My PJ Lifestyle piece on religion in RPGs.

Found here. Short version: using fake religions in your game won’t tick people off, but using real ones allows you to evoke, well, more believable religions. Your call on which path to go down, there.

6 thoughts on “My PJ Lifestyle piece on religion in RPGs.”

  1. Hello Moe.

    “A day may come when the courage of men fails,

    when we forsake our friends

    and break all bonds of fellowship,

    but it is not this day.

    An hour of wolves and shattered shields,

    when the age of men comes crashing down,

    but it is not this day!

    This day we fight!!”

    The fight isn’t over no matter what Denethor might say.

  2. It definitely provides a lot more color to the world when you have religions, especially competing cults, which while relatively benign can stretch certain points when it comes to evangelizing people.

    Add in the quests, holy wars, making errors (“How dare you wear red on the feast day of St. Henrik! Heathen!”) and the fun that a pious character can create (“I can’t adventure; this is a Day of Fasting, Prayer, and Repentance,”) and lots of plotlines open up.

    1. Tie two things together. A character gets ill and the cleric tries to cure it and relates “The only thing that will cure this wasting disease is if you make a pilgrimage to the Shrine at Lake Onkonoka, which has been lost for two centuries when that land was overrun by the Orcs of the Soccer Tribe.”

      Have fun getting that character (who is getting weaker as time passes) to the lost shrine while avoiding those pesky Orcs.

  3. Heh. The first thing I do when making a Fantasy world is write a creation myth or three. (Mutually contradictory at points, and omitting key information, of course. It’s likely telling that the second thing I do is make calendars, followed by the coinage.)
    .
    I freely admit that I steal from actual religions for details. The Druze and Sihks are my favorite targets, but Dionysus and his maenids are generally too interesting to ignore (especially if lycanthropes are a thing).
    Not to mention mystery religions–which can nicely fill out some of the gaps in the accepted creation myth, if a character is devoted enough to join and ascend the ranks.
    Cybele, Tanit, Odin, and too many others to name are much more terrifying than the generic Dark Lord. One caveat: some wiccans get offended if it is asserted that my celtic ancestors practiced human sacrifice and cannibalism, even though the archeological record and historical records confirm the practices.
    (Actually, you’ll most likely learn to despise wiccans for trying to force myths through their modernist lens while actively trying to drown out anything they can’t hammer into shape. It’s very irritating, and makes it hard to do research. On the plus side, this can be actively used against your players. Their character wants to research Baba Yaga? Excuse the player from the table to do so, and let them fight with Google. Meanwhile, the game continues while they’re “at the library”…)
    .
    I’m wandering, aren’t I?
    I think the most important thing to address is why a god doesn’t just “fix things”? Why go through proxies when you have divine might? Answer that (and different answers for different gods is certainly possible) and you’ve got a solid basis to run from.

    1. If a god is just going to fix things why bother having heroes and villains?

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