Up until now, I've never really had the 'Gods' take an active role in any of my campaign settings.
Early on - back in the AD&D days I didn't really even use Gods, per se... I just had The Good Guy who helped good clerics by supplying their powers and The Bad Guy... who did the same for the evil clerics and necromancers and whatnot. But I certainly never had the devine powers working as active participants in any of my early campaigns.
Later, after Deities and Demigods came out, I started to use pantheons of Norse or Romano/Greek styled gods... but still, they didn't really 'run' things in the mortal world. If you've ever seen 'Jason and the Argonauts' (the old Harrihausen one) - then you'd get the level of devine intervention in my campaigns. Helping certain heros, punishing people who defied the gods openly, playing tricks on people... but not actually ruling over any cities, countries or empires.
I'm considering a more active role for the dieties in my next campaign...but I'm not sure how that would work in game terms. How have other people involved the 'gods' in their campaigns?
Gods are usually pretty active in my games, but more behind the scenes. Most major events are the result of manipulations by the gods, usually in an attempt to gather more power. Generally the Evil gods lean more towards direct involvement, but that's because of the specifics of my campaign style.
I run Gygaxian Greyhawk, and in addition to the gods, there are many other-planar beings (devils, demons, fey, elemental princes, etc.) that serve the exact same purpose (including granting spells).
I intend to make a campaign where the gods until recently waged a war (4-6 factions more or less divided into "good" and "evil" alliances) between each other. The dragons and humanoid races will be the armies they used for wars by proxy, with rituals and ceremonies powering the gods (and also pumping the divine egos). By the time the adventures start the gods will mostly have withdrawn. Still, there will be some ways they can still act through champions, clerics and similar for direct divine interventions. So probably high chance of direct divine interventions, but otherwise distant and acting through proxies.
If I wanted the gods to be really active in the world I would probably have send avatars or shapeshift into more ordinary creatures and walk in the world, or pick an area of the world to rule directly.
In my campaign, The Next World, there is only one god - Fee-Ott the Capricious. It does what it wants, whenever it wants, for whatever reason it wants. Its holy words are "Because I said so."
There are lots of religions that claim other gods exist, but it's really Fee-Ott who grants blessings and divine powers.
Cleric: "The hell? How come my spell didn't work?"
DM: "Fee-Ott."
The problem I've always had in envisioning a world with 'gods' as truely active participants in the day to day lives of the population is...
What prevents 'escalation'? What keeps the 'gods' from using 'the nuclear option'?
If the 'gods' are at war - and the material plane is the battlefield - what keeps the conflict in check?
I've always looked at the interaction between the various devine powers as more of a game or contest, than an all out war. They've imposed certain limits, some 'rules' if you will, on their involvment. They don't get more involved for the same reason that Brazil didn't arm it's players with machetes in the match against Germany... The object was to beat the German team, not destroy it. So I guess the role that the 'gods' play in my campaigns to date is more of a manager or coach than a general or emperor.
But what if you wanted to 'up the ante' and have the 'gods' actually controlling (somehow) the leaders of the various Races, cultures and/or political structures. What if Gruumsh decided that the Orcs were going to destroy all the Dwarves and proceeded to pump whatever near limitless 'god power' into the leaders and troops of the Orcs was required to accomplish the task. And more to the point... Why DOESN'T Gruumsh do just that?
Kazadvorn wrote:
In the early stages of my games, the gods are usually distant. The clerics prayed by a god, and recieved powers, but that's it. Most gods have a hands off approach to the world. Then an evil cult springs up, usually trying to bring back an old god, or raise a new god. As this being grows in power, it affects the game world. That's when the other powers get involved, wether they support the new power or not, and they may have a more direct influence, though usually it's by granting their clerics more power, or new abilities. Powerful minions can also become invoved by each side. At high levels, the party may encounter travel to the outer planes, and meet high level intermediaries, or even a deity! At this point, powerful items and useful boons can be gained.
Kazadvorn wrote:
In my setting the gods are there and their worshippers "know" they are there (because they are awarded powers for their faithfulness, and even have their prayers directly answered sometimes) - but no one has ever seen a god (angels that claim service to a god, yes, but never a god).
