Create an EPIC D&D Pantheon in 6 Easy Steps!

Подписаться 680

Просмотров 4 тыс.

50% 1

Creating a D&D pantheon from scratch can be a seriously heady task and overwhelming task. After all, you are literally creating actual gods. If you want your pantheon to play a central role in your D&D campaign, you should spend some time developing it before you begin working on the actual world. In order to have a society shaped by the gods, you first need a whole crew of unique powerful deities.
⌛ Timestamps ⌛
0:00 - Intro
0:28 - What is a Pantheon in D&D?
0:49 - Step 1: How many gods?
1:26 - Step 2: What do your gods embody/represent?
4:48 - Step 3: Naming your gods
9:00 - Step 4: Relationship with mortals
12:19 - Step 5: Relationship with other gods
13:38 - Step 6: Treat your gods like NPCs
Incredible NPCs in 4 Easy Steps!
• Incredible NPCs in 4 E...
📚 Prefer to read? Here's the text version! 📚
thealpinedm.com/dnd-pantheon/
⚔️ SUPPORT THE CHANNEL (and get dope 5e content) ⚔️
/ thealpinedm
✉️ FREE TEMPLATE (via email list) ✉️
subscribepage.io/Pantheon
📘 BUY MY BOOKS (or don't...I'm not the boss of you)! 📘
thealpinedm.com/shop/
🤯 ABOUT ME 🤯
Oh hi. I'm Aaron (or TheAlpineDM if you prefer fake names). I wholeheartedly believe that the relationships forged through D&D (and tabletop games in general) are among some of the most wholesome, fulfilling, and genuine connections you can make with another human being. I’m constantly learning new techniques and perspectives related to D&D and tabletop gaming, and I simply want to share my knowledge and passion with the world.
Background Music - Battle of the Dragons (by 17406877)
pixabay.com/music/main-title-...
#dnd #pantheon #dnd5e

Развлечения

Опубликовано:

6 май 2024

Ссылка:

Скачать:

Готовим ссылку...

Добавить в:

Мой плейлист

Посмотреть позже

Комментарии : 59

@thomas.edgerton 13 дней назад

With my life insulted in the first 3 seconds of ever viewing your content, I doubt I will ever return. Not the best way to grow.

@thealpinedm 13 дней назад

Great question! I actually just use the built in microphone on the camera, pretty happy with how the audio turned out for the most part

@Timbo_Zer0 12 дней назад

You go to a spooky, boring, church?

@mbg4681 10 дней назад

Got an instant subscribe from me. Enjoy your spooky boring zombie vampire pederast cult!

@saullo83 5 дней назад

Weak

@genostellar 24 дня назад

I haven't named any gods, but I have named things in my games. For instance, I created a prismatic dragon that is the only one known to exist that spends her days flying in orbit around the world. Her name is Iriden. Kind of a play on iridescent. She is also the most powerful creature/character I have ever created, so I made her fairly aloof.

@thealpinedm 23 дня назад

That's another really great method! An iridescent dragon sounds dope 🐲🌈

@jasper5476 16 дней назад

Congratulations, Iriden is now in my campaign.

@genostellar 16 дней назад

@@jasper5476 Okay, I guess. I don't mind, but I'm not sure why I'm being congratulated. I am glad to hear that you like the idea of the character, but don't forget that it's rewarding to come up with your own characters, too. So what will my character be doing in your campaign?

@Acer6828 22 дня назад

Another tip for coming up with names: ChatGPT can translate words into the fantasy languages in D&D (Sylvan, Celestial, Elvish, etc.) It's the best translator that I've found for fantasy languages.

@thealpinedm 16 дней назад

This is a use of chatgpt that I can get behind, thanks for the tip!

@evildwight6325 25 дней назад

Some highly original methods that I have not heard before! very cool

@thealpinedm 25 дней назад

Thank you!! If there's anything anything you'd ever want to see a video on I'd love to hear it and try to help out

@Cyber-Riot 12 дней назад

For naming anything in a fictional setting (mostly video game characters) I just mash a bunch of random keys on my keyboard, then scan through it for something interesting, then modify it to look/sound better.

@MatthewKruse-ri8ep 9 дней назад

The naming part was especially good.

@MatthewKruse-ri8ep 9 дней назад

Loved this. Classical mythic symbolism. Well done.

