Religion

It was inevitable I was going to write about this. How couldn't I? RPGs lend themselves to a variety of subjects and themes, and religion is by far the most interesting.

Obviously, disclaimer: I'm agnostic, and I'm not trying to offend anyone.

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I was raised in a Christian family. We went to church every Sunday, and any homeschool co-ops I went to during my early education were also Christian.

I was introduced to D&D when I was young. I was about eleven. It was exciting, it was engaging, and it made for great times. I had barely any idea what was going on, but I loved it.

Time-skip four years. I'm fifteen, just buying the "Big Three" (Player's Handbook, Dungeon Master's Guide, Monster Manual) for D&D 4e. Don't laugh, I didn't know any better. Obviously, I was looking for a group to play with. What's the point of getting all gussied up if you're going to stay inside by yourself?

There was a friend at the time who was interested in it. We both went to the same church, and we had similar tastes in... everything. For a little while, we were even planning to have a podcast called "Ship of Fools." It would've been great.

This is where things get complicated. Like so many other Christian families, hers was concerned about the magic and demons in it. It's understandable to me now, but it made hardly any sense at the time. You can play without demons and devils. There's also a few pages about the gods of the world, but they're ultimately meaningless and don't change anything except lore.

Magic is, by far, the biggest stumbling block in the game. Jack Chick even thinks so.

http://www.chick.com/reading/tracts/0046/0046_01.ASP

At the time, I was Christian. Not a good Christian, but I agreed with almost all of it. And, I laughed at the idea of people taking objection to the magic in this. For one, this edition wasn't based on any "real" magic, unlike previous editions. It's just words, and the effects. It was no more "realistic" than comic books about someone who's invincible.

The funniest part to me was- what's there to be afraid of? Are these going to work? Am I, accidentally, going to create a fireball in my dining room?

But, ranting aside, rules were rules. Her parents didn't want their daughter going into a world of satanism (there are demons and devils, but you can play without them. In older versions, there are actual references to hell a la' Dante's Inferno, but any GM can write around it), and the group was shot down before we could get anything going. Pity, that.

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Time-skip four years. I'm nineteen, almost twenty. The Escapade Engine is in shambles, but I'm salvaging what I can from the wreck. And, once again, religion rears its head. This time, I'm coming from a different angle.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I believe two forms of gameplay are exploration and roleplaying. These happen to be two of my favorites. And, one thing I was always fond of in games was religion. Everything from Unreal to the first Bionicle game had at least whispers of it, and I always enjoyed looking at the various locations designed for religious purposes. Cathedrals, circles of stone, great monuments to long-lost figures- the only visual difference between reality and some of them was a pixel count.

But, things fall through once you go deeper. There are no real-life worshipers of these fictional religions, and even the people who made them don't believe in it.

But, couldn't the same be said for everything else?

The locations aren't real, the characters aren't, and of course the events are over-the-top ridiculous. Yet, we immerse in them anyway, for escapism. Of course, I plan to add religious elements into my games. It would be a waste not to, in most cases. The religion is fake, the belief systems will be flawed and mostly transparent, but who cares? As long as it's immersive, and helps create a compelling world, I say go for it.

The same argument applies to magic, too. It's entirely fake, just numbers and letters on pieces of paper, influenced by the real gods of the realm- plastic dice.