What Would You Want From A Game About Defenders of The Faithful?

doctorbadwolf · Jun 19, 2019

Michele said:
So maybe evil-worshippers can't be PCs - but they definitely might be enemy NPCs. Because if evil is real, is present, and is powerful, somebody will worship it.
Similarly, the game might be not about evil organizations - but evil organizations are likely to exist, if nothing else as enemies.

I also now understand what you meant by "grimdark", but "not doing it" is not really an option, IMHO, if you have a setting like this.
If the PCs, however much they might be holy servants of good, have to eradicate a coven of worshippers of evil (or an infestation of evil possessions, or an avatar of evil that hides within an overpopulated urban neighborhood, etc.) that will be a grim and dark business, no matter how clean and bright the heroes are.

That is my opinion, of course, but that's what you asked.

A quick read on what grimdark means. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grimdark

TLDR, it’s a tone of story in which no one is “good”, or if they are, they’re either a dupe or a tragic fool destined to a bad end from which no good comes.

So, delving into the darkness to fight evil isn’t grimdark. A version of this sort of game where there are no true heroes, the Church is corrupt, the evil guys aren’t really that much worse than the good guys, and no one’s hands are clean, is grimdark.

None of the missions you describe require killing innocents, or anything like it. It might involve having to fight possessed innocents in self defense, but there’s no reason that a Romantic Heroic Fantasy game can’t include rules for subduing rather than killing. Also, even if the innocent dies in the process of being fought off by Paladins while the Druid of the Tuatha performs a ritual to bind the evil spirits, and the priest of the Light prepares to sanctify the area to drive the bound spirits back into the Void, that is something can can be dealt with without focusing the game on the gritty implication that the Paladins aren’t actually good or whatever.

The Romantic and/or Heroic Fantasy Hero can atone or otherwise deal with grief without making a grimdark game. There’s no need to focus the game on that.
@Bagpuss I don’t care. Find someone else to show off how edgy you are to.

Bagpuss · Jun 19, 2019

doctorbadwolf said:
@Bagpuss I don’t care. Find someone else to show off how edgy you are to.

I think you misunderstand me, what I am talking about in the last post isn't "grimdark" by your definition, evil can still be evil, it just pretends it isn't to lure the unsuspecting to it's cause. Good and noble heroes are the ones that don't get seduced to the dark side. Star Wars is far from a grimdark setting but the Dark Side is tempting, and masquerades that it is doing what it is doing "bringing order" for the good of the people.

For example in the schism idea from earlier it doesn't need to be a grimdark setting, the characters are the noble heroes that discover the evil has been working both sides, turning them against each other, and find someway to reestablish contact with their god that has perhaps been imprisoned.

Also grimdark isn't edgy (at the forefront of a trend; experimental or avant-garde) it's pretty much the establishment (in might have been edgy in the 1980's), a black & white setting would be pretty edgy nowadays, so good luck to you.