Personally, I'd like to see a moderately small pantheon (5-13) of gods whose power is completely unrelated to the number of their followers. It was a nice twist in the 80s and a perfectly sound explanation for godly interrelations and terrestrial spheres of influence. Since it became almost the default, I have grown tired of it. Also, I'm all for leaving the typical Graeco-Latin/Norse pantheons with very human gods aside.
I'd like to have...
Gods that represent broad categories of things, including seemingly unrelated domains that make sense only for them
Gods concentrate above all on their domains and think only in terms of these - they should not even be able to understand the other's domains or what needs humanoids have. Example:Siku, the gender-neutral god of weather, wind, thunder, water-in-the-air (fog, snow, rain, steam), breath, sound, voice and vibration, who often appears as a not-at-all human-shaped cloud, will help a suffocating child, commenting that "the air must flow" or destroy half a city in a thunderstorm with the same reason, but he doesn't care for anything water-related once it's on the ground (rivers, springfloods, ...) or if a fire burns or not. Sometimes he gets angry at dead or dying beings because they stop to breathe or to produce water vapor. He does like a good burp or wet fart, however, which means you'll find him in the vicinity of cows and pigs. His worshippers - mostly peasants begging for rain and wanting to keep hail away - favour fans, wind wheels, hot water kettles or perfume sprays.
PCs should be able to pray at temples to gain small bonuses to something domain-related, if they observe the god's rules and taboos. Prayer or small rites might be implemented as activating an optional "idle animation" akin to the "/dance" command in GuildWars or as a series of mini-quests you get at temples. Taboos: A follower of Siku might not be allowed to hunt flying birds (or worse, to close doors) to be able to hold his breath twice as long when diving (if diving the moat to get into a castle by the sewers is an option for the game) or maybe, he gains some resistance to air spells. NPCs should react differently to devout people and certain areas might only be accessible to practitioners of a certain faith (at least without attacking the temple guards).
For a god, I'd like to propose...
Rotsch (the Indigo Traveller, the Mirror Man, the Thousand-Faced Asker, the Slicer) - Rotsch is immensely powerful. His thoughts and reasons are unfathomable. He even has followers. That makes him a god, or does it? The theologians of several cultures still debate it, because Rotsch seems to study the world while gods usually create the world. Rotsch is known to appear anywhere as a member of the same race as the onlooker. He is always clad in a simple robe and walking barefooted - he doesn't seem to understand the concept of a ride or vehicle. He is deeply interested in anything alive... in a way a researcher is deeply interested in lab mice. He always remains calm and friendly, asks questions about everything from everyday life to the usage of tools, to peculiar anatomy questions. For example, he might inquire why humanoids have softer skin than most other species. Or why it is that humans think they are smarter than chicken when the latter can still walk around when their head is removed. Even if the question sounds silly or outright mad, if the asker wears something indigo-coloured, you better have an answer that will suffice. If you don't answer him, or answer him in a way he finds implausible, he will try to find out himself. Sometimes, that means he takes up a pitchfork and moves manure for a couple of hours (sometimes to unexpected places if he isn't shown the "correct" way of doing it). Sometimes, it means he spawns sharp claws and tries to dissect the subject of interest. If he is attacked, he vanishes and immediately reappears a couple of steps away to continue his current experiment. The only way to get rid of him is to give him an answer that he will accept. A follower of Rotsch will become an experimental researcher himself and sacrifice notebooks full of obscure information on nature and culture.
The other gods - those who represent primal forces or concepts - will deny that Rotsch exists. Maybe it's a taboo, maybe they really cannot perceive him.
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Personally, I'd like to see a moderately small pantheon (5-13) of gods whose power is completely unrelated to the number of their followers. It was a nice twist in the 80s and a perfectly sound explanation for godly interrelations and terrestrial spheres of influence. Since it became almost the default, I have grown tired of it. Also, I'm all for leaving the typical Graeco-Latin/Norse pantheons with very human gods aside.
I'd like to have...
For a god, I'd like to propose...
Rotsch (the Indigo Traveller, the Mirror Man, the Thousand-Faced Asker, the Slicer) - Rotsch is immensely powerful. His thoughts and reasons are unfathomable. He even has followers. That makes him a god, or does it? The theologians of several cultures still debate it, because Rotsch seems to study the world while gods usually create the world. Rotsch is known to appear anywhere as a member of the same race as the onlooker. He is always clad in a simple robe and walking barefooted - he doesn't seem to understand the concept of a ride or vehicle. He is deeply interested in anything alive... in a way a researcher is deeply interested in lab mice. He always remains calm and friendly, asks questions about everything from everyday life to the usage of tools, to peculiar anatomy questions. For example, he might inquire why humanoids have softer skin than most other species. Or why it is that humans think they are smarter than chicken when the latter can still walk around when their head is removed. Even if the question sounds silly or outright mad, if the asker wears something indigo-coloured, you better have an answer that will suffice. If you don't answer him, or answer him in a way he finds implausible, he will try to find out himself. Sometimes, that means he takes up a pitchfork and moves manure for a couple of hours (sometimes to unexpected places if he isn't shown the "correct" way of doing it). Sometimes, it means he spawns sharp claws and tries to dissect the subject of interest. If he is attacked, he vanishes and immediately reappears a couple of steps away to continue his current experiment. The only way to get rid of him is to give him an answer that he will accept. A follower of Rotsch will become an experimental researcher himself and sacrifice notebooks full of obscure information on nature and culture.
The other gods - those who represent primal forces or concepts - will deny that Rotsch exists. Maybe it's a taboo, maybe they really cannot perceive him.