Quote from: RPGPundit;492071I have to put the Grey Box just slightly ahead of the 3e book, but that might be pure nostalgia talking.

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My habit is to read everyting but to retain what I like. The original Grey Box left me with a "meh" feeling. "I have metric tons of space to fill with my creativity!" Well, thank you! So happens with my homebrew setting.

The FR 3E hit the right balance. Lot's of ideas. I kept what I liked and ditched the rest. And my players didn't complain. As I said, I always need some building bliocks. The way I use them, then, is only mine.

Quote from: RPGPundit;491916The realms, to me, seems a step towards something far more credible, it represents the right sort of hodge-podge mix that was more typical of the classical world.

I would be interested in reading some posts or buying a supplement about that topic written by you. Particularly why it happens, with an eye towards aiding a worldbuilder starting with an initial premise and running it forward to the campaign's "present". It would be useful for Sci-fi games as well as fantasy.

I think RPGs tend to get their idea of what a pantheon is from Bullfinch. Religions and Myth presented as story - as narrative.

Rather than as historical/anthropological study - which is not coherent, doesn't have a narrative through-line - i.e., seeing a pantheon as a pantheon, rather than a book of stories about a pantheon.

Quote from: estar;492238I would be interested in reading some posts or buying a supplement about that topic written by you. Particularly why it happens, with an eye towards aiding a worldbuilder starting with an initial premise and running it forward to the campaign's "present". It would be useful for Sci-fi games as well as fantasy.

True. Maybe someday I'll do that. Right now I'm still waiting to have two books I wrote see print, so forgive me for not being in much of a mood to do RPG products.

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Quote from: RPGPundit;492480True. Maybe someday I'll do that. Right now I'm still waiting to have two books I wrote see print, so forgive me for not being in much of a mood to do RPG products.

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I assume  that Lords of Olympus is one, what is the other?

Quote from: Kaldric;492418[..] seeing a pantheon as a pantheon, rather than a book of stories about a pantheon.

Because God/Yahweh/Allah/Vishnu/Buddha/Confucius/Hubbard knows, no real world religion could be described as "a book of stories about a pantheon".

What's wrong with Bullfinch? Real-world pantheon really are, for the most part, collections of stories about the pantheon, plus ritual practices associated with particular gods. What is artificial is the RPG habit of a pantheon that is just a list of gods and their associated powers. Where Bullfinch might mess up, in a way, is by smoothing over inconsistencies and applying a glaze of homogenity to the whole, whereas historical paganism was full of contradictory stories, often with very localized variations. Also unlike RPG pantheons, gods often had many aspects and names associated with them that were called upon for specific situations. Someone might swear a formal allegiance by Zeus of Oaths, or seek oracles from Zeus of Omens.

Quote from: two_fishes;492522[...] gods often had many aspects and names associated with them that were called upon for specific situations. Someone might swear a formal allegiance by Zeus of Oaths, or seek oracles from Zeus of Omens.

In the Mediterranean, at least, there was also the fairly common practice of assimilating the gods of conquered peoples into the conqueror's pantheon, blending them into whatever god seemed close.  Hence Apollo being the god of medicine, prophecy, the sun, archers, etc.

two-fishes - and that's pretty much all I'm saying. Bulfinch cleans up the presentation, to the point that you can look at it and say "That's a list of clearly-related personages, and they are the official Greek/Roman Pantheon", here is their story. Pantheon as book.

When, as I'm given to understand, the reality of Greek worship in ancient times was much more complex. Yes, there were stories about Gods, but were they a clearly-defined list of gods with concrete manifestations, roles, etc, as they appeared in Bulfinch? Hard to write a neat, contained story about such a pantheon - too much ambiguity, hodge-podgeness. They were "full of contradictory stories, often with very localized variations".

I think Bulfinch-type pantheons are useful for D&D. I, personally, have not had trouble with them. I use the Greyhawk one with little modification.

I just thought that Bulfinch's "applying a glaze of homogenity to the whole" might have influenced the D&D pantheon-model, and might be part of why RPGPundit found D&D's pantheons to be inauthentic.

Quote from: Aos;492497I assume  that Lords of Olympus is one, what is the other?

My GMing guide.

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Quote from: RPGPundit;492867My GMing guide.

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Any FtA stuff in it?

Quote from: CRKrueger;492868Any FtA stuff in it?

Not specifically, no.  Its a generic book about GMing techniques that break the conventions of what people like to pretend a GM should do.  Its working title was something like "The RPGPundit's Politically Incorrect Guide to GMing", but I believe that title may not be what it ends up being published as.

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