Making Religion Matter in Fantasy RPGs

Religion is a powerful force in any culture and difficult to ignore when creating a gaming setting. Here's some things to consider when incorporating religions into your campaign.

Picture courtesy of Pixabay.​

The Question of Gods​

When we look at religion from a gaming perspective, the most interesting thing about it is that in many settings, the existence of deities is not in question. One of the most common arguments over religion is whether there even is a god of any form. But in many fantasy games especially, deities offer proof of their existence on a daily basis. Their power is channelled through clerics and priests and a fair few have actually been seen manifesting in the material realm. This makes it pretty hard to be an atheist in a D&D game.

While the adherents of any faith believe the existence of their deity is a given fact, having actual proof changes the way that religion is seen by outsiders. In many ancient cultures, people believed in not only their gods, but the gods of other cultures. So to win a war or conquer another culture was proof your gods were more powerful than theirs. While winning a war against another culture can make you pretty confident, winning one against another culture’s gods can make you arrogant. Add to that the fact you had warrior priests manifesting divine power on the battlefield, you are pretty soon going to start thinking that not only is winning inevitable, but that it is also a divine destiny. Again, these are all attitudes plenty of believers have had in ancient days, but in many fantasy worlds they might actually be right.

Magic vs. Prayer​

If a world has magic, it might be argued that this power is just another form of magic. Wizards might scoff at clerics, telling them they are just dabblers who haven’t learned true magic. But this gets trickier if there are things the clerics can do with their magic that the wizards can’t do with theirs. Some wizards might spend their lives trying to duplicate the effects of clerics, and what happens if one of them does?

The reverse is also interesting. Clerics might potentially manifest any form of magical power if it suits their deity. So if the priest of fire can not only heal but throw fireballs around, is it the wizards that need to get themselves some religion to become true practitioners of the art? Maybe the addition of faith is the only way to really gain the true power of magic?

Are the Gods Real?​

While divine power might be unarguably real, the source of it might still be in contention. A priest might be connecting to some more primal force than magicians, or tapping into some force of humanity. What priests think is a connection to the divine might actually just be another form of magic. As such, it could have some unexpected side effects.

Let’s say this divine power draws from the life force of sentient beings. As it does so in a very broad way, this effect is barely noticed in most populations. A tiny amount of life from the population as a whole powers each spell. But once the cleric goes somewhere remote they might find their magic starts draining the life from those nearby. In remote areas, clerics might be feared rather than revered, and the moment they try to prove they are right by manifesting the true power of their deity, they (and the townsfolk) are in for a very nasty surprise.

Can You Not Believe in Them?​

There are ways to still play an atheist character in a fantasy game. However, it does require more thought beyond "well I don’t believe in it." That's a sure way to make your character look foolish, especially after they have just been healed by a cleric.

What will also make things much tougher is having a character that refuses to benefit from the power of religion due to their beliefs. They might insist that if they don’t know what in this healing magic, they don’t want any part of it, especially if the priest can’t really explain it outside the terms of their faith. That this healing works will not be in doubt. So are they being principled or a fool? If the explanation for magical healing isn’t "this is just healing energy" but "it’s the power of my deity, entering your body and changing it for the better" the character might be more reticent about a few more hit points.

When it comes to deities manifesting on the material plane, it’s a little harder to ignore them. But this isn’t always evidence of the divine. A manifesting deity is undoubtedly a powerful being, one able to crush armies and level cities, but does that make them divine? While the power of a deity is not in dispute, the definition of what is actually divine in nature is a lot muddier. This is ironically harder in a fantasy world where lich-kings, dragons and powerful wizards can do all the same things many deities are supposed to do.

What Are Gods?​

So we come back to the question: Whether you are a cleric, adherent or atheist, of what actually is god? What quality of them demands or inspires worship beyond the fact they are powerful? Plenty of philosophers are still trying to figure that one out. While in a fantasy game their existence and power may not be in question, whether they are holy or even worthy of trust and faith might be much harder to divine.

 

[Helldritch]

Gods are an essential part of any (almost all) D&D campaigns.
Now with the bards and druids able to heal almost as good as cleric (not counting the life cleric) it is easy to see how some players can be dismissive of the gods. But the cleric is the only one that can raise the dead by default (knowledge bards... I know).

