I think it is very important, it is a game of good and evil, gods and demons walk beside the players, the players can become demi-gods. Can the game be played without, yes.
Importance of Religion in the Campain
- Thread starter Dog Moon
- Start date
mhacdebhandia
Explorer
I don't intend to ever run a campaign where religion is done a la the apparent D&D default.
The last setting I was working on - and I freely admit that my ideas have rarely come close to practicality, to date - featured an adaptation of the standard D&D cosmology similar to that used in Eberron, though I came up with it myself before the setting search was announced.
To put it simply: the gods are remote, and therefore the sects of various religions have no way of discerning which set of beliefs are correct. This was a deliberate attempt to replicate the doctrinal conflicts you see in real-world religion.
Myths, practices, attitudes - all would vary from sect to sect within the same religion, much less between religions.
The last setting I was working on - and I freely admit that my ideas have rarely come close to practicality, to date - featured an adaptation of the standard D&D cosmology similar to that used in Eberron, though I came up with it myself before the setting search was announced.
To put it simply: the gods are remote, and therefore the sects of various religions have no way of discerning which set of beliefs are correct. This was a deliberate attempt to replicate the doctrinal conflicts you see in real-world religion.
Myths, practices, attitudes - all would vary from sect to sect within the same religion, much less between religions.
DonTadow
First Post
I've tended to see most campaigns have something or another to do with gods, faith based missions or quests against great evils.
In my campaign I wanted to get away from that. Clerical magic in my campaign comes from the divine aura good of the world, not the god's. However, it is human behavior to attribute such things to God's (which the church/government that runs the world does). Whereas the PCs of my gaime believe that they are directly opposed by evil gods with good gods on their side, the real story is that the people agasint them are using stories and mythos to drive their cause and those whom need the pcs help are doing the same thing.
It has little to do with teh gods as much as it does using the story of gods to drive their cuase. In truth the god's have had little to do with Chrystaria for centuries.
In my campaign I wanted to get away from that. Clerical magic in my campaign comes from the divine aura good of the world, not the god's. However, it is human behavior to attribute such things to God's (which the church/government that runs the world does). Whereas the PCs of my gaime believe that they are directly opposed by evil gods with good gods on their side, the real story is that the people agasint them are using stories and mythos to drive their cause and those whom need the pcs help are doing the same thing.
It has little to do with teh gods as much as it does using the story of gods to drive their cuase. In truth the god's have had little to do with Chrystaria for centuries.
Religion is very important in every campaign I run.
I'm guessing your main problem with "religion" in your campaign is that you imagine religion in the way our culture deals with it in modern times. Here are a few suggestions that might help you to make this thing relevant in your campaign:
1. Remember: the gods and outsiders are real. There is no dispute about that. Everyone has to deal with them because they affect day to day life. Angering a god can cause bad weather, seismic activity, defeat in battle, etc. Obviously, it is very important for everyone in every sector of society that is subject to the whims of the gods/fate to either gain the favour of important gods or protect themselves from them.
Think of dealing with the forces the gods control in your world the way people in the modern world think about dealing with epidemic diseases or climate change.
2. Until the 18th century, many of the services we associate with government were carried-out by the church. They ran all the family law courts, dealing with marraige, divorce, property transfer, etc. They ran all the hospitals and almost all the schools too. As with things like crop failure, war and natural disasters, healthcare, education and the legal system affect everyone and are a matter of public interest.
3. The principle of divine right has, on and off, been an important one and not just a Christian one. Often, to be truly recognized as a king, one needs to be consecrated as such by religious officials.
4. Philosophies, political ideologies and religions have been hard to distinguish from one another for most of their histories. If people want society to work a particular way, or the government to run a particular way or for people to live a particular way in their day to day lives, it is often because one or more gods thinks this is a good idea.
If you're just getting the hang of how to make religion matter, start with these areas where the relevance of religion should be an obvious and self-evident truth. I might also recommend you look at some second edition Runequest materials which are excellent on this stuff, especially the Cults of Terror, Cults of Prax, Pavis and Big Rubble supplements. They give you a picture of an RPG society where religion is a big part of everyone's day to day life.
One last simple suggestion from a campaign I ran a few years ago: if you make your wizards' guild a tightly-controlled religious organization, religions should have a near-complete monopoly on magic in your society. That means that if you don't do what your cult wants, you can't really obtain rare material components, access to magic libraries or the right to purchase magic items.
