Two related rules: Christianity and Earth

[cmbarona]

I'm rather curious about creating a set of house rules to allow D&D 4e (of which I am a big fan) to work 1) on earth, and 2) with Christianity. I'm thinking something along the high-fantasy setting of the Arthurian legends: high fantasy, yet with an intriguing interaction with Christianity and its rituals and ideals. Take, for example, the birth of Merlin, conceived by a plot of evil fey who were thwarted by Merlin the baby being Christened.

What are some possible tweaks to the system? I'm honestly not sure where to start. I imagine most of it will be due to flavor rather than mechanical tweaks. Eladrin would be a perfect fit here, but what about Dragonborn? Can they be reskinned, or should they just be banned outright? Or might there still be some place for them in this world?

I created an alternate setting in another campaign which was monotheistic, with very few tweaks: the "gods" were simply saints or heretics who had lived in the world and passed away long ago. But I'm curious what other people think on the matter: could something similar work in Christianity's context? Are there other possible ways of portraying this?

EDIT:
I wanted to make a chart of standard D&D gods whose profiles we have paired with saints. Here's what we have so far:

Avandra: St. Christopher
Bahamut:
Corellon:
Erathis:
Ioun: St. Thomas Aquinas
Kord: St. George
Melora:
Moradin:
Pelor: St. Brigid
The Raven Queen: St. Joseph of Arimathea
Sehanine:

 

[MaclimesZero]

As for dragonborn, here's the big question: Are there dragons?

In the Arthurian tales, many of them were definetly "low magic". Magic existed, certainly, but it was by no means commonplace. Excalibur, Merlin, Morgan le Fay... and that's about it. You may want to look at the DMG2 rules for low magic settings, and see if those work for you.

 

[cmbarona]

As for dragonborn, here's the big question: Are there dragons?

In the Arthurian tales, many of them were definetly "low magic". Magic existed, certainly, but it was by no means commonplace. Excalibur, Merlin, Morgan le Fay... and that's about it. You may want to look at the DMG2 rules for low magic settings, and see if those work for you.

Good point. Although the amount of magic depends on which legends you consult. I picked up an old copy of a book titled, "King Arthur and His Knights" a while back and started skimming through. This collection is more of a children's book. It certainly gives the impression that magic is rare and exotic, and yet the epic scope of the tale encounters it frequently.

To answer your first question, there certainly were dragons, so I suppose a dragonborn race could have a place. I suppose I could also give the option to reskin any race as a human with certain qualities inherent in their lineage (e.g., Merlin as a reskinned Eladrin due to his fey father).

 

[MaclimesZero]

And now that I think about it, there's of course Saint George and the Dragon.

It just brings up ALOT of questions.

Is there a Feywild? What about a Shadowfell? Obviously, there's no Elemental Chaos or Astral Sea or any of that, since going with the Christian "mythos", you have only Heaven and Hell (and possibly Purgatory, depending on your slant).

Are there undead? Are they common, like in D&D, or are they something rare, special, and horrific?

What about the power sources? Martial is obviously in, and Divine seems to fit in perfectly. Arcane? Yes, we have Merlin. But how to limit it? The vast majority of heroes in legend are human knights. Merlin is more like a high-powered NPC. Primal ... maybe? Certainly, druids are a constant reference of the time, although not the way they are presented in 4e. Psionics? Nothing I can think of appropriate, there.

And magic items. In a world in which the ONLY well-known magic item is Excalibur itself, is that appropriate? Does it fit the flavor?

I can't answer these questions for your campaign. If I was trying to write an Arthurian-style campaign, however, I would do this:

* Low Magic: DMG2-style low magic option. It provides bonuses to make up for the fact that magic items are rare.
* Races: Humans only. I wouldn't even reskin the others. Teleporting and small size and all that other stuff just makes it complicated and disjointed.
* Classes: Martial and Divine power source only. This still covers all four roles very well. I would have NPCs and enemies who used Primal or Arcane, but they would be very rare.
* Enemies: Again, I would focus on humans as 99% of the villians. When they fight a dragon, it should be the only dragon even mentioned in the entire campaign. "Magical" being are rare this world. I would never repeat a theme or monster type. If they fight some weird little goblins, it would be the only time they do so. The ultimate villian in the campaign, in my thinking, should be a demon of some sort. Seems very appropriate.
* Planes: No planes at all. No Shadowfell, Feywild, or others. There would be the occasional Fey or Shadow monster, but again, they would be very rare.
* Magic Items: Again, supremely rare. Each one would not just be a simple "+3 Flaming Longsword". They would have names, full write-ups, histories, and unique powers and abilities. In such, they would all be artifacts.



Again, I can't say how you should do it. That's what I'd do. But you may have a very different vision or idea on how you want it done. Just ask yourself: Do you want a drow with psionic powers tossing fireballs all over England, wielding his +2 Opportunistic Battleaxe?

