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]

And it's a thing in 5e as well.

A 10th level cleric can directly petition appearances from the deity and will be answered, on average, about once per ten days - a Faerunian week. Tends to make the whole "We never see the gods directly" thing a bit more problematic in settings where the gods are making an appearance every all the time.

Exactly. The deity can send an Angel or a representative or even appear in person. Hard to be an atheist after that...

 

[Cadence]

But, are those 5/6ths repeatedly insisting that that 1/6 do things for them? Flat out demanding that that 1/6th help them and then treating them badly if they don't?

The majority of individuals don't, but there are plenty of individuals and subgroups that do. Listening to the BBC world service and checking out various news sites, pretty much every day there are folks of various sized religions doing awful things to those of other religions in the names of their beliefs.

That's the part that seems to be forgotten here. The atheist character WANTS SOMETHING from the religious character, not the other way around. But, despite calling the religious character's player for being a bad player for not helping him, the atheist character's player refuses to accept any cost for that help.

Is the atheist fighter not protecting the cleric in battle? Is the atheist wizard not willing to chip in and buy supplies the cleric needs? Does the atheist bard ask anything of the cleric before healing the cleric if the cleric is dropped in combat.

On the other hand, are there not folks of other faiths who don't find the cleric's god worthy of worship. Is the follower of Ares going to kowtow to the priestess of Athena for healing?

Should the cleric of an ostensibly good god need to be supplicated to before they provide help? Gygax's paladin might very well demand it. The good Samaritan would pay some in order to help the person in need who disagrees with them on religion.

 

[Hussar]

It's almost like the player and DM should have a conversation about the social importance and immanence of the gods and powers of the campaign.

/snip

Yeeesh, sorry folks, didn't quite realize I was spamming the crap out of this thread as I was going. My bad and I will try to get everything into a single post in the future.

But, this is really an excellent point. And one that I've always struggled with. Most games I've ever run or played in are largely secular. The notion of religion just isn't a thing, mostly at all, for virtually all the characters, including the clerics quite often. For example, in a recent game I was running, one of the players, upon reaching a new level, took a level of cleric. Fine, no problem. After a couple of sessions though, I turned to the player and asked him what kind of cleric he was.

Player: War priest.
Me: Yes, I know that. But, War Priest of what?
Player: War.
Me: Umm. Yes, I understand that part. But, which god are you worshipping? How is your newfound faith affecting your character?
Player: A war god.
Me: Which one? This is Greyhawk we're in, so, there are a few choices.
Player: What gods are there?

In other words, the choice of cleric had ZERO to do with actually portraying a cleric and everything to do with adding a bit of spell casting and some powers. The player was outright baffled when I asked about the religion of his cleric.

And he's hardly the only one I've seen that from. The whole "Father Generic" cleric who might as well be a fighter with a couple of spells for all the actual religion that is shown by the player.

It's something that I find utterly baffling. How can you play a divine character and not give the first thought towards faith? The cleric who never references his or her deity, never does anything even remotely in the same zip code related to faith or religion, and probably couldn't remember the name of the deity his character is purported to follow without looking at it. It just really annoys the heck out of me because it's such a lost opportunity.

 

[Helldritch]

Ahh, but that's a bit different isn't it? If it's entirely up to the cleric (and the cleric's player) then the answer would be, sure, if the cleric decides to heal that elf, no problems.

But, that's not the issue is it? The issue is the elf is demanding that the dwarf heal the elf, to the point of claiming that the dwarf player is a bad player and disrupting the table, if the dwarf player doesn't.

Everyone seems to want to put this on the cleric player. But, if the elf player was openly mocking the dwarf's deity, had refused to even acknowledge that the dwarf's deity even existed, is it totally unreasonable for the dwarf cleric to refuse to heal the elf? Or, for that matter, for the dwarf cleric's deity to refuse to grant the spell?

And this is the main point where everything falls apart. A cleric is the direct representative of his/her deity. Mocking the deity right in the face of the cleric is calling for some serious trouble. Not only does one player do not worship his deity, but that player mocks the cleric's deity as well. If I were that cleric, not only would I not heal that character, but I would offer the group to chose between that character and myself. My God, not me, heals your wounds and this miscreant mocks and demean my deity and my actions. I would not tolerate this for any length of time.

