Grumpy RPG Reviews - Blacks in Gaming

[Kaodi]

Likewise, my youngest cousin, like me, is nuts about Greek & Norse mythology. Unlike me, though, he's never expressed an interest in TT gaming- he loves his console games.

Sub-Saharan African mythology is probably about as poorly circulated as could possibly be in North America, as far as I can tell.

I have at least heard something of Abrahamaic, Greek and Roman, Norse, Egyptian, Arabian, Sumerian, Zoroastrian, Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Shinto, Celtic, Aztec, Mayan, Native Canadian and Native American, Chinese, Maori, and Voodoo religious and mythological figures. And I suspect this list would be about the same for anyone with similar interests to ours.

The Dahomey, Igbo, and Yoruba pantheons might be suitable for translation into common D&D style... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_deities

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Depends upon the branches within the services represented. I was Military Intelligence when I was on Active Duty. A lot of us MI geeks (low flying MIGs according to the combat arms guys) played RPGs, wargames, etc regardless of our race. The Artillery guys rarely played RPGs regardless of their race. And as MI I was multi-service (ie all services trained and served together regardless of where we were stationed) so I can tell you that from what I saw it was the same in the other services too (you've never played until you've had a Marine playing a paladin.)

Without trying to sound elitist, often it was the more cerebral jobs that held the gamers. Of course this generalization (like all generalizations) isn't an absolute, but it did usually play out that way. I.e. your intel, tech (repair), commo (communications), med and finance were usually your RPGers, but we had a guy in our group who was clerk.

So the military is skewed (like it is in all demographics.). But if you did a full census you would most likely find that military members are more inclined to play RPGs than the population at large, but the racial split is probably still fairly close.

Of course, part of this is because of the RPG hobby's roots in war gaming...which the military invented.

 

[Lwaxy]

The Dahomey, Igbo, and Yoruba pantheons might be suitable for translation into common D&D stylehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_deities

Has been done already, at least we have a source book that includes Yoruba and Zulu deities and mythologies. I'd have to search for it though.

My ex husband was none too thrilled about it, as a Nigerian he looked at it as white companies misusing their legends, and I got a similar sentiment from a Hindu once. Seeing what was done to Buddhist mythology at times, I can somewhat understand that. The way mythology is presented in D&D is distorted enough to plant some wrong ideas about the real thing in people's heads. So I'm not sure if including distorted versions of African mythologies would help that much or rather put people off more.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Good point.

 

[Kaodi]

My ex husband was none too thrilled about it, as a Nigerian he looked at it as white companies misusing their legends, and I got a similar sentiment from a Hindu once. Seeing what was done to Buddhist mythology at times, I can somewhat understand that.

I am sure that Native Canadians might have similar feelings about their legends being used that way, now that you mention it. I think I am less sympathetic to the notion that Hindu mythology would be somehow off limits though than I would be to the various Indigenous cultures. India is a large and relatively powerful region after all, even considering what happened with the Mughals and the British. I mean, if we take that sort of reasoning far enough, then I, for instance, would not be entitled to make use of any mythology beyond the Celtic and Norse (because my clan is descended from Norsemen in part), Abrahamaic (Christian culture) as well as maybe Greek and Roman, because of Rome's imperial history. Egyptian and Arabian, though staples of our cultural awareness, would not be something I would be entitled to use.

 

[Lwaxy]

Yeah I think it comes down to how well a religion/culture is generally known.


Although I'd prefer it if RPGs would not use names from real world religions at all, just take the general concepts and rename the deities. The books could still explain what source it is all based on.

If the GMs decide to play in a specific mythology (we played in a Zulu based setting a few years ago) they can still adapt it to the real names.

 

[Grumpy RPG Reviews]

The Dahomey, Igbo, and Yoruba pantheons might be suitable for translation into common D&D style... List of African deities - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Definitive pantheons are interesting. For one things, they are relatively rare, as much of the worlds in monotheistic or their religion is some form of spiritualism, rather than a specific set of deities.

However, I would not want a pantheon currently seeing active worship to be statted out in any game book, any more than I want someone to stat out Jesus and the Saints.

Some vague recreation with name changes, sufficient changes to the nature of a deity would be more comfortable. No one would confused Torm, Tyr and Illmater for God the Father, Jesus and the Holy Ghost for example. Such a change in the religion (so it is not a game version of the real thing) should also come with some kind of sidebar explaining what is going on behind the curtain.

 

[Lwaxy]

Exactly.

Maybe I should take that on as a project.

BTW a lot of pagan communities, mine included, still refer and revere to the old gods. I have never yet seen any pagan have any issues with a fictional version of whatever god archetype they happen to like.

 

[Kaodi]

However, I would not want a pantheon currently seeing active worship to be statted out in any game book, any more than I want someone to stat out Jesus and the Saints.

What do you mean by " statted-out " in this case? Listing their names, portfolios, and domains, or listing their big shiny monster stats?

St. Cuthbert is in fact the name of a real saint, though he does not resemble the historical version much, and St. Nicholas was in fact statted out way back at the first Christmas after the 3e release, I believe.

But beyond that, how could you set a game during a fictional version of the Crusades without statting things out in the first sense? There was in fact a Crusader Earth/Beyond Jerusalem setting in the 3e era magazines.

Giants in the Earth: Strangers in Bethlehem in Dragon #284 (Jun 2001)
Mysterious Ways in Dungeon #86 (May/Jun 2001)
Theodora's Ladder in Dragon #308
Giants in the Earth: Theodora in Dragon #308
Pilgrim's Test in Dragon #284
The Tomb in Dragon #296
Chalice of Life: The Leper's Hand in Dragon #314
Chalice of Life: Hecate's Ring in Dragon #315
Chalice of Life: The Kalif's Coffin in Dragon #316
Chalice of Life: Altar of Duzara in Dragon #317

I have that issue of Dungeon. I believe it features an artifact that is a piece of the Cross.

 

[Lwaxy]

But beyond that, how could you set a game during a fictional version of the Crusades without statting things out in the first sense? There was in fact a Crusader Earth/Beyond Jerusalem setting in the 3e era magazines.

Such specific settings are something else entirely though.