Defining Religions in Your Campaign

Dr. Ninian Smart’s Seven Dimensional model of Religion is an excellent tool for world building and crafting your own religions. This article introduces the seven dimensions and how to use them in your game.

Picture courtesy of Pixabay.​

What’s a Religion, Anyway?​

The problem with defining religion is that there are a lot of things humans do that are very similar. Many actual religions suffer from definitions that insist worshiping a god is an important factor. Some don’t have any gods and a few don’t offer what they would consider worship. Essentially, religion is a pretty mixed bag, and if you want to model it accurately in your games some of the fundamentals may surprise you.

Smart’s seven dimensions offer seven aspects that every religion will have in at least some form. For instance, the Ethical and Legal dimension might be one rule saying ‘Be nice to each other’ or a twenty volume legal treatise detailing a rule for every aspect of life. But as long as the faith has at least something, it has that dimension covered. So, when designing a religion of your own, make sure you cover at least one aspect of each dimension.

So, with that introduction out of the way, let’s take a look at the seven dimensions themselves:

Ritual​

All religions have some form of ritual, but it can take many forms. Personal prayer or meditation is very common, as are larger rituals like masses. Festivals also have a ritualistic component, making carnivals and bacchanals just as important in some religions. Ritual can be a group affair or individual practice, and be something anyone can do or something that requires a priest of some form. Most offer some form of ritual for at least birth, death and marriage at least. In a fantasy game, such rituals can easily offer magical effects as much as being simple ceremonies.

Narrative and Mythical​

People turn to religion for answers to the big questions, like, where do we come from and how the world was made. Even if it concentrates on the here and now, a certain amount of cosmology is usually required. As many deal with life after death in some form, the detail of what that is, and how it can be possible comes under this dimension. Essentially, this dimension helps the adherent find their place in the universe. Many religions have a wide range of stories and myths, often to either present the gods as heroes or offer moral guidance.

Experiential and Emotional​

Faith always connects to people on an emotional level. This experience can range from several people falling on the floor at a wave from a priest to the simple peace felt when entering a church. A religion needs to make you feel something, often at least a fellowship or a connection to the divine.

What will differ between religions is the sort of emotions that it mainly tries to inspire and how it goes about it. The Sith value rage and anger as a way to channel the power of the force, but the Jedi value peace and tranquillity so they can connect to the force through meditation.

Social and Institutional​

Like any gathering of a lot of people, religion has some logistical and administrative concerns. This dimension covers how a religion is organised among its adherents. Are there any hierarchies or special responsibilities, and if so who performs them? Even if the religion has no priests or leaders, someone might be needed just to remind people when it is time to pray or look after the holy book. Most have at least some form of priesthood, and within that priesthood may be several ranks. After all, unless the deities regularly manifest, someone is going to need to make decisions for the faith in the community.

Ethical and Legal​

Perhaps the most contentious dimension, the ethical one offers the rules of the religion. These are usually codified very specifically, but they can be simple and broad or very specific. In a pantheistic religion the rules might be shared by all the gods, or each one might have their own amendments and/or full sets of their own.

The amount and tone of the rules will depend on the faith. Some religions have a vast array of rules to ensure that adherents must always be considering them, and therefore their faith, almost every hour of every day. Other faiths might simply offer the rules as guidance for keeping the community together peacefully.

In most cases these rules are only ever enforced by the community at large, rather than being arrestable offences. But offending the community by breaking them might lead to social exclusions or even banishment. Essentially, these rules are designed to ensure everyone lives together peacefully and harmoniously to the tenets of the faith and for their own personal enlightenment. However, they are rarely up for discussion if anyone has a problem with just one or two.

Doctrinal and Philosophical​

Similar to the ethical and legal rules are the doctrines of the religion, this dimension focuses on the general principles those rules are derived from. For instance, the Doctrinal dimension details what is required for a happy life, and the Ethical dimension then puts that doctrine into the rules you must follow to achieve such a life. Where it is often hard to argue with the rules of a religion, its doctrine and philosophy might be widely discussed, and even challenged. There may be strictures detailing the level of learning/faith/experience required to be allowed to engage in debate, but others might welcome healthy discussion. Just as some adherents might be wary of the ‘holes in the argument’ and dislike seeing them discussed, others might believe that their doctrine is too strong to worry about a few malcontents.

The doctrine and rules of a faith are usually collated in some way, commonly as a holy book of some form. But many religions rely on oral traditions and pass such learning down by teaching and storytelling. Usually the more complex the doctrine and rules the more likely it is to be written down, but this is not always the case.

When it comes to holy books, these can come in many forms. Some are collections of teachings, others of stories, some resemble legal texts. This will often depend on the style of the faith and how important the book is. Some have a single text, while others also reference collected stories from the lives of leaders and prophets to help understand and clarify the rules and ethics of the holy book those leaders wrote or received.