So what do I do so that Gods and cleric stay relevant in my campaign? I use a very old style approach to religion in D&D
1) If you do not worship the god of a cleric; at some point, the beneficial spells of a cleric will be saved against. A cleric might really fail to heal a character if that character is hostile. A bless might fail and so on. I do this if a player is expressively taking an hostile stance against the cleric's god. The same goes with the druid. Nonbelievers shall not have healing.

2) Bard healing is a thing. But a bard must speak with the god of the deceased (this is included in the spell) and that god must agree. An atheist has no god, so the spell will never work on them. This is well known to all my players by the way.

3) The polytheist aspect of the game makes it so that healing from a cleric is always a thing. However, worshipping the enemies of the god's cleric is taking an active stance on the cleric's gods and cure spells might simply fail. Again, you have to save against beneficial spells if you oppose the deity of the cleric.

There are advantages in following a religion. A church will help its "heroes" as best as it can. This can go from healing, discount of scrolls, holy water and healing potions. A powerful church might even go as far as taking parts of the body for a true resurrection spell in case a body is impossible to retrieve. But this is not costless. Donations must be made, missions for the church/god must be undertaken and the words of the god must be taught. To spread the word of the god (or pantheon as worshipping an entire pantheon can be a thing, depending on the campaign) is very important. If a cleric does not try to make new converts, he is simply not playing a cleric.

Entire groups were saved by a church. After a TPK in a high level adventures, the group was brought back to life by the High Priest of Rao in Mitrik, Hazen himself. Yes, the players were following the deity called Rao, peace reason and serenity. So following a religion can be extremely beneficial. Yes, the players had to restart with no magical items but the group was able to move on and start their quest anew with both the goal of taking their "revenge" but also to recover their lost goods.

 

[Cadence]

There are lots of threads about reflecting racism, bigotry, slavery, colonialism, and sexism in the game - and the merits of leaving it out vs. portraying it as evil from the narrator (DMs) point of view vs just having it be there like the narrator (DM) thinks it historically was.

I think there are people on this board who were victims of genocide carried out in the name of religion (driven from their homes, relatives killed, and other tragedies). And there are certainly those whose ancestors were conquered, and stripped of possessions and loved ones in the name of religion if they didn't immediately convert. And denied humanitarian aid if they wouldn't go to a religious building on bended knee. And there are those in my lifetime turned away from educational opportunities at religiously run schools because of LGBTQ+ status, interracial relationships, or being of another religion; or where the public schools have wanted to foist religion on those attending.

Do the worst practices of religion deserve to be treated the same way as racism and slavery and sexism? Should this be a concern in our games? Why is a militant religious or atheistic proselytizer with the sword or mace particularly better or worse than one pushing slavery or sexism or bigotry?

I'm not saying don't portray religious oppression and domination in ones game. It would be nice if it got the same sensitivity as other issues. And that those upset by it didn't need to have their characters portrayed as insane simply for not bending knee in the right way to get treated with humanity.

 

[Helldritch]

Why do folks in a fantasy world need to account for the elemental and outer planes using religion anymore than Star Trek needs it for the Borg and wormholes and transporters? Do we need religion IRL to explain rainbows and childbirth and the sun rising and the phases of the moon? Or do some use religion and some use science? On the other hand, does the fact that science can explain something mean it couldn't have been the supernatural? The thread on sci-fi and psionics has a lot of, what feels like, relevant discussion.

In a fantasy world, the crops grows because the gods of nature are doing their job! Rain falls because there is a god associated with it. The gods are not an intangible thing. Not only can you see their action and influence through their cleric's magic but you might also see them directly when they manifest. And they do manifest at times. Of course they should not do that all the time. But seeing a god might be a thing that happened a few centuries ago and it will still be talked about in a hundred years more.

Gods are not a thing of the mind in fantasy. They are real. They can act and influence the world. We are far from Sci-fy.

 

[Cadence]

In a fantasy world, the crops grows because the gods of nature are doing their job! Rain falls because there is a god associated with it. The gods are not an intangible thing. Not only can you see their action and influence through their cleric's magic but you might also see them directly when they manifest. And they do manifest at times. Of course they should not do that all the time. But seeing a god might be a thing that happened a few centuries ago and it will still be talked about in a hundred years more.

Gods are not a thing of the mind in fantasy. They are real. They can act and influence the world. We are far from Sci-fy.