I'm guessing your main problem with "religion" in your campaign is that you imagine religion in the way our culture deals with it in modern times. Here are a few suggestions that might help you to make this thing relevant in your campaign:
1. Remember: the gods and outsiders are real. There is no dispute about that. Everyone has to deal with them because they affect day to day life. Angering a god can cause bad weather, seismic activity, defeat in battle, etc. Obviously, it is very important for everyone in every sector of society that is subject to the whims of the gods/fate to either gain the favour of important gods or protect themselves from them.
Think of dealing with the forces the gods control in your world the way people in the modern world think about dealing with epidemic diseases or climate change.
2. Until the 18th century, many of the services we associate with government were carried-out by the church. They ran all the family law courts, dealing with marraige, divorce, property transfer, etc. They ran all the hospitals and almost all the schools too. As with things like crop failure, war and natural disasters, healthcare, education and the legal system affect everyone and are a matter of public interest.
3. The principle of divine right has, on and off, been an important one and not just a Christian one. Often, to be truly recognized as a king, one needs to be consecrated as such by religious officials.
4. Philosophies, political ideologies and religions have been hard to distinguish from one another for most of their histories. If people want society to work a particular way, or the government to run a particular way or for people to live a particular way in their day to day lives, it is often because one or more gods thinks this is a good idea.
If you're just getting the hang of how to make religion matter, start with these areas where the relevance of religion should be an obvious and self-evident truth. I might also recommend you look at some second edition Runequest materials which are excellent on this stuff, especially the Cults of Terror, Cults of Prax, Pavis and Big Rubble supplements. They give you a picture of an RPG society where religion is a big part of everyone's day to day life.
One last simple suggestion from a campaign I ran a few years ago: if you make your wizards' guild a tightly-controlled religious organization, religions should have a near-complete monopoly on magic in your society. That means that if you don't do what your cult wants, you can't really obtain rare material components, access to magic libraries or the right to purchase magic items.
Stormborn
Explorer
My group has 3 campaigns that we play in a nonorderly rotation.
In my homebrew game (a low-magic swashbuckling game) religion, at least initally, has very little to do with daily life. Most people belong to a powerful heirarchical monotheistic (technically dualistic but lets not get into that) church whose primary influence is temporal power. The church coins the money and arbitrates dispuites between the ruling houses. This, however, is a realtively modern situation, lasting only a few hundred years. In the distant past the world was more like the DnD standard, with gods that walked the earth. No longer. However, as the PCs are learning, the ancient struggle of the gods, and would be gods, is on going.
In a more standard DnD game run by someone else, the PCs home land has been invaded by an agressive theocracy that worships a generally LN god, whose followers are more frequently N or E than G. The human PCs worship "the Nine", a set of archetypal beings. My PC, a paladin whose order was champions of a long destroyed city and nation, has strong ties to angelic beings from whom he derives his powers. However, religion is more often politics than anything else.
In Iron Kingdoms, the 3rd game, religion is very important. Healing is limited, and with a lot of it depending on who you worship. We are playing through the Witchfire Trilogy (great setting but I have major issues with the adventure as written) and religion has come up, a lot. Devout followers can also get boons depending on which saint they follow.
In my homebrew game (a low-magic swashbuckling game) religion, at least initally, has very little to do with daily life. Most people belong to a powerful heirarchical monotheistic (technically dualistic but lets not get into that) church whose primary influence is temporal power. The church coins the money and arbitrates dispuites between the ruling houses. This, however, is a realtively modern situation, lasting only a few hundred years. In the distant past the world was more like the DnD standard, with gods that walked the earth. No longer. However, as the PCs are learning, the ancient struggle of the gods, and would be gods, is on going.
In a more standard DnD game run by someone else, the PCs home land has been invaded by an agressive theocracy that worships a generally LN god, whose followers are more frequently N or E than G. The human PCs worship "the Nine", a set of archetypal beings. My PC, a paladin whose order was champions of a long destroyed city and nation, has strong ties to angelic beings from whom he derives his powers. However, religion is more often politics than anything else.
In Iron Kingdoms, the 3rd game, religion is very important. Healing is limited, and with a lot of it depending on who you worship. We are playing through the Witchfire Trilogy (great setting but I have major issues with the adventure as written) and religion has come up, a lot. Devout followers can also get boons depending on which saint they follow.
WizarDru
Adventurer
barsoomcore said:
Have you ever read The Valus? One of the best treatments of religion EVAR, IMHO. Probably not to as many folks tastes (and I'm pretty sure it wouldn't work for use in Barsoom, in any event).
Dogmoon2003 said:
1. Massively important. One of the PCs is literally known as The Living