The deities (if they exist at all) take no more active a role in mortal affairs than to grant powers - if it is in fact deities, and not just a bunch of untruthful angels, devils, and other similar beings, granting powers, answering prayers, and perpetuating the idea that those who worship will be rewarded.
ankiyavon wrote:
In my campaigns gods are concerned with strengthening their portfolios, not collecting souls, so they aren't in as much direct competition as in a lot of other systems. They also aren't as forthcoming with their worshippers (and even their clerics) as in other settings. About half of the evil gods have "good" (or at least neutral) reputations that cover their more nefarious goals. As PC's grow in power, their ability to benefit/hinder the gods' portfolios increases, and they interact more. Occassionally Godzilla sized snakes, preying mantices, butterflies, dragons, phoenixes, or sea monsters show up when the gods are on the move, but that is usually towards the end of campaign.
As a style, I have always heavily used factions when I DM. This includes the various churches, believers, and orders of deities. I also DM almost exclusively in the Forgotten Realms and there is a lot of material to support this. It is pretty easy to create factions, religious or otherwise, and use them as quest givers, antagonists, and generally grey areas where the PCs have options to help or oppose, or ignore and so on.
It's worked well for me in the past and I am obviously excited that 5th ed. is playing up faction and set in the FR by default.
I usually go with the default - the gods may or may not exist, and maybe that's where divine magic comes from, but it's impossible for anyone to know for certain.
Once, a powerful lich conquered a nation and mandated worship, such that it ascended as a god. But then some powerful heroes came in and slew the lich, so maybe it wasn't a god after all.
Sword_of_Spirit wrote:
These same sort of questions used to plague me, which is why I prefer the Eberron real world approach: the gods don't ever show themselves in absolute ways, so no one really knows for certain if they really exist. It's all a matter of belief.
In my homebrew the deities each have a main thrust to their character and area of interest.
They are further grouped into related pantheons as follow;
The Corruptors; The Lords Primal; The Three Sisters; The Covenant; The Celestial Triune; 'the others'...
Each pantheon has it's own aims complicated by differences of approach and strategic vision of each deity within it.
Further complicating the issue is that gameworld cultures more often than not 'mix and match' favoured or patron deities from different pantheons. Soem deities are not gods - they are other powerful entities masquerading as gods.
This produces layers of dynamic tension between religions and their cultural expressions - which is the whole point of the exercise - to provide a vehicle for conflict and drama.
Further, the deities themsleves work almost exclusively through their cults and churches, meaning the whole tangled web gets played out at the level of PCs and NPCs - exactly where it should be! 
I prefer the will ofthe god to remain vague in my campaigns.
I love there being factions within the worshippers of a god, often leading to conflict.
Does a God of war want his followers to be prepares for war in case it starts, or should followers of the followes of the wargot be activly be trying to start wars.
edwin_su wrote:
For examples of how such beings may interact with characters and the sheer chaos when beings from multiple pantheons get involved. Read The Iron Druid Chronicles by Kevin Hearne.
In our campaign the gods are very real. However, only a select few ever get to deal with them directly. The traditional pantheons of D&D through the various editions have had to move over a bit, however. We've been playing a bit of In Nomine and the likes of Michael, Gabriel, Baal, Asmodeus, et al have brought their escalating Cold War from the limits of their home world to other worlds, other planes, and other dimensions. The Archangels and Demon Princes have caused a Celestial stir, though each side has garnered its share of allies. Still, there are problems as the AAs and DPs are more prone to manipulation and intervention than the detached established pantheons. However, that level of influence has also been racking up believers. (Believers are where the gods get their powers.)
We borrowed the "Soldiers of God" idea from In Nomine. The PCs have been recruited to fight the good fight against the rising tides of evil. I only have the free Basic 5e version at the moment, so we're just using the 4 basic classes. (Mght be awhile before I get anything else. How well do the Playtest classes mesh with the final rules?) From In Nomine I assigned the following Archangels to the classes:
- Michael, Lawrence, David- Fighters. Michael is more towards the barbarian-type fighters, those who stand alone and rely on their own muscle and weapons to acieve victory. Lawrence is more for the knight-in-shining-armor fighters and would most likely include paladins. David is more for the hardened, grim and gritty soldier, the strong, silent type who can be counted on to get the job done.
- Janus, Marc- Rogues. Those who rely on speed and agility often appreciate a little help from the Janus, Archangel of the WInds (and former god of doorways). Marc, the Archangel of Trade, while against thievery, detests greed even more. Robin Hood type thieves will find his favor, as will anyone who keeps wealth flowing.
