D&D 5E The Bible Is A New 5E Setting

Oofta said:

Well, there's also the simple solution that the PCs don't know what's going to happen.

Like I said, this isn't really for me, but it would be odd to have the PCs directly cross paths with JC. How do you RP that?

Click to expand...

You can go the more historical approach, rather than the religious, and meet more than one, since Jesus is supposed to be a composite, or combination, of several rebel figures of the time.

Enevhar Aldarion said:

You can go the more historical approach, rather than the religious, and meet more than one, since Jesus is supposed to be a composite, or combination, of several rebel figures of the time.

Click to expand...

We probably can't go there, but this isn't a widely held theory. I am not saying it is right or wrong, but it isn't the mainstream historical consensus.

Enevhar Aldarion said:

You can go the more historical approach, rather than the religious, and meet more than one, since Jesus is supposed to be a composite, or combination, of several rebel figures of the time.

Click to expand...

There's a lot of conjecture on the entire topic, but the target audience is probably going to go with the traditional narrative.

Enevhar Aldarion said:

You can go the more historical approach, rather than the religious, and meet more than one, since Jesus is supposed to be a composite, or combination, of several rebel figures of the time.

Click to expand...

yeah thats not a popular theory, but yeah Yeshua was a really common name at the time and as we see with John the Baptist, there were also lots of itenerant preachers around too.

As to meeting Yeshua, the book/film The Robe does a great job of telling a fictional story where the PCs are the the household of the Roman Centurion who oversaw the crucifixion (and won the dice game to possess Yeshuas robe).

Oofta said:

Well, there's also the simple solution that the PCs don't know what's going to happen.

Like I said, this isn't really for me, but it would be odd to have the PCs directly cross paths with JC. How do you RP that?

Click to expand...

Especially if it's during the scene where this NPC is actively disturbing a lawful activity within the temple of the setting's main god's ground. How would/should a PC (being, at this point, granted divine magic by that same setting's god) is supposed to react? How does the character (and the player) realize that the NPC disturbing the peace is actually right in the metaplot because he got instructions directly from the setting's god? What if the PCs roll really well on their Persuasion roll to ask him to stop?

Avoiding railroad is easier if the PCs don't meet any high level NPCs at all. Because the same problem goes with many named NPCs: having the governor of the setting's secular authority turned into a newt by a Baleful Polymorph-happy PC group would lead to a blatant deviation from the metaplot. Same if some players use OOC knowledge to preemptively off a certain follower of the NPC...

Galandris said:

Especially if it's during the scene where this NPC is actively disturbing a lawful activity within the temple of the setting's main god's ground. How would/should a PC (being, at this point, granted divine magic by that same setting's god) is supposed to react? How does the character (and the player) realize that the NPC disturbing the peace is actually right in the metaplot because he got instructions directly from the setting's god? What if the PCs roll really well on their Persuasion roll to ask him to stop?

Avoiding railroad is easier if the PCs don't meet any high level NPCs at all. Because the same problem goes with many named NPCs: having the governor of the setting's secular authority turned into a newt by a Baleful Polymorph-happy PC group would lead to a blatant deviation from the metaplot. Same if some players use OOC knowledge to preemptively off a certain follower of the NPC...

Click to expand...

most scholars consider that to be the main action that lead to Yeshua arrest - Yeshua was crucified a week later.
it’s speculated that the Romans didn’t act for fear of riots from the poor Jews flooding into the city - plus the Roman soldiers couldn’t be bothered intervening in Jewish affairs.
(It’s also possible that this particular event was an exemplar Of a series of Riots by Yeshua/Johns followers)

but yeah it does require certain NPCs to get auto saves AND for certain DND Magic’s to not exist

I don't see major NPCs/Plotlines in this setting any different than I would major NPCs/Plotlines in any published setting: a discussion at the table how and what is canon and if it it is alterable. I for one would let the players know that they would be unable to kill the Messiah in Star Wars. Its the same with LOTR. It just won't happen. And one way to deal with that is to keep the adventures on the margins of the canon. But I don't think that has to happen, it just makes what the group does matter more because their choices matter.

And if after that discussion a player attempted to kill canon NPC/Plot line, they would quickly find themselves out of my game.

"Rule of thumb, Hassan: You can't kill the Messiah."
-Kane

The Prophet Isaiah obviously played Dungeons & Dragons (from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, Chapter 3):

2 The mighty man, and the man of war, the judge, and the prophet, and the prudent, and the ancient,

3 The captain of fifty, and the honourable man, and the counsellor, and the cunning artificer, and the eloquent orator.

Tallifer said:

The Prophet Isaiah obviously played Dungeons & Dragons (from the Book of the Prophet Isaiah, Chapter 3):

2 The mighty man, and the man of war, the judge, and the prophet, and the prudent, and the ancient,

3 The captain of fifty, and the honourable man, and the counsellor, and the cunning artificer, and the eloquent orator.

Click to expand...

I was checking out the Hebrew original (Isaiah 3.2):

גִּבּוֹר וְאִישׁ מִלְחָמָה שׁוֹפֵט וְנָבִיא וְקֹסֵם וְזָקֵֽן

I would translate this as:

"Hero and soldier of war, judge and prophet and enchanter (wizard!), and elder".



The "enchanter", Kosem קֺסֵם , relates to divination, whence enchantment, magic, and wizardry. It reminds me of the Middle English term "fairie", meaning magic, but deriving from "fate". Fortelling a fate came to associate using words to alter fate, whence speaking to produce magical effects. Specifically, the Kosem uses various techniques to self-induce a trance, and then speaks a fate while in the trance.



Magi = "mage" = magic-user

Relating to the original post, The Bible setting features the three "magi" that visit Jesus when he was a child. Going by the Greek term Magos, it is ambiguous whether this refers to the Magu, who is a member of a Zoroastrian priestly sacred caste in Iran, or else refers to the Magos, who is a "mage" in various places across the Hellenistic world. In his encyclopedic work, Naturalis Historia, Plinius hates the Hellenistic mages and describes them in some detail. They seem to use protoscientific methods that exploit the magical properties that are inherent in natural objects.

Are the "Magi" of the New Testamant to be understood as Iranian Magu priests or else Hellenistic Magos magic-users?

Judging by the Septuagint Greek translation of the Book of Daniel, the Greek term Magos is used to translate the Hebrew-and-Aramaic term Ashaf אשף , which is a member of the imperial court in Babylon. From this textual source, the story of the Magi probably refers to the Ashaf, and doesnt refer to the Zoroastrian Magu priest.

In other words, the three magi are literally three "mages". Probably from in or around Babylon. The New Testament describes them using astronomy, astrology, and dream interpretation, as examples of the magical techniques these Babylonian mages were known for. Astrology is central to Babylonian cosmology. And these three magi are probably Babylonian versions of Hellenistic mages. The magi are magic-users.