 

[cmbarona]

Thanks for your contribution. Honestly, the concept isn't fully fleshed out in my mind, so I'd love to hear more suggestions like this. I do think limiting the prevalence of magic would be a fantastic way to go about emulating a more Earth-like campaign. And obviously the cosmology will need significant tweaking. Does anyone have any suggestions for replacing the standard polytheistic D&D pantheon with Christianity? Obviously your suggestions will depend on your particular theology, but I'm open to hearing different takes.

 

[MaclimesZero]

To bother you again...

Cosmologically, I would go with a variation on a theme. Instead of simply "Hell", give it the full 7 layers, like in Dante's Inferno. In fact, you could base the entire cosmology around the multiple layered facets of The Divine Comedy. It's a great inspiration for a Christianity-inspired Cosmology that is still interesting and varied enough to fit in a fantasy setting.

As for a pantheon, I would use the saints. DO NOT use God or Jesus as options: In this world, it's assumed that all divine might comes from them. But each cleric/priest/whatever draws their inspiration from a specific saint, acting as an extension of that saint on Earth. All the saints are allies, however. If a cleric of Saint George, patron saint of Knights and Crusaders, wanted help casting a heal spell, he could still say a prayer to Saint Brigid, patron saint of Healers.

Perhaps "foreigners" (think Azeem from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves) could use an alternative deity, but I wouldn't even bother addressing it unless a player requests it.

I was tempted to suggest archangels instead, but I think saints fit VERY well in the Arthurian style.

 

[erf_beto]

Have you seen/read The mists of Avalons (not sure if the name is right)? There ceirtainly is a lot of magic (only without the ooomph of d&d) and Avalon itself seems to be located in the feywild, with the witches 'opening the portal' to it through the mists.

I wouldn't ban arcane classes, only limit or reflavor them to use non flashy powers only. Like, Magic Missiles are invisible, like a telekinetic punch; instead of firing a beam of brilliant cold, Ray of Frost drops the target's body temperature to the point of causing damage and slowing; Scorching Burst doesn't create fire, but burns the flesh of your opponents, as if you had soaked them into burning oil.

Encounter and Daily powers could work per RAW, only at-wills should receive this treatment. Notice that a lot of cleric and invoker powers in the RAW are just as flashy (if not more) than wizard's.

I love the option of using saints instead of gods for divine characters. One option is to take most PHB gods and find a related saint to use all his/hers mechanical features (like channel divinity).

 

[cmbarona]

Have you seen/read The mists of Avalons (not sure if the name is right)? There ceirtainly is a lot of magic (only without the ooomph of d&d) and Avalon itself seems to be located in the feywild, with the witches 'opening the portal' to it through the mists.

I wouldn't ban arcane classes, only limit or reflavor them to use non flashy powers only. Like, Magic Missiles are invisible, like a telekinetic punch; instead of firing a beam of brilliant cold, Ray of Frost drops the target's body temperature to the point of causing damage and slowing; Scorching Burst doesn't create fire, but burns the flesh of your opponents, as if you had soaked them into burning oil.

Encounter and Daily powers could work per RAW, only at-wills should receive this treatment. Notice that a lot of cleric and invoker powers in the RAW are just as flashy (if not more) than wizard's.

I love the option of using saints instead of gods for divine characters. One option is to take most PHB gods and find a related saint to use all his/hers mechanical features (like channel divinity).

You know, even though I've used that exact same mechanic in another campaign (e.g., Kord = Saint Kord), I never would have thought to simply find saints that have similar themes! Given that I'm a United Methodist (we don't have canonized saints), I'm unfamiliar with the Catholic saints*. Any suggestions for saint-deity pairs?

*I suppose I could research Orthodox saints, but you Easterners seem to have a ton of them, so I wouldn't know where to begin!

 

[cmbarona]

To get the ball rolling:

Ioun = St. Thomas Aquinas: a medieval philosopher who believed that God is fully rational, that the existence of God can be proven, and who wrote the (incomplete) Summa Theologica, the "Sum of All Theology" which was a multi-volume set of articles expounding on an incredible variety of basic and advanced theological topics.

 

[MaclimesZero]

I believe I already mentioned Saint George. I think he'd be a perfect fit for Kord. He was a saint of strength, and power. He is worshipped by knights, paladins, crusaders, and is even the patron saint of The Knights Templar.

Saint Joseph of Arimathea would work for the Raven Queen. He is the one who donated his own tomb so that someone more important could be buried there: Jesus. He is also known as "the man of sorrows" and "the suffering servant".

Saint Brigid may be a good fit for Pelor? She is the patron saint of healers. She set up many convents throughout Ireland and England, devoting to healing the sick and caring for the poor. She is a saint that embodies kindness and sacrifice for ideals.

Saint Christopher, the god of travellers, is a good parallel to Avandra.

That's all I got off the top of my head. I'll look into some more later.