Gaming Style Assumptions That Don't Make Sense

[Starfox]

Is it as simple as, say, this ship is going to sink if we don't figure out what Poseidon is so pissed off about and appease him?

At its most basic, yes. Ancient religions were less about faith and more about ritual. This is hard to communicate. If mention religion, the players are expecting to have to be true to faith, while in my worlds its more a matter of not breaking taboos and conducting the right rituals at the right moments. Rituals which can include fighting god-sent vengeance from a god who you're supposedly in friendly terms with.

Then again, this is just MY understanding of ancient religion. Someone might have another view and play that out in his/her game.

 

[The Yellow Pill]

At its most basic, yes. Ancient religions were less about faith and more about ritual. This is hard to communicate. If mention religion, the players are expecting to have to be true to faith, while in my worlds its more a matter of not breaking taboos and conducting the right rituals at the right moments. Rituals which can include fighting god-sent vengeance from a god who you're supposedly in friendly terms with.

Then again, this is just MY understanding of ancient religion. Someone might have another view and play that out in his/her game.

Well, I'd say that jives pretty well with an Old Testament understanding of religion as well.

 

[MarkB]

At its most basic, yes. Ancient religions were less about faith and more about ritual. This is hard to communicate. If mention religion, the players are expecting to have to be true to faith, while in my worlds its more a matter of not breaking taboos and conducting the right rituals at the right moments. Rituals which can include fighting god-sent vengeance from a god who you're supposedly in friendly terms with.

The concept of religious faith in a world where the gods' influence and power is an easily-recognisable part of everyday life can get weird anyway. What's the point of having faith in the existence of a divine being when he manifested over the entire city just last week to make a proclamation?

In such a setting, I tend to think that faith is more about believing that a particular god or pantheon aligns with your own worldview, and has the values you care about at heart in his/her/their actions.

And I'm not sure I've ever played in a game which truly portrayed the rather indiscriminate way in which the gods of, say, Ancient Greece were portrayed as wielding their power.

 

[Jhaelen]

Personally, I feel polytheistic religions are often portrayed wrong in D&D. The way I see it, almost everyone should pay obeisance to each and every deity that might be even remotely related to an action they intend to undertake. It just makes sense to improve your odds as much as possible; why take any chances?
In settlements and along major travel routes, shrines should be at every corner, and temples dedicated to a single deity should be exceedingly rare.
I believe it to be more of an all-or-nothing thing. Either you believe in the gods or you don't (and I'm not sure the latter even exists; I consider it more likely someone decides to defy the gods, rather than actually disbelive they exist).

 

[MarkB]

Personally, I feel polytheistic religions are often portrayed wrong in D&D. The way I see it, almost everyone should pay obeisance to each and every deity that might be even remotely related to an action they intend to undertake.

Aren't the Greek gods, in particular, rather well known for a certain degree of spiteful jealousy? I could easily see some of them getting annoyed with a mortal if he prayed for their benevolence in a venture, and then turned around and prayed to some other god or goddess for the same thing.

 

[Starfox]

Aren't the Greek gods, in particular, rather well known for a certain degree of spiteful jealousy? I could easily see some of them getting annoyed with a mortal if he prayed for their benevolence in a venture, and then turned around and prayed to some other god or goddess for the same thing.

Greek gods are jealous of mortals, but not of each other. If a mortal fails to pay devotion to Poseidon and Nereus before a sea voyage, either might be angry. But Zeus won't care if his devoted follower pays respects to either.

 

[Umbran]

Greek gods are jealous of mortals, but not of each other.

*blink*

Dude, the entire Trojan War was started because gods were jealous of each other. "For the Fairest" and all that?

And, Zeus and Hera - the Labors of Heracles, all because Hera was jealous of Zeus' philandering?

 

[Starfox]

They were personally jealous yes... Come to think of it, they were jealous of each others' domains too... I recall Poseidon threatening to invade the sky with the sea or something similar at some point. So yes, they were personally jealous. My point was that they rarely interfered in each others' functions and domains, but that may be more polytheistic practice than actually Greek myth.

I stand corrected.

 

[Jhaelen]

Aren't the Greek gods, in particular, rather well known for a certain degree of spiteful jealousy? I could easily see some of them getting annoyed with a mortal if he prayed for their benevolence in a venture, and then turned around and prayed to some other god or goddess for the same thing.

Well, I'm not an expert, but I don't think so. I think it's a greater risk to forget about a god that might be 'in charge' of the thing I'm praying for.

When I wrote the above, I was thinking in particular about local deities (e.g. a river god) vs. major deities, representing universal forces (i.e. all rivers, or bodies of water). But there's also a case of opposite domains that might be trickier, e.g. making a sacrifice to a god of disease to spare you, and then praying to a god of healing to grant you good health.

 

[innerdude]

(Totally deviating from the topic of Greek and Roman pantheons......)


Here's the biggest style assumption that has never made sense to me as I've experienced it first-hand----

My primary play group is all-in on Savage Worlds as our primary game.

My secondary group, on the other hand, is head-over-heels in love with GURPS.

But to this day I can't figure out their abiding love for it, because without fail they push and push and poke and prod against GURPS' general, built-in playstyle assumptions: "realistic," real-world characters and situations, combat is deadly and to be avoided.

Instead of taking GURPS' general assumptions at face value, they instead do everything in their power to play against them. Anything less than a 300-point starting character is considered "totally gimped" and nigh-unplayable by them (for reference, GURPS 4e suggests 125-150 points qualifies as more-than-competent starting point). They love the detailed, deadly nature of combat, with active and passive defenses......but then force themselves to take every advantage in the book to mitigate that deadliness. "Your character is useless without High Pain Threshold, Combat Reflexes, and a movement score lower than 7. Why would you even bother making a character without them?"

I honestly can't figure out why they're so in love with GURPS, because really, they don't want to play GURPS, they want to play a superheroes game where they're just that much better than everyone else.

Which would also make sense, considering that their 2nd favorite games are all made by White Wolf, which basically are games about undead "superheroes" living in the real world, trying to deal with their own dark morality.

I keep thinking maybe they should just switch to HERO.