Material​

This dimension is the easiest to see as it represents what physical items are part of the religion. All religions make some sort of mark. It might be the founding of many places of worship, to small roadside shrines, to sacred symbols or holy books. Even religions that emphasise freedom from possessions still offer small trinkets or particular clothes for adherents. Such items not only give the adherent something to physically hold as a representation of their faith in times of crisis, but also mark them as adherents and show the world how widespread the faith is.

Material items will always depend on what the faith declares appropriate. Some might insist building vast churches to show the glory of their deity is important. A god of travellers might just have a few roadside shrines to offer blessings. Sun gods might insist on vast stone circles or cairns that have particular effects when the sun strikes them at certain times of the year. The same goes for the personal dress of both priests and adherents. Do the priests wear grand robes to show they are special or dress simply to show they are no better than those they lead? Do adherents wear particular colours, and do they change across the year as the seasons change? Various holy symbols might be cast in gold or worn as small carved necklaces.

As the physical representation of a religion, it is the material items that are usually attacked by its enemies first. So a religion in hiding will often rely on special symbols to mark places of worship, shrines or practitioners so they can maintain their community.

In Your Campaign​

With these building blocks, you can now flesh out any religion in your campaign. Remember that you can have any emphasis on any of these dimensions, as long as there is at least something for each. Dimensions can also vary within religions. Some adherents of the same faith might just offer simple prayer, while others are screaming for redemption in mass gatherings. Most real world religions have different sects and cultural practices within them and there is no reason yours should be different, especially as these differences are often a source of conflict that might lead to story and adventure for your characters.

 

[LordEntrails]

Something @jgsugden is getting at and I was going to comment on; this Smart's model is nice and all, but is really not where one need to start when considering religions in a fantasy RPG. Some of the first things to decide before you can start detailing the religions are;

• Are gods real? How are they real? Are they mortals raised to immortality?
• What's the cosmology/metaphysical?

And it goes from there

 

[Voadam]

Can someone give an example of the ethical and legal and the doctrinal and philosophical aspects of what we know about classical Greek and Roman polytheistic religion?

Those are aspects I normally associate with classical culture and philosophy in general and not with the religion in any specific fashion.

 

[Crimson Terrain]

Can someone give an example of the ethical and legal and the doctrinal and philosophical aspects of what we know about classical Greek and Roman polytheistic religion?

Those are aspects I normally associate with classical culture and philosophy in general and not with the religion in any specific fashion.

The dominant religious practices tend to have a very strong influence on those aspects of culture often being completely inseparable from each other. Particularly in older cultures and religions. Less so in our modern highly connected world but still a significant factor.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Something @jgsugden is getting at and I was going to comment on; this Smart's model is nice and all, but is really not where one need to start when considering religions in a fantasy RPG. Some of the first things to decide before you can start detailing the religions are;

• Are gods real? How are they real? Are they mortals raised to immortality?
• What's the cosmology/metaphysical?

And it goes from there

I think your questions are actually covered by this model in the Narrative and the Doctrinal sections.

Also, you don't necessarily need those answers at the beginning. It could emerge during play.

 

[jgsugden]

Sounds like you have an impressive amount of information documented for your campaign world. I'm envious but it's downright horrifying to consider the process of compiling such a collection into one primary document.

It isn't compiling/bringing together so much as initially organizing and then adding systemically. If you start with a well organized core, then building onto it is pretty easy.

The alternative of having to hunt down information in such a widely distributed system however might make that nightmare worth it at some point soon.

There is a lot of hunting to be done, sadly, because I have things in separate documents. If it doesn't register on the main document, which does not include every little bit of information persent in the other documents, it can be a pain to remember the details of something that I vaguely remember setting up years earlier. Having it in a single wiki would solve that issue, but every time I've decided to start moving it I've begun to realize how many hours it would take to do so, even if I use an automated approach, and how much 'clean up work it'd require.

Also, I hope you have someone to pass all of that amazing work on to one day. I know sharing my creations is one of my favorite aspects of ttrpgs other than the design and actual play.

The actual files are under lock and key, although I often summarize the publicly available info for a player when they build a PC from an existing location, or that worships a God. The secrets should remain secret.

I gave a copy of the files to a friend that moved away to Texas - and they later 'used some of it for inspiration' (which is a polite way of saying, "Yeah, I never used it."). I had another friend that moved away to Canada with no plan to ever return to my area ask for it and he really read it ... and then moved back to my area and wanted to rejoin my campaign world. However, he knew all the secrets. I brought him back in to the setting, and his in depth knowledge (which astounded me - the dude knew a lot of stuff I had totally forgotten about) was something I had to factor in to the storylines and characters he could play (I've since moved and only occasionally play with my old groups). After those two incidents, I decided not to share further - preserving the mystery is the best approach.