- Novalis, Blandine- Clerics. The Archangel of Flowers, Novalis, as much as she dislikes violence also dislikes suffering. She also looks with great kindness on druids and those who take care of nature. Blandine is the Archangel of Dreams and will take interest in mental healing and the healing properties of sleep.
- Eli, Yves, Gabriel- Wizards. Gabriel, Archangel of Fire, is the Messenger, revealing secrets to wizards worthy of the title. Yves is the Archangel of Destiny, and as the Keeper of Secrets he prods wizards towards the questions that they will seek the answers to in order to fulfill their destinies. Eli, Archangel of Creation, watches wizards who use their powers in new and creative ways.
I may use that "Inspiration" mechanic to reflect an Archangel granting a blessing to those who merit them. There are more Celestials in In Nomine than this, but for now thses are the ones we're working with. They are more directly involved with the PCs than the default gods, and they have stepped on more than a few Divine Toes. They also have problems amongst themselves. For example, Lawrence is very humanist (though he will reward nonhumans who carry themselves very honorably in battle), and he doesn't approve of Michael sending his servitors to actively recruit from non-human races. Michale doesn;t trust Yves,whomhefeelskeeps too many secrets. Eli thinks david needs to loosen up while David thinks Eli is too flighty and frivolous.
We're doing a lot to fine tune this, and I hope to get the Starter Set and the Core Books at some point, but for now this will have to do.
I haven't seen the full 5E cosmology yet, so what I'll discuss is what I did in 4E.
Firstly, I cmbined my campaign setting (called Abbadgard) with Faerun, Eberron, and Athas. The basic gds stayed, as did all of Eberron's. I picked and chose among Faerun's. With Athas I created a backstory where it was a continent that formed out of the body of the last Primordial to die in the Dawn War, and the magics of that resulted in the qualities Athas had, including the containment wall.
Anyway, this left me with an embarrassment of gods. I still put AO at the top, but under him I put the Nine. Beings more powerful even than regular gods (conveniently corresponding to the nine alignments, which I kept in my 4E homebrew). Under these Gods were the Lords and Ladies, the lesser gods like Bahamut and Asmodeus and the Traveler, etc. And then came the exarchs, avatars, and religious orders. Clerics and paladins were the official corps of the faiths (Sergeant Bishop, anyone?), while Avengers were the individual agents and Invokers were freelancers. People of these classes did not have to part of a particular order within their faith, but it is highly recommended. For one thing, free room and board at any friendly temple.
As NPC believers go, they could be deovted to an exarch, a god, a set of gods (like the Soveriegn Host or Dark Six), and overgod, or even AO, or nothing. That's just the Divine stuff. Add in the primal spirits, demons, the primordials, the Far Realm, the Fey Court, and others, and there's plenty of religion to go around.
For clarity in my campaign world, it's a "religion" if it's public and popular. It's a "faith" if it's public and less popular. It's a "cult" if it's in secret, regardless of the size of the body of devotees.
And in case anyone's curious, here's the Nine:
Shantir, God of Civilization (LG)
Gransia, Goddess of Nature (NG)
Hedrias, God of Water (CG)
Carranti, God of Time (LN)
Gelid, Deity of Fortune (TN)
Manndara, God of Art (CG), especially the Great Art: magic.
Dagesh, God of Tyranny (LE), also known as the God of Fire.
Sabil, Goddess of Solitude, (NE)
Utahn, God of Destruction (CE)
The main religion in my world is primarily based on the Moorcock model of Law, Chaos, and the Balance, though most of the specific deities are my own creation. Note that this is not the same as good and evil... agents of Law may be LG, LN, or LE and each may embrace different aspects of the same deity (for instance, one Lord of Law is Marsus the Blade... He is worshipped in a chivalrous kingdom as a paragon of justice and order, but there is a ruin of a kingdom that was once a tyrannical theocracy dedicated to the same deity that embraced oppressive authoritarian laws and severe punishment for those who broke them - an entire village was put to the sword for a transgression lost in time, but it sparked a rebellion that led to the overthrow of the realm). There is a constant battle behind the scenes to shift the prime material world between the two extremes (with agents of the Balance seeking to thwart both sides from gaining too much influence). The conflict doesn't manifest in every campaign, but I've run several where it was central to the action.
Several all deities have interacted with PCs in my games, either directly or through divine agents.
