God as a character

The problem with God as a character is that unless he chooses to be vulnerable, there's no real challenge you can throw at him.

Likewise, having him too accessible to the rest of the characters makes them the next best thing to invulnerable, too.

... or if they are still vulnerable, God swoops in, saves the day, and you literally have deus ex machina.

I think Lewis handled it pretty well with Aslan just showing up now and again to give the characters a kick in the complacency or take charge only when there was no way the other characters were going to win.

Choosy, that's kind of the way my story seems to be going too. My ubervillain and my God character will have the FINAL battle, but my MCs have to prepare the way for it to happen with antagonists trying to stop them and/or prepare for the villain's victory. I may not even write that part into the story, but in the world-building stage, I have to know how it will all come together so I can write toward it.

Good point. And welcome to our playground off the map!

I would personally say "not too much face-time," but I don't think I have any reasons/arguments that haven't already been spoken here. The Aslan example certainly strikes me as ideal for God as a character. In my own writing, I've gone more in the Tolkien direction, having God be the Creator/Redeemer and all but figuring into the story through the lives, faith, experiences, and choices/consequences of the characters, rather than showing up in person in the story (though unlike what I remember of the LOTR books, my guys do make IC references to God, whether positively or negatively, and may make deliberate choices based on their faith in Him above what they see around them).

The problem I've run into, myself, is how to handle transplanting my own faith/worldview into another world, under the same God, without simply giving that world a Jesus figure with a different name and slightly different details (Lewis somehow managed it marvelously, but it seems it'd be difficult to prevent it from becoming a creativity cop-out or a misrepresentation if I tried it). If my world hasn't experienced a pure allegory of the Messiah, then what exactly do people base their notions of open-armed forgiveness on? Do they have a sacrificial system presently in place? Are they looking toward some kind of Savior in the future (since it's in God's real character)? What sort of holy writings and oral teachings do they have, what "sure and steadfast anchor of the soul" can they grab hold of and sacrifice everything for?

Anyway, just my add-on to the notion of God as a character, since so much has already been said on it here, lol. Kind of the other side of the coin?

That urban fantasy idea is awesome. Powers of whatever kind are cool in a story, but the real fun comes in the psychological/relational stuff kicked up by them.

I haven't read any Dragonlance (only a handful of Forgotten Realms novels, along with rulebooks). I wouldn't even have thought of them; I get a sour look on my face at thought of pantheons and all their inherent illogic, but I get what you're saying about just seeing how other authors handle "divine" in their world. Sounds like I might have more research to do now. Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy, BTW, handles it all with an amazing combination of visceral grit and delicacy (I could go on and on about liking that set ;D ). Not really "shiver of awe" material, for me, but dealing very well with the destruction and regaining of faith (of a fairly generic sort, granted, but it fits the setting) in a way I haven't seen happen anywhere else.

Sanderson is really good.

I can reccomend Elantris wholeheartedly. The Mistborn series is really good, but I'm only ever planning re-reading the first book in that series for reasons that I can't get into (unless you don't mind major spoilers.)

Tolkien had one God, Iluvatar. The Valar (and Sauron, and his master Melkor) were powerful angels. Gandalf was a lesser angel (so were Saruman and the balrog; Gandalf wasn't kidding when he told the party in Moria that this enemy was beyond any of them). I haven't read the entire Silmarilion---only the first two parts, about Creation and the fall of Melkor and a chunk of the Elven population leaving---but I seem to recall "praying" to the Valar being explained somewhere (perhaps in something else Tolkien wrote about it?) as basically acknowledging their power and goodness, thanking them for their part in singing everything into being under Iluvatar's direction/power (each Vala was associated with some aspect of Creation that he/she had been involved in singing, and I'm thinking Elbereth was responsible for the stars, light/guidance/hope/beauty in the darkness), and sometimes asking for some intervention of theirs (kind of like praying to the saints, I guess, as Tolkien was Catholic). That, and the notion of their very names (and, hence, reputation/works) having power. People in Middle-Earth could, of course, develop their own ideas about Valar being gods and could choose to actually worship them, but ultimately in that cosmology, there's only one God.