Greetings from a long-time ago player, first time DM...

When last I played D&D, there was an "A" in the name, and we all ran around in Greyhawk.  At some point the sandbox became "The Forgotten Realms" and here we are.

I'm loving the mechanics of 5e, and am excited to make the jump to DM. I'm getting ready to start a journey into the Phandalin area (probably will combine Phandelver and Icespire Peak into a single 'regional' adventure), but have been ITCHING to create a homebrew adventure. My creative juices are flowing, my story line is beginning to fill itself out nicely, and my "TO BE DETERMINED LATER" elements are beginning to take shape.

That said, one of the backstory parts of this campaign will involve a cleric who worships...wait for it..."GOD TO BE DETERMINED LATER".

My comfort zone is the pantheon of Grayhawk Dieties, and frankly none of the Forgotten Realms gods are really sparking my fancy. It bugs me that there's such a seeming disconnect between the two "worlds"...what is the prevailing sentiment about combining elements of Grayhawk and the Forgotten Realms? Or, at the very least, bridging the two? 

Thoughts?

This could be just the ignorant spewings of a youngin', but - does it matter?

Now, I don't know anything about Greyhawk and know only a little about FR, and I also don't have much interest in any of the pantheons (I "co-created" my own), so I'm coming from a pretty ignorant and apathetic point of view.

My point is, as a DM, you can do anything. Sure, it can be set in FR, so you can use the map and the demographics, cool, but unless your players are set on having the FR pantheons, then I really don't think it matters. Just let them know that these are the Gods you're using, and that's that. I mean, allow them to choose their deity if they want/need, but otherwise I don't really know why you don't feel free to do what you want with that.

Again, my opinion means little, I know, but I thought I'd put that perspective out there. I firmly believe that the DM has to be way more interested in the setting than any of the players in order to make a game work, after all. So, if you're not interested in it, then it probably won't work insofar as you may very well become bored and want to do something else.

Yeah I don't generally concern myself with what setting gods originate in, if I see a deity that fits the theme, I grab it. I don't even have that concrete a notion of what the FR pantheon consists of.

Also, if you wanna homebrew your own pantheon I'd say go for it. Might be a fun way to stretch your homebrew muscles you've been wanting to use. 

Unless you are playing with FR lore fanatics, it doesn't matter. It is your campaign in a homebrew setting with elements of FR and GH. LMoP doesn't need to be set in Phadelver. Phandelver doesn't need to be in the FR. You create the framework, published adventures can be fit in however you want them to. However, if you want to stick to the FR, then there is probably a diety that is equivalent to whatever you are pulling from GH.

Yes - I played with a lore fanatic once.

DM: "We start in a tavern in Luskan, the City of Sails..."
LoreFan: "Which one?" *gets out a map of Luskan* "There are five - one here, one here, one here, one here...."
DM: "We start in a tavern in a city that looks suspiciously like Luskan, but called something else entirely, in a wholly different universe."

Quote from Maestrino >>

Yes - I played with a lore fanatic once.

DM: "We start in a tavern in Luskan, the City of Sails..."
LoreFan: "Which one?" *gets out a map of Luskan* "There are five - one here, one here, one here, one here...."
DM: "We start in a tavern in a city that looks suspiciously like Luskan, but called something else entirely, in a wholly different universe."

Despite how funny this response was, the issue is not about lore fanaticism, but about...I can't believe I am actually going to type the word, immersion.  If the world is fleshed out enough so that I, as a player can imagine it we are good.  If the world has gaps so large a Kraken can swim through them, we have issues.   Given that the Forgotten Realms was published in like 1987, with Dragon Magazine short stories for years and years before that, and that it has the single largest group of supplements, novels, video games, and merchandise you are very unlikely to swing a goblin without hitting a so-called "lore fanatic".

Addressing the question of gods in both FR and Greyhawk, I honestly feel the issue is familiarity.  I have never engaged in Greyhawk, my first real long term D&D was with the Grey Box of FR, so the stories and Gods of the Realms are my go to.   Greyhawk obviously are your go to.  If you are set on running in the Realms, I would suggest reading some of the material printed for 3.0 and 3.5 covering the Realms.   It can improve your game to know that Rangers might venerate Mielikki, but pray to Gwaeron Windstrom for intercession with her because she is so...alien.  Or how and why the god of Tyranny: Bane REALLY REALLY REALLY hates Cyric the god of Lies.

There is however a third option.  

The Realms are not a hermetically sealed crystal sphere.  Gods of other places often appear here.  Tyr the One Handed, the Maimed One is one such emigre` god.  The entire 'Egyptian' pantheon is here too.  Vecna even lurks in the shadows.   Perhaps import some of you favorite gods here too.  Establish how they fit in with the current gods.  Do they want to surplant? protect? 

Quote from ArgonCleave >>

what is the prevailing sentiment about combining elements of Grayhawk and the Forgotten Realms? Or, at the very least, bridging the two? 

 It's your game: do what you're most comfortable with. 

I (and many other DM's) had to do similar bridging when making the jump from 3.5e's Greyhawk default setting to 4e (which combined some of the Gods for its Nerath 'default' setting, but ultimately Forgotten Realms was its real preferred setting).

fwiw: because of this jump, some Gods are now officially shared between Greyhawk and Forgotten Realms, and many other Greyhawk Deities have an equivalent in the Forgotten Realms setting (which some worshipers might even call by their Greyhawk name).

Of which Deity were you thinking? 

THANK YOU ALL for the replies. This ("It's your campaign...do what YOU want to do") is pretty much where I had landed, but I'm also a bit of a "completist" (as it were) and wasn't sure if there was something I was missing in terms of "why I should or shouldn't".

The truth is, that as I've been flushing out this one adventure the cleric in question seems a perfect fit, in his essentials (I still have some homework to do) for St. Cuthbert of the Cudgel. Honestly, the "mind reading" aspect of one of the factions of his priests is an especially good fit for this particular story. I've been trying to find a decent analog for him in  FR, but so far, as I said, nothing has really tripped my trigger.

If I decide that even Cuthbert isn't a good fit, I may very well just craft my own Deity (ideas for which are already starting to come to the surface...)

Thank  you all again...this is great. Please keep the discussion going if you're so inclined.

Best--

Cleave

I have to chime in with the rest. It doesn't matter whether you do GH or FR. Humanity alone has hundreds of religions and hundreds of deities, nothing says you can't have the same in your world. Steal from everything as long as you think it's cool.