Further, I wouldn't want to rob someone of the fun I've had building this world. I think that stock settings are great for inspiration, and are great ways to bring an experienced player into an existing group for test runs - but having your own world with depth and unique mysteries that only you know - until some PCs eventually uncover it - is a fun element that not all DMs get to experience. For example, there is a secret organization in my world. I remember the day I thought them up, why I thought they should exist, and how they'd function. They evolved some over the years, and they influenced many games ... but it took 25 years before I ever spoke the name of the organization out loud to a player. Three months later the group discovered a lot more about how the organization works, why it existed, etc... That night, one of the players (who had played with me off and on over many years) and I sat down after the game and he worked out a lot of the ways in which this organization had influenced entire campaigns he had enjoyed, and which NPCs were actually agents of the organization. It wasn't an 'in game' moment, but that evening was one of the best times I've had in D&D as I watched him puzzle out things from two decades of games. It would have been much harder to have that evening if I'd just been running the Forgotten Realms since the Grey Box was released.

I've likely spent as much time world crafting as I have DMing for the setting - and I have a lot of fun doing both.

I'm happy to share my tool set and techniques, and I've talked about the widely known lore of my world often - but I'd rather see people build their own world than copy my lore.

 

[Voadam]

The dominant religious practices tend to have a very strong influence on those aspects of culture often being completely inseparable from each other. Particularly in older cultures and religions. Less so in our modern highly connected world but still a significant factor.

Can you think of any example of polytheistic classical religion ethical and doctrinal elements according to this model?

I am having trouble thinking up some, the closest I am getting are mythology morals such as stories involving the gods with a point like divine retribution for comparing yourself to the gods. That is not quite religious practices though on its own.

 

[LordEntrails]

I think your questions are actually covered by this model in the Narrative and the Doctrinal sections.

Perhaps, but I don't see it as outlined by the OP.

Also, you don't necessarily need those answers at the beginning. It could emerge during play.

Not necessarily, but it depends what those answers are. And, as a DM, I would want to know that answers even if the players and characters don't, otherwise you are developing the world in response to the players & characters at a fundamental level.

i.e. if you don't now if gods really exist, then what do you do with a cleric that wants to worship the One God? If you don't even know if gods exist (and have power) and if their is actually more than one such entity, how do you empower divine magic? There are answers to this, but that imo is not something I would want to determine during play.

 

[Voadam]

Perhaps, but I don't see it as outlined by the OP.

Not necessarily, but it depends what those answers are. And, as a DM, I would want to know that answers even if the players and characters don't, otherwise you are developing the world in response to the players & characters at a fundamental level.

i.e. if you don't now if gods really exist, then what do you do with a cleric that wants to worship the One God? If you don't even know if gods exist (and have power) and if their is actually more than one such entity, how do you empower divine magic? There are answers to this, but that imo is not something I would want to determine during play.

That seems more directly a question of what powers clerics. If it is gods then gods are necessary. If it is belief then you don't need to know if gods are real, belief in a false god will do it. If it is divine power that clerical spellcasting taps then gods might or might not exist and non theistic religious casters will work as will theistic ones.

You can go the Eberron route and have the existence of gods be a theory but ultimately a mystery but still have clerical magic work for a variety of belief systems.

 

[gamerprinter]

While Jonathan McAnulty detailed much of the religions of my published Kaidan setting of Japanese Horror (PFRPG), in the Gamemaster's Guide to Kaidan. As the concept creator and developer of the setting, I didn't focus on the actual religion itself, rather how life and the afterlife, the rules of tenmei work (reincarnation cycle) which was derived from the Buddhist reincarnation cycle, (called Zaoism, kind of a cross between Zen and Dao, in name only). So I focused on the actual cosmology and cosmic integration with a social caste system (the mechanics of how the religion actually functions, cosmically), less so on actual ritual and practice. Though it is derived from Buddhism, without Nirvana, only the reincarnation cycle (and it's broken, cosmically speaking) - it is a horror setting.

Also the truth behind the religion as it cosmically works, is mostly kept secret from the general public.

I have a detailed post about it in the D&D 1e Non-Japanese Elements of OA thread on the upper part of the 3rd page, elsewhere on ENWorld, rather than repeating all that information here.

Since I only wrote "term papers" for my inclusions in the various chapters of the GM's Guide, Jonathan wrote the meat of that and could explain how our religions specifically function ritually - however, it closely emulates Buddhist worship.

So I guess what my contribution to this thread is, is neglible at best.

 

[Amrûnril]

Something @jgsugden is getting at and I was going to comment on; this Smart's model is nice and all, but is really not where one need to start when considering religions in a fantasy RPG. Some of the first things to decide before you can start detailing the religions are;

• Are gods real? How are they real? Are they mortals raised to immortality?
• What's the cosmology/metaphysical?

And it goes from there

I think this makes sense if you want the nature of divinity to be the main focus of a seting or campaign narative. If that's not the case, though, I'd argue that the sociological questions are a lot more important. Plenty of campaigns will never feature direct contact with gods, but almost all of them will feature interactions with religious people.