I was thinking about a campaign setting where there are no gods, only spheres (domains). The Outer Planes would be organized by concept, not alignment. So there would be a Plane of Light with the creatures that are usually in Celestia, a Plane of Nature, a Plane of War, etc. Clerics would dedicate themselves to a sphere and an ideal rather than a particular conscious entity.
In my setting, the Faerie Gods (Angels/Devils), the Giant Gods (Titans/Demon Beasts), and the Dragon Gods (Nature Spirits/Demon Dragons) are caught in a Mexican Standoff. It's a Prisoner's Dilemma – if everyone takes the guns down, they'll all be safe, and the war will end. However, nobody trusts anybody else, and there's good and evil alike amidst all the various Gods, and given their magical might, it's hard to say who would backstab and who wouldn't. As a result, all the Gods have their weapons raised, but nobody's moving an inch.
Except influencing mortals and carrying about their day-to-day guidance of the world's ecosystem. It's in the realm of mortals, the wars within our own souls, the battles over territory, and whether natural or civilisation reigns… it's these combats that are carefully executed by Gods who don't want to trigger a God-sized magic missle to the face, but want to find a way out of the entanglement and emerge on the higher ground. PERHAPS some of the deities don't want to destroy the other ones, and would escape and just live and let live. But who's to say that the one who escapes is the one who will do that?
Lately I've been reading the books from the Immortals gold box from 1986. It has a neat idea that the gods were all beings that ascended to immortality some time in the past and the world was actually made by a otherly group of old ones as a means to maintaining their population. If you ascend to immortality, reach the highest level of power, give up your power, be reborn as a mortal and do it again, you can cross the barrier and be with the old ones.
When I read the Basic Rules PDF, I liked that there were hard ability score caps of 30, even for god like beings. And with the rate of proficiency bonuses going up so slowly, it really makes the gods a lot more like immortal magical humanoids and less like the otherly transcendent gods that dominate world religions. I was having a conversation with a friend about this and it just came to me: what about a campaign world where the gods are still in the world?
So that's what I'm going with. And I'm going to take a page from the 2nd edition Darksun rules for dragons where a immortal god-like being that can grant spells is 20th level in two classes and has stats pushing close to 30 (the cap). They didn't create the world. They're not sure who did. And the religious texts about these gods are mostly legends of their time as mortal heroes and the early years of their ascension.
So the gods are hanging around in their great temples. Often they'll go on some mission or go meet with some other being in some other place. The mortal realm is growing less and less important to them as they begin to explore the mysteries that are now available to them. They'll still show up at their yearly high holy day and occasionally meet and talk with their high priest or someone they think is important. This also lends stability to the demi-human nations as if something truly threatens them, the gods themselves will step in if needed. The player characters are going to be at the border lands, far away from the civilized city states that house the temples of the gods. The gods themselves may play a mechanic role in the game later on.
The latest Legends of Lore article (Keeping it Classy) pretty much filled in the details.
Animism. Between the barbarian paths and the druid cirlces, there's lots of space for nature spirits or immortals of the land that predate the acension of the gods.
Esotericism or Initiatory traditions. You have bard colleges and wizard schools and the monk ways that would work well with this approach.
Gods. 7 domains. There will be others as I'm sure the DMG will include domains like death or whatever. Those will be other ascended mortals who grant spells based on various domains. A single god might have clerics of a few different domains and the tradition they belong to will determine their domain. For example, a storm god might be able to grant spells to both clerics of tempest and war. This doesn't mean though, that the gods are advocates for their domain. A storm god might not want the nations to constantly be fighting wars. A god capable of granting power to life clerics doesn't necessarily want no one to die. They just happen to be immortals with the ability to grant that power because of their own studies and ascension. If the storm god, for example, is a 20th level fighter and 20th level cleric (of her own power), that doesn't mean she is obsessed with sending tornadoes to blow down farm houses, or rallying armies to fight for no reason. She's a person, with her own goals, not a cliche where she literally is the storm, or literally is war itself. Those things existed before she did.
Other immortals. The Archfey, the Fiend and the Great Old Ones from the warlock pacts. Obvious foes and allies for the gods. The Great Old Ones may promise knowledge of where the world really came from. The Fiend has designs on the world of mortals to some degree, but to what end?
So that's what I'm going for.
I'm going to go with something my older brother created for his homebrew - Alternate Elder Gods.