@Skylos 14 дней назад

One fun thing that I like to do when creating a pantheon is giving gods multiple meanings depending on regions. For example in one D&D campaign I had a god of the seas. That god was worshipped as the god of storms in a certain region where traversal over seas was very common, while another region worshipped the god instead as a god of mysteries, due to that region having a lot of ancient and mysterious temples in that area. Another example is a war god, where there is a certain group/nation that worshipped it as the god of glory, because it was a culture built around expansion through war, while other nearby nations see it as the god of plagues, because they are the victims of said war. Doing this is really dependent on how your world sees the pantheon and how close the average person is to the gods, but it is really fun to do, and it kinda lets you easily have more gods available without actually needing to create more gods. It also creates a good starting point to built further lore for certain regions and cultures from.

@blueca 22 дня назад

the most powerful beings in the larp world i play in are called avatars, and they fall into the geographic features thing, and they have a cool familial structure thing for their naming. it immediately tells people their domain, how powerful they are, and their relationship to the other avatars. for instance, grandfather sky is the most powerful, mother of tides and the moon father are a couple and pretty dang important, brother mountain exists, i guess, and bastard blight (yes that's his actual name) is the evil one

@thealpinedm 16 дней назад

I really like how the naming system inherently gives you information about a gods power and relationships! I'm not very familiar with larping (would love to try it though), do people get to play as these avatars?

@blueca 15 дней назад

@thealpinedm they're npcs! for the most part they send psychic messages and such from the background to move the plot along, but on the rare occasion that they do show up in person, there are people sent by the plot team/game masters to rp as them.

@pdubb9754 17 дней назад

You and I name things similarly

@thatguy5391 25 дней назад

Aaaaand subbed. Thank you for this video.

@thealpinedm 24 дня назад

You're welcome! 😎

@AlexPBenton 16 дней назад

This is exactly how I name my… well, everything. I do a lot of kitbashing with scrambled words, translated words, and sometimes just interesting sounds. Some examples I’m proud of: Adalatki Muihnua Dwedpobpeth (impossible to pronounce but it works for that deity) Moschua Leyu Liol Merilia Ahpatzin Sanenyam Noqofesi Beskalof Shakloset and many, many more. My pantheon is overflowing 😅

@thealpinedm 16 дней назад

Hell yeah, keep the good stuff coming!!

@mathmusicandlooks 17 дней назад

Good video. It came 2 years too late…. Beginning as a DM, I started with the pantheon just because the DMG said so (not necessary, btw.) Now I have an open pantheons of about 30 gods that I created in a very similar manner. For step 2, I went through each of the domains clerics have in 5e, then I created 2-4 gods for each domain, later connecting them with other domains as well. (Most of these gods have 3 or 4 domains). I also built up a basic personality or temperament for each one to inform step 4. Also, I have made extensive use of the foreign language trick for the naming of gods, countries, cities, geographical features, NPCs, etc. etc. Got a pirate city? Boom, Iserkand (from Dutch for “iron sides”). Got a mysterious blood-colored hyper saline lake? Krasnasol (from Russian for “red” + “lake”)

@thealpinedm 16 дней назад

Well it seems like you managed to make a pretty dope pantheon even without the video! 30 gods, that's crazy (in a good way), do you have any trouble keeping track of that many?

@mathmusicandlooks 15 дней назад

@@thealpinedm not necessarily. I made a neat list and a chart for myself to track them, and almost anytime anything comes up about them is something I have time to prepare for, so I only need to have a few in my head at any one time. Many references to them are oblique anyway, like an NPC will swear by Usmerta, goddess of death and overseer of the ferrying of souls (from Russian смерт, “death”), or by Taezaman, god of light, the sun, time, and aging/decay. (I don’t recall off the top of my head how I came up with his name. Haha)

@kraftyevan 23 дня назад

You got my subscription. Keep this quality up I love it

@thealpinedm 23 дня назад

Thank you! That's definitely the plan 😃 If there's ever a topic you'd want to see covered please let me know!

@fred_derf 23 дня назад

I generally don't find the advice in these kind of videos useful. But this video has bucked the trend. It has actual good advice and combines truly functional tips. This is almost certainly the best D&D _How to World Build_ video I've ever seen.

