Hanukkah D&D Campaign

[Elephant]

This could be a dangerous post due to the religious connection, but please bear with me.

Background: I'm not Jewish, but my wife is considering a conversion, and she is thus celebrating Hanukkah. She tells me that, while the candles burn down, different families have different traditions. Some sit and talk, others pray, others play games...

Hmm, I wonder. What if we make a Hanukkah tradition to play a mini-D&D campaign while the candles burn down? It would be a great way to simultaneously keep the family focused together, teach future kids to play D&D, get my wife to play D&D (!), and learn a bit about the history of Hanukkah.

Speaking of which, Hanukkah came about because there was a war. The Greeks had conquered Israel, defiled the temple, and banned Jewish religious observance. Some of the jews, known as the Maccabees, rebelled against the occupying forces. They fought for three years, missing the important Jewish holidays, and they finally won in the month of Kislev (December). Because they'd missed Sukkot (another important Jewish holiday) a couple of months earlier, they celebrated it in Kislev, once they had rededicated the temple.

There's a story about a miracle of oil lasting for eight days, but as far as I can tell, that's not historically accurate.

Anyway, my idea is that the PCs would be members of the Maccabeean rebellion, and the D&D campaign would span eight sessions, each about an hour long (the time it takes for the Hanukkah candles to burn down each night). It would cover the high points of the war, ending with the rededication of the temple and the belated celebration of Sukkot - memorialized as Hanukkah.

I'm thinking the PCs would stay at a static level for the campaign, and it would be something that would be repeated in a similar form each year.

What does everyone think about this?

 

[William Ronald]

This could be a dangerous post due to the religious connection, but please bear with me.

Background: I'm not Jewish, but my wife is considering a conversion, and she is thus celebrating Hanukkah. She tells me that, while the candles burn down, different families have different traditions. Some sit and talk, others pray, others play games...

Hmm, I wonder. What if we make a Hanukkah tradition to play a mini-D&D campaign while the candles burn down? It would be a great way to simultaneously keep the family focused together, teach future kids to play D&D, get my wife to play D&D (!), and learn a bit about the history of Hanukkah.

Speaking of which, Hanukkah came about because there was a war. The Greeks had conquered Israel, defiled the temple, and banned Jewish religious observance. Some of the jews, known as the Maccabees, rebelled against the occupying forces. They fought for three years, missing the important Jewish holidays, and they finally won in the month of Kislev (December). Because they'd missed Sukkot (another important Jewish holiday) a couple of months earlier, they celebrated it in Kislev, once they had rededicated the temple.

There's a story about a miracle of oil lasting for eight days, but as far as I can tell, that's not historically accurate.

Anyway, my idea is that the PCs would be members of the Maccabeean rebellion, and the D&D campaign would span eight sessions, each about an hour long (the time it takes for the Hanukkah candles to burn down each night). It would cover the high points of the war, ending with the rededication of the temple and the belated celebration of Sukkot - memorialized as Hanukkah.

I'm thinking the PCs would stay at a static level for the campaign, and it would be something that would be repeated in a similar form each year.

What does everyone think about this?

Elephant, I am Jewish and I am not offended. Personally, I would go with using Green Ronin's Testament , which is a great book. Testament has the Ancient Near East as a setting and has Biblical characters and rules for different character classes unique to the book -- as well as how core classes would be modified for the setting. (Check on the reviews, but I highly recommend the book.)

Possibly the PCs could be part of the Macabbeean rebellion, and could undertake a quick mission each night. (There are also a few good websites that I can recommend, but I hesitate to do so because of the religious nature of those sites. You can e-mail me, though.)

 

[Talgian]

Speaking as a Jew whose Chanukah candles just finished burning, I think it's a great idea for a family tradition. I'd just be sure to point out to the kiddies that Chanukah is actually a fairly minor holiday in the Jewish tradition, but it sounds like a wonderful way to spend some family time together while observing the rites of Chanukah.

-Talgian

 

[Hairfoot]

I like to believe the religion rules relate to criticism and flame wars, not discussion in good faith.

I'm happily secular, but I like to read posts by people who are blending their belief and their gaming. Religious canons provide blueprints for the type of epic events which PCs are often involved with. Can you get more FRP than David the slingster versus Goliath the giant?

God knows, I'd rather see religion explored through well-written RPG campaigns than reciprocal book-bashing!

 

[William Ronald]

I like to believe the religion rules relate to criticism and flame wars, not discussion in good faith.

I'm happily secular, but I like to read posts by people who are blending their belief and their gaming. Religious canons provide blueprints for the type of epic events which PCs are often involved with. Can you get more FRP than David the slingster versus Goliath the giant?

God knows, I'd rather see religion explored through well-written RPG campaigns than reciprocal book-bashing!

Well, I think that a perfectly secular gamer might like Testament as it has good treatments of four ancient Near East cultures (The Hebrews, the Canannites, the Mesopotamians, and the Egyptians.) Plus there are elements of the rules that can be used in other games. (In the Forgotten Realms setting, some of the Testament rules or features might work well in Unther or Mulhorand.)

 

[Corsair]

I like to believe the religion rules relate to criticism and flame wars, not discussion in good faith.

I'm happily secular, but I like to read posts by people who are blending their belief and their gaming. Religious canons provide blueprints for the type of epic events which PCs are often involved with. Can you get more FRP than David the slingster versus Goliath the giant?

God knows, I'd rather see religion explored through well-written RPG campaigns than reciprocal book-bashing!

Then again, some of us are like me and don't want religion to have anything to do with our gaming. But much like Hairfoot, I'd like to believe that all of the people in my category would be kind enough to just skip threads like this to not make it into a morass.

That's sometimes too much to ask unfortunately. In any case, regardless of whether or not this topic is of interest to me, I am wholeheartedly in favor of you discussing it!

 

[Alzrius]

I'm personally against any postings of even a remotely religious nature here on EN World. I just don't see them ever ending anywhere good.

That said, since this is still open, my thoughts are that seems like a fairly nice way to celebrate the holiday and spend some time with your family. That said, be aware that that period of history (the Hasmonean Kingdom) isn't the brightest spot in Jewish history. The independent kingdom formed after the rebellion was regarded as being fairly degenerate by later Jews for a number of reasons, including the hellenistic traits it retained from the occupation, the succession of murder and intruige for the throne (that eventually collapsed the nation after barely a century), and the fact that many of its rulers claimed kingship, something only those of the house of David are supposed to hold. And that's just what I learned from a quick Wikipedia search.

Of course, that may be too large a context for just a mini-campaign arc, but kids can do surprising amounts of research on things that grab them (especially in this information age). In regards to the rebellion itself, you should be relatively safe, though you may want to gloss over some of the less politically-correct points about that point in history (sexism was a way of life then, and anti-Greek sentiment was fairly strong), particularly the point of this being a religiously-backed guerilla resistance fighting a foreign occupancy, and then setting up their own government; you may have more on your hands than you bargained for if your kids start asking about the differences between the Maccabees and the Taliban.

Most likey, I'm worrying too much, but I just wanted to give you some honest feedback. I hope your game goes well for you and your family.

 

[Odhanan]

What does everyone think about this?

Cool! I think it's a great idea, so long as your family's up for it!

 

[lior_shapira]

The miracle with the oil can probably isn't historically accurate but its really fitting to a d&d session when they got the temple back they wanted to light a mennorah but they only found a small can of oil that should have lasted for one day. But miraculously it lasted for 8 days and that's why Hannukah is 8 days long, each day you add one more candle.

lior

 

[Turanil]

What does everyone think about this?

I think it's a good idea.