The Elder Gods in this concept are the anthropomorphic representations of various natural forces and concepts, and always came in twin pairs. We tended to interact with the Elder God of the Void, who was our bartender, and liked existence. Something about Existence being his younger sibling (I think Existence was female?), and the body in which the world existed. Then we had Death and Life (Nature), Light and Dark (Light went insane and tried to kill Dark, and the others as well), Fire and Ice, Earth and Air, and so on. The only one that, if I remember correctly, didn't have a twin was Balance. Which was probably a position. That the Bartender (AKA Void) held.
Then the other gods came later from some stuff happening. We're not sure, we don't care, it's a generic temple to some minor deity that only rules people, let's get healed.
I prefer to keep the gods in the background and let the people be the main protagonists. I am not above having a god deliver a omen or dream to one of its followers if doing so helps the story or adds tension. I like to make sure these dreams are as vague as possible while getting the point across.
I have never had the gods of my setting interact with the mortal world. In universe, there are a number of theories and dogmas regarding why that is, but in truth, it's because the "gods" don't actually care about the mortals. They're just not important to them. Divine magic has no real connection to divine beings.
This is, of course, not widely known. Only a few very powerful people know the truth. One day soon, I'll make it the focus of a campaign, and let my players in on the secret.
Novacat wrote:
I've had gods take active interest in campaigns before. But, they've been coming off as literal Duex ex Machina effects. They interfere too much, and the players become meaningless. Interefere too little, and they may as well be ghosts.
One thing that I've been taking to heart lately, however, is the Forgotten Realms idea of Chosen, and the closely related idea of 13th Age Icons. Instead of Gods being major actors on the field, you have major NPCs that run around. They're still mortals. They still have the limits of mortals - they need to eat, sleep, and (most importantly) delegate like mortals. You can even realistically dream of disposing one of these major NPCs and assume their place.
This kind of happened in Planescape as well - the gods were kind of just... there. The major powers in the game were the Faction heads and the Lady of Pain. No gods.
Powers-that-be in games should be people you can physically meet. Gods are... less important to me.
Mephi1234 wrote:
The key to having super powerful NPCs is to make the scope of what the PCs care about to be different than those of the powerful NPCs. If the players are on the border of a civilization and a necromancer is begining to raise a legion of undead, the demi-god who rules the city state far to the east only cares after the PCs have all failed and died and the country side has been over run and he has to take his focus off of more important matters like maintaining the arcane conjunction that allows his immortality and defending it from attacks from minions of the Fiend.
People always criticized the 2nd edition era Forgotten Realms of being too full of super powerful heroes to leave room for the PCs. The simple solution was to not have the areas those heroes had already tamed as being adventure areas. Those are the safe areas you go to when the orcs south of the moon sea kill half your party and you need to recruit new PCs.
NathanIW wrote:
Sword_of_Spirit wrote:
Kazadvorn wrote:
Heh. HehehehehehehHAHAHAHAHA
...the gods have taken a VERY active role in the campaign I'm currently running.
It's a homebrew setting, and almost all these gods are jerks (read: power-hungry megalomaniacs, insane divas, racist overlords, and psychopathic killers)--yet, they interact *in person* with the PCs on a daily basis, and my players all say they enjoy it! These gods often visit (and sometimes even LIVE) in the mortal realm, and they are not shy about trying to meddle in mortal affairs. In fact, the whole reason this campaign world is so screwed up is because the gods won't leave it ALONE--if, for example, a new cleric were to draw his divine power from devotion to a cause rather than a deity, he'd quickly be tracked down by followers of the various gods and interrogated as to WHY he isn't worshipping a god. Most of these gods view it as their right to try and bully mortals into submission...yet my players enjoy it and the PCs retain their free will and autonomy, and the campaign remains focused on the player characters, rather than the ultra-powerful NPCs. I've managed this in several ways.
1) As a DM, my style has always been to focus heavily on the PCs and make sure to give special attention to each one--I know players like that. Everyone gets a chance to be "the most important person in the world" at least once. In this particular campaign, the gods have come to Earth (the native world of all the PCs) demanding help because their universe is falling apart and they can't fix it. That's the key: the gods cannot fix the universe this time, and there's a reason for that (and the reason it had to be these PCs helping the gods). I've had a lot of fun letting my PCs figure out what exactly happened, and now that they've found it, they understand exactly why the gods couldn't figure it out themselves.