@thealpinedm 22 дня назад

Wow, this is such a kind thing to say, thank you!! Glad to have exceeded your expectations. Note to self: continue to have good advice and functional tips. Rock on! 🪨

@fred_derf 22 дня назад

@@thealpinedm Your video has literally inspired me to start working on the Pantheons (each race will has their own vision of the gods) for the world I'm building), which prior has been something I've been putting off as I wasn't sure how to even start. I've got most of the basics of the human pantheon done (11 gods) just this morning and I'm really liking the way it's shaping up. One thing I'd add to the "How to design a pantheon" suggestions is to add in "decide on a creation mythos". By deciding how the Earth was created and the roles the various gods played already sets up a lot of what each god embodies / represents. So, was the world made by a singular god? Or did a group of gods get together and do it? Or was it created by something else with the gods playing no role at all? This will lead you to whether your pantheon has a singular head and a hierarchy of gods, or are they an unorganized mob? e.g. The four strongest gods got together and decided to cerate a world but they couldn't agree on what to make. The Gods of Earth and Water joined forces against the God of Fire and buried his contribution beneath theirs. The God of Wind stayed out of they way during the conflagration and snuck at the end and covered it all. After this other gods, seeing what these gods had made, joined in the fun and added their own contributions, one covering the world in plants, another in peaceful animals. Another god, who liked to stir up trouble, morphed many of the animals into carnivores. Meanwhile the God of Air quietly gave a lot of animals the gift of flight. While the Gods of Earth and Water had to stay vigilant in order to keep the God of Fire contained, he occasionally breaks free and wreaks havoc upon the world (Volcanoes, fire-breathing Dragons, etc.) It also, out of its anger, brought death and decay to the world. Another god saw what was being done and decided that it would be interesting to give some of the animals intelligence, and thus created the Sentient races. Yet another decided to mess with things and gave the world magic.

@FamBoren 12 дней назад

Good steps and useful tips. Thank you!

@thealpinedm 12 дней назад

You're very welcome, thanks for the kind words. I'm glad it was helpful!

@Lincoln-oe2wv 23 дня назад

Solid video dude, as a long time DM &world-builder I gotta say this is a great understanding // way of developing pantheons :) Always love the idea of promoting more DM’s and making that role more common and less scary, keep up the great work!

@thealpinedm 22 дня назад

Thank you!! Yeah gotta spread the love and de-mystify DMing 🧙‍♂️ If there's ever a topic you wanna see a video about let me know!

@ImANoobLetMeWin 14 дней назад

I really like the god wizz-wang. 😂

@ogradus 8 дней назад

For this video only, he is "Alpine Diem" 😊

@thealpinedm 25 дней назад

FREE 5E CONTENT at www.Patreon.com/TheAlpineDM When you join my Patreon, you'll gain: - Instant access to Bestiary & Arcane Vault (150+ pages) - 3 Creatures and 3 Magic Items every month - Wardweaver Class: Versatile arcane tacticians who summon wards to manipulate the battlefield in their favor - Explore ancient Maps & Locations - VTT Creature Tokens

@RaisiaFan1919 18 дней назад

I came up with an interesting way to find character names for fantasy role-playing games. Use medicine/drug names. It sounds crazy until you bring up a list of medicines/drugs and start reading them. You will find many names that are just perfect. You wouldn't blink twice if you met a shopkeeper named Banzel or a the main bad guy's lieutenant named Atarax. :)

@thealpinedm 16 дней назад

😂 it's brilliant, haha! I'm definitely going to file that tip away for use later when I'm doing more world building

@HeraldofHelios 20 дней назад

Great video mate. Unique video that no one has covered. Definitely a better method than using those fantasy name generators

@thealpinedm 16 дней назад

Thank you for the kind words!! I'm really glad you were able to find it useful 🧙‍♂️

@destonlee2838 10 дней назад

It's gnolls vs the rest of them. Hail yeenoghu!

@angrytheclown801 16 дней назад

Remember, you can also have gods people worship to actually never meet. I have a guardian of the open ocean that people pray for him to be elsewhere as he's a dire megaladon. Yeah, you see that, he's an abnormally giant giant tiger shark. And he's not much smarter than a normal shark. He could help, he could hurt, he's not malicious, he's just a shark, and people revere him as protector of the ocean but at that size, no matter what you do you're going to wreck things. Don't be afraid to go the unconventional route because people remember that.