Yes it might lead to quite an argument between two players, but respect goes both ways. And if, as a player I have to choose between the two, guess where I would go toward? The healer.

 

[Cadence]

You're presuming the the sun that rises is the same sun that rises everywhere.

So what do the characters see when they look at the sun or moon as they straddle the world in one of these worlds? How many suns do they see? What are the shadows like at the border? (I've never thought of it before and am interested to here other ideas!)

 

[Hussar]

Is the atheist fighter not protecting the cleric in battle? Is the atheist wizard not willing to chip in and buy supplies the cleric needs? Does the atheist bard ask anything of the cleric before healing the cleric if the cleric is dropped in combat.

What about NPC's?

Did that atheist fighter protect that priest in a temple from something? Never minding that the cleric also protected the fighter as well.

And, please stop trying to drag real world politics into this. It's rather transparent and completely not what we're talking about. Of course there is sectarian violence in the world. We all know that.

 

[Hussar]

So what do the characters see when they look at the sun or moon as they straddle the world in one of these worlds? How many suns do they see? What are the shadows like at the border? (I've never thought of it before and am interested to here other ideas!)

It's one sun of course. The sun is always the sun. It's turtles all the way down.

Again, you're attempting logical solutions where none exist.
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@Helldritch - I would argue that an atheist PC is pretty much openly mocking the cleric's deity. Unless, of course, the atheist PC is a total hypocrite and only believes that gods don't exist when it's convenient.

 

[Cadence]

Yeeesh, sorry folks, didn't quite realize I was spamming the crap out of this thread as I was going. My bad and I will try to get everything into a single post in the future.

But, this is really an excellent point. And one that I've always struggled with. Most games I've ever run or played in are largely secular. The notion of religion just isn't a thing, mostly at all, for virtually all the characters, including the clerics quite often. For example, in a recent game I was running, one of the players, upon reaching a new level, took a level of cleric. Fine, no problem. After a couple of sessions though, I turned to the player and asked him what kind of cleric he was.

Player: War priest.
Me: Yes, I know that. But, War Priest of what?
Player: War.
Me: Umm. Yes, I understand that part. But, which god are you worshipping? How is your newfound faith affecting your character?
Player: A war god.
Me: Which one? This is Greyhawk we're in, so, there are a few choices.
Player: What gods are there?

In other words, the choice of cleric had ZERO to do with actually portraying a cleric and everything to do with adding a bit of spell casting and some powers. The player was outright baffled when I asked about the religion of his cleric.

And he's hardly the only one I've seen that from. The whole "Father Generic" cleric who might as well be a fighter with a couple of spells for all the actual religion that is shown by the player.

It's something that I find utterly baffling. How can you play a divine character and not give the first thought towards faith? The cleric who never references his or her deity, never does anything even remotely in the same zip code related to faith or religion, and probably couldn't remember the name of the deity his character is purported to follow without looking at it. It just really annoys the heck out of me because it's such a lost opportunity.

5e doesn't require a cleric to have a deity by RAW, and suggests they can worship concepts.

In many threads others have suggested that the DM trying to make the cleric do something because the god would say so, or the warlock do something because the patron would, are stealing player agency and they would quit the game.

(The things in both of those paragraphs seem a bit odd to me, but are apparently not uncommon views).

 

[Voadam]

Ahh, but that's a bit different isn't it? If it's entirely up to the cleric (and the cleric's player) then the answer would be, sure, if the cleric decides to heal that elf, no problems.

But, that's not the issue is it? The issue is the elf is demanding that the dwarf heal the elf, to the point of claiming that the dwarf player is a bad player and disrupting the table, if the dwarf player doesn't.

Everyone seems to want to put this on the cleric player. But, if the elf player was openly mocking the dwarf's deity, had refused to even acknowledge that the dwarf's deity even existed, is it totally unreasonable for the dwarf cleric to refuse to heal the elf? Or, for that matter, for the dwarf cleric's deity to refuse to grant the spell?

As a default I'd absolutely put it on the healer (whether they were a cleric or a bard or a druid) if they decided they didn't want to heal part of the party in a presumably cooperative team D&D game.

 

[Cadence]

It's one sun of course. The sun is always the sun. It's turtles all the way down.

Again, you're attempting logical solutions where none exist.

You said it was a different sun in different places I thought.