Part of that feels like it depends on how the world was constructed. It feels like a world with a single pantheon covering the big things (sun, moon, sorry, ocean, etc..) is different than one that has a geographic region somewhere with each pantheon from Deities and Demi-gods in it. Do the eight sun gods take turns?

And I wonder if what is meant by worship is as different between that world and ours as is what is meant by atheism. Do they need to believe in the god any more than they do the local baron they are asking for help or mercy from?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

“WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED IF YOU HADN'T SAVED HIM?
"Yes! The sun would have risen just the same, yes?"
NO
"Oh, come on. You can't expect me to believe that. It's an astronomical fact."
THE SUN WOULD NOT HAVE RISEN.
...
"Really? Then what would have happened, pray?"
A MERE BALL OF FLAMING GAS WOULD HAVE ILLUMINATED THE WORLD.”

― Terry Pratchett, Hogfather

 

[Helldritch]

Part of that feels like it depends on how the world was constructed. It feels like a world with a single pantheon covering the big things (sun, moon, sorry, ocean, etc..) is different than one that has a geographic region somewhere with each pantheon from Deities and Demi-gods in it. Do the eight sun gods take turns?

And I wonder if what is meant by worship is as different between that world and ours as is what is meant by atheism. Do they need to believe in the god anymore.than they do the local baron they are asking for helpmor mercy from?

No they do not take turns but they work against each other. Pantheon war is a thing. A pantheon might be worship in a region and when a hostile pantheons tries to "invade" its turf, this is where you might see "strange" monsters appears such as chimera, gorgons, dragons and so on. A war might be fought both in heavens and on "Oerth", "Flanaess" and so on. This is as good an explanation as any for the presence of some of the monsters. And it might be an evil deity attacking a pantheon and so forth.

 

[Cadence]

No they do not take turns but they work against each other. Pantheon war is a thing. A pantheon might be worship in a region and when a hostile pantheons tries to "invade" its turf, this is where you might see "strange" monsters appears such as chimera, gorgons, dragons and so on. A war might be fought both in heavens and on "Oerth", "Flanaess" and so on. This is as good an explanation as any for the presence of some of the monsters. And it might be an evil deity attacking a pantheon and so forth.

If there are six gods controlling the sun, how does that work. How is it both Apollo on a chariot and Ra at the same time?

If it is multiple pantheons fighting over parts of nature, is it a lot more like fealty to mortal lord's fighting over land than devotion to a single undisputed eternal power controlling something?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Gods are not a thing of the mind in fantasy. They are real.

You are making sweeping generalisations. That might be true of some fantasy settings, but it's not true for all of them. For example, in Pillars of Eternity the gods are not real, they are fake.

They can act and influence the world.

Anyone can do that.

 

[Cadence]

Another way. If your god's clerics' actions would get a nod of approval from a Gygaxian paladin who kills all the orc babies, but regularly intentionally leave something for the Good Samaritan to clean up, then maybe the cleric isn't doing G or maybe even N work. Should a player have to RP bending knee in devotion or supplication to something that is arguably N or E?

 

[Laurefindel]

In a fantasy world, the crops grows because the gods of nature are doing their job! Rain falls because there is a god associated with it. The gods are not an intangible thing. Not only can you see their action and influence through their cleric's magic but you might also see them directly when they manifest. And they do manifest at times. Of course they should not do that all the time. But seeing a god might be a thing that happened a few centuries ago and it will still be talked about in a hundred years more.

Gods are not a thing of the mind in fantasy. They are real. They can act and influence the world. We are far from Sci-fy.

That's how I like to play it when I DM a Forgotten Realms game. One of my homebrew is the same, where the god of winter has gone mad and retreated north. Since then, nothing regulates birth, growth, death, and decay, and the world is sick because of it. Science, other that that of knowing the right ritual for the right god for the right supplication, has little to do with it.

But I play it differently in my Eberron game. That doesn't mean that inhabitants of the world don't think that the gods are responsible for crops growing and rain falling and will kick you out of town if you say otherwise, lest you anger the gods and ruin their own crops. But in my version of Eberron, the gods are moral compasses and role models. "You should be more like Aureon and abide by the laws your country young man!"

But otherwise natural phenomenons are consequences of planar forces that don't care whether you pray to them or not, forces that abide by rules that can be observed, studied, and manipulated by those with the right tools or connection to those planar forces (e.g. House Lyrandaar and their weather-affecting machines).