I won't go into detail on this particular homebrew mechanic, but it serves a purpose in preventing the gods from just killing off PCs who end up annoying them. I always try to keep something like that in there to protect the PCs from being needlessly slaughtered, but still allow them to face the consequences of their actions if they end up doing particularly stupid things. But outright stupidity aside, the PCs are perfectly capable of saying "no" to the gods, even if it sometimes makes their lives more difficult.
2) Like others have suggested, I've added in mechanics governing the gods' powers. The basic principle is that the more power a god has (and the higher its divne rank), the more "rules" it's bound by. Each god has things it simply cannot do; one of the most powerful gods, for example, cannot break any vows he swears. Another cannot strike an opponent who hasn't struck her first; and another cannot mentally dominate another person who is not willing to be dominated. They are also forced to give certain protections to their sworn worshippers (this has actually enticed a few PCs to swear themselves to the service of some of these gods) and cannot harm their worshippers unless they somehow break their vows or betray them. They are forced to do everything in their power to protect their domain--and in this case, it means allowing many of the PCs to live in spite of their personal dislike for them (but again, some PCs HAVE gotten on gods' hit lists).
This also helps prevent them from going all "nuclear holocaust" using their divine power (although one god HAS taken a liking to Earth's atomic weaponry) because this generally would constitute harming their domains. As others have mentioned, any god who tried this would also suffer harsh retaliation from all the other gods and powerful entities.
Another advantage of this is that even without this particular campaign focus, there are still some things that only mortals can do.
3) This probably isn't totally necessary to most campaigns, but was important in mine for other foreshadowing reasons--I have an NPC called the Godslayer. He has, understandably, decided that the only way to save his universe is to kill all the gods, and because of this he's learned tricks to circumvent the gods' power and created magic items that give their users a significant chance to resist some of the gods' divine abilities. Most of the PCs have gotten magic items from this character and now have an actual chance at resisting gods' divine abilities and succeed in skill checks against them (I've built these gods using 3.5's Deities and Demigods book, and they are incredibly difficult to resist for any mere mortal). The gods are still challenging to the PCs, but they don't have complete control over them as they would ordinarily.
Because of the odd direction this campagn has gone, I've also "imported" organizations from two other DM friends of mine (they roleplay all members of those organizations), both of which have their own unique ways of circumventing overpowered deities that have benefited the player characters.
4) Finally, the PCs can't just outright kill the gods on a whim (I don't think there's any danger of that, but you never know) because each god has specific requirements to actually die, and they are very difficult (although with some direction from the Godslayer and a lot of hard work, the PCs COULD undertake a quest to kill a god if they deemed it necessary).
This is just how I've dealt with the gods in my campaign, and it seems to have turned out pretty well. My players all say they're really enjoying the unique direction of the campaign and seem very invested in their characters and the storyline. I guess I've kind of rambled here and I'm sure there are a lot of ways to do this kind of thing...but I hope this helps!
Nomral wrote:
Kazadvorn wrote:
An easy trick to make the gods more relevant is to make temples have oracles. You can go there and make a sacrifice and get a vision.
Make the vision good. Really worth it. Like show a future dangerous ambush good. Or show a trap going off and make sure you use the same words to describe the trap in the vision and when they finally encounter it (if they do).
STARTER SET ADVENTURE SPOILER
As you stare into the flame, the rest of the room fades around you. You're in the dark. Water drips all around you. You see a bridge above you. A grinning goblin hides there looking down as your friends enter the cave. He grins and gives a hand signal to someone else and ... you wake up and come to be aware of the rich browns and maroons of the temple curtains.
Mostly vague and undefined.
Occasionally, Deus ex Macguffin, but only occasionally.
If your cleric cries out for divine intervention in your campaign, consider rolling on this chart to see the response.
I think what I might go with is sort of the "reverse osmosis' model ( have no idea what reverse osmosis is...)
If I come at the concept from the view that the 'gods' aren't really Gods... just super-powerful beings... then they are certainly not the 'creators of the universe'. If they're not 'the creators' then they must be 'created'.
I'm leaning toward making the 'gods' manifestations of a peoples' group consciousness...
I was going to use the limited 'pantheon' presented in the D&D 4e manuals as a template anyway... so...
