reaction to a god, players will begin reacting with a simple bow and acknowledgement of the gods presence. Players wont get excited if they have seen the god or other gods dozens or hundreds of times and why should they? It's no longer special.

Gods can and should be active in the world, however, they should not show up in person for every situation they have an interest in. 99.9% of the time, a god should send a representative or servant to speak with the player characters about his desires, thoughts, and wishes.

A god has more important things to do than to hang out with adventurers and chit chat. They have followers, servants, and priests, use them. An embassary of a god can be used for almost every storyline which requires the gods involvement. Having the god show up in person might motivate the players a bit more, but if this is done all the time it loses its shock value and motivational benefit rapidly.

A god shouldn't show up unless there is a situation which requires its direct attention. These situations are rare, use divine appearances sparingly. Once or twice in a campaign probably wouldn't be too much. Appearances might be much more frequent if there is a big storyline involving the god or maybe much less frequent if the god isn't really involved in anything at the moment. The key is to have a real purpose for the appearances rather than having gods just show up to be seen.

Keep in mind that a god does not have to show up in person to talk to someone. Using mind speak with individuals is always preferable to having the god appear in person for the conversation. Having a divine messenger give or take a message is even better.

One area where gods can be mishandled is the "quest prayer" situation. i.e. Midquest a character prays to a god for help in one form or another. The GM has to judge the prayers outcome on the fly. Using gods in planned situations is tricky enough, using them with no preparation is much tougher.

So how should you handle a quest prayer? Glad you asked.

#1: If it's a prayer involving any of the rules at the top of the page, the prayer is not granted, at least not during the quest. Perhaps later it could be.

#2: Step 1 is to determine if the prayer is even heard. Typically a prayer should be heard 1 percent of the time. (A roll of 01 on a d100.) Gods receive thousands of prayers per day, they don't give their full attention to all of them.

There are factors which can increase a gods attention to an individual or group and therefore the chance that a prayer is heard.

A. The character praying is on a mission for the god. If a god gives an individual or group a task, that god is much more likely to be paying attention to them. This might increase the characters chances to be heard a few percenage points or all the way up to 100 percent depending on the importance of the task.

B. The character praying is on a mission important to the world or the gods specific interests. Gods tend to watch important events closely, the will also pay attention if something might effect them or their followers on a large scale. This factor could also increase a characters chance to be heard by a few percentage points or all the way up to 100 percent.

C. The character praying is a priest. Gods tend to pay attention to the shepards of their flock. A priest might gain a few percentage points to his chance to be heard (1% per 3 levels of experience)

D. The characters are high level. Gods tend to watch powerful mortals more closely since they have the ability to make a greater impact on the world. This increases their chance to be heard, (1% per 6 levels of experience)

Now that we've covered the characters chance to actually be heard, how will the god respond to the prayer? This is typically GM's discretion, however, if you have no idea how to respond here are some guidelines to help you out.

A. If the prayer would hurt the quest in any way shape or form, simply state "The god hears the prayer but does not answer it." Gods should help storylines not wreck them.

B. If the prayer would help the quest have the god answer it, thats what gods are for.

Note: Help the quest and help the characters are two different things.

C. If the prayer would neither hurt nor help the quest and you aren't sure how the god would respond, use this system to determine the answer.

Start with a scale from 1 to 100. 1 is very good. 100 is very bad. Roll a 1d100 and see where the prayer starts out. (Imagine this roll as being whether the god is feeling generous or having a bad day. Even gods have moods.)

Modify the d100 roll up or down depending on the following factors:

a. The individual really really needs help and has no alternative to prayer. -25
b. The individual has never asked a god for help. -25
c. The individual is on a mission for the god he is praying too. -10
d. The individual is praying for something which he or another member of the party can handle without the gods help. +50
e. The individual has asked a god for a favor in the past. +10
f.The individual has asked a god for a favor in the past Lots and Lots of Times +25
g. The individual is on a mission which the god opposes. i.e. Asking the god of demons for help slaying demons isn't a good idea. +25

After you have added in all of the applicable penalties and bonuses to the d100 roll, find the result of the prayer below:

1 - 10 The god feels like helping the character out. The prayers answer will likely be pretty close to what was asked for.
11 - 25 The god isn't feelng like santa clause but he/she is willing to help out. The praying character probably wont get exactly what he wanted but he will get something.
26 - 74 The god doesn't feel like helping. He/She is either too busy or just not in the mood.
75 - 89 The god is annoyed by the prayer. He/She will not help and instead does the opposite of what was asked for.
90 - 100 The god is ticked by the prayer. He/She will likely punish the praying character by demanding the character donate money or perhaps a magic item to the gods temples.
100+ Big trouble. Feel sorry for the praying character.

Note: All of these guidelines are for cases where 'Divine Intervention' is requested by the characters. There should be no dice rolls or guidelines for regular everyday prayers.

If all these guidelines and suggestions don't help, here is one simple motto to follow.

If you think you might be using the gods too much, then you are. If your not sure if your using gods too much, assume you are. If you don't think your using gods too much, you probably are, but at least it's not intentional. :)