@samburchard9921 18 дней назад

Good video. I have made my own pantheon that I use, based loosely on the Norse Gods. A few additional things to think about when creating a pantheon. First are the gods of your world really "gods" or just powerful entities that have taken up residence and are exploiting the natives to get something (see a lot of old Star Trek episodes). In either case what do these gods want from people. Does being worshiped make them powerful, or do they want things? Second, how do you make the gods relevant to your PC's lives. D&D does bad job of this, except Mythic Odysseys of Theros. Get this book and copy some of the ideas for making your gods relevant. Finally I would recommend making a mythology around your gods. You can keep it simple, and rip off ones from stories and real world myths. It doesn't even need to be completely coherent. I mean if you are making gods you might as well make them relevant to the game. Don't be afraid to tweak the gods to fit in with your PC's ideas and desires for their characters. Most of my gods are just names and list of things that they are about, until a player chooses one, then I flesh it out for them and with them.

@Conan_Burns 25 дней назад

Cool naming process. I'm not running in a world with healing magic atm (not d&d system) It's amazing how irrelevant gods become. When the players can't use them.

@thealpinedm 24 дня назад

Thank you! Hopefully the naming tips are able to transfer even if the actual gods don't, sounds like an interesting world, what system?

@Conan_Burns 24 дня назад

@thealpinedm yes very true. The tips would help with places and important npc. Even future characters fo when I seldom play 😅 Of my namesake conan 2d20. It's crunchy, but I have all the books, so im going to get some dam value out of it come hell or highwater

@wait4tues 22 дня назад

So, I used cultural norms and ideas that people are familiar with to make a god, Merlund. Players will already know about mermaids and merfolk. It isn't clear in my world which came first here but it doesn't matter. Mer-came first. After that you sound technique came next. Which sound had vibes of the depths. Or sounded looming and big. Lund came from pairing different sounds together. His symbol is a hastily scratched black spot. Because he is the god of the depths. Players would recognize the black spot from pirate media. Probably pirates of the carribean. They worshipped through interactions with water. Baptism is well known by players, as is rebirth. So merlund's followers are drowned and resuscitated in seawater. Always in a pool connected to the ocean. People die a lot but it's seen as a sacred thing. Being chosen to go to merlund's sacred realm to be made anew as a merfolk. A big rock is strapped to their chest and they're dropped into the deepest part of the ocean.

@thealpinedm 16 дней назад

I love it!! Super in depth lore with the ritual - this would make an awesome addition to a campaign

@Joshuazx 20 дней назад

pantheism: pan = all / many theism = theology Pantheon = conjugate of Pantheism The most important part of a pantheon is CONFLICT. Gods in a pantheon do not get along or else you have no conflict in your world. If the water god and the land god get along, why is there desert? If the love god and the war god get along, why is there still war? A love god who values war equal to love is not a very good love god, and a war god who values love equal to war is not a very good war god. The love god might get along with the fertility god, and the war god might get along with the death god, and so the fertility god and the death god might otherwise be neutral except they're friends with gods who don't like each other.

@iphidamasfilms1245 19 дней назад

that is not what pantheism means

@Joshuazx 19 дней назад

@@iphidamasfilms1245 ok

@thealpinedm 16 дней назад

Yes, establishing conflict (either past or present) can really help build out a pantheon! It's a great jump off spot for a campaign heavily involving the divine - a great rift forming between different gods

@AlexPBenton 16 дней назад

Pantheism is the belief that the universe is god. Pan*en*theism is the same, with the addition of something extra (basically universe+) Basically pantheism means “all is god”, while pantheon means “all the gods”

@alexpratt8533 22 дня назад

Just found this channel today, and you've given me the courage to start writing my own homebrew D&D Campaign. Gotta make sure to subscribe to find you again when I need more ideas or advice. Thank you, @thealpinedm

@thealpinedm 21 день назад

Hell yeah, glad to inspire you and I really appreciate the kind words and the sub! I'm actually doing my first ever Livestream this coming Thursday just as a little place to hang out with other DMs and all work on our session prep. I'm also giving away one of my books but ANYWAY if you're able to make it (6pm Mountain time Thursday) I'd be happy to also send you a digital copy of my book about creating your first homebrew campaign. It's a few years old but the info is still relevant