Moradin becomes the 'essence of all that is Dwarfishness' distilled out of the Dwarven society and manifested as a super-being in some alternate dimension. He only exists because the Dwarves (and anyone else who wants to believe in him) have envisioned his existance. So his power comes from the people, and his will comes from them as well... So Moradin has no 'agenda' of his own... he's just the distilled nature of the Dwarves. He wants what they want. He hates what they hate. He acts the way they act. He rewards behavior that they reward, and punishes behavior that they punish. Each Dwarf (or Orc, or Goblin, or Human, or Elf) has a small amount of Devine Essence. Alone, that Essence is insufficient to manifest any power or effect in the material world. But by concentrating that Essence into a 'god concept' the Dwarves are able to create a resevoir of power that a Cleric can tap into. Moradin chooses his Clerics in a sense... but because he's only a sort of focus point for the Dwarves... he's just choosing the individuals that represent the epitome of what the Dwarves themselves look for in a Cleric.
Now, I'm not sure at this point if Moradin (and the other gods) really understand this relationship fully. I'm pretty sure that Moradin believes that he exists apart from the 'group consciousness' of the Dwarves. But on some sub-conscious level, he may understand that his power derives from the will and belief of his worshippers... so he does his best to guide and protect 'his people' because - down deep - he knows that if they fail, so does he.
Sometimes there are no gods.
Sometimes things are enigmatic. In a Keep on the Borderlands scenario I ran, there had been varied cults charged with "guarding" the Temple of Chaos over time. The current occupants, interested in the benefits of whatever they guarded, excavated the sealed recesses of the shrine, found something that horrified them, and promptly resealed the back halls, according to acolytes with whom the party spoke. Investigating old tales of the region, the party turned up the story of Corellon putting out Gruumsh's eye, which fell to Earth, covering the valley red. A similar motif of a skull-like moon with a single eye bleeding into the valley was found in the temple art. Some other artifacts with their own stories tied to the region are said to have metal found no place else on Earth. What made the scenario Lovecraftian was the confirmation that whatever was sealed in the back chambers of the shrine was that which fell in antiquity from the stars.
Where I've used outright "gods" in my games, they tend to be more like Japanese kami and (maybe) Greek nymphs; physical beings that live in the world, possessed of some spiritual power. Say we had a god of a river spring. The god might take the form of a snake, dragon, or human, etc. The god might appeal to you in-person if you were in the habit of polluting the waters. If you didn't enshrine (domesticate) the god, the river might become "untame" and go dry or flash-flood. If the god were killed, instead of water, blood might begin flowing from the river spring.
In my campaign world, I use AO as the deterrent to prevent the Divine Kerfuffle. The gods know that one day, no matter how distant, they will face AO and answer for their actions. They merely differ on what they believe AO is looking for. As beings rise through the divine ranks, they tend to become more manipulative or subtle, trying to not only affect things on a larger scale but also convince others to do so in the same way they do. After all, doing more for one's cause as well as bringing more people into has got to count in your favor is what you're doing is what AO is looking for.
At least, that covers Good and Neutral gods. The Evil gods are the same way, only they "secretly" hope to overthrow AO with their amassed power rather than to impress AO. They use manipulations and subtlety because direct actions tend to get Good and Neutral gods to team up against them, which they generally view as bad. Divine Kerfuffle averted.
There are few people of any level of power who even know of AO's existence, fewer who believe it, and maybe a grand total of a dozen who worship AO directly. AO has no mortal or immortal conduits to AO's believers. This prevents monotheism from being an unbalancing force in a polytheistic world.
I have been also considering borrowing an idea from Fred Sabenhagen that the gods are encased in certain magic items. They are mostly inert if the items are not attuned to someone, but they can grant cleric spells. If someone attunes with an item that has a god's spirit in it, they get the best magic items and can summon the god's pets/servants, but are linked to the god's mind, which is obviously very powerful. Most god items will only attune to people who fit the god in some way (no pacifist is going to attune to the Helmet of Bane), although some evil gods delight in corrupting good people who acquire those items. Attuning also takes a long time, but the person gets a lot of power from partial attunement (PC's can be partially attuned, but full attunement is NPC time). The items are artifact level and indestructible, although they may appear to be destroyed only to show up someplace else. Anyone who successfully attunes to a god artifact would have their soul join with the god after death. The god's mind might be damaged (in some ways I am still figuring out) enough that the current possesor of the artifact would replace the god as the main soul in the artifact.
The basic story is that the gods won some Dawn War, but at the price of their physical forms being destroyed. They don't show up often, but it is Godzilla big when someone finds the Helmet of Bane or the Hammer of Moradin, and it would be a big deal for the party to kill off someone partially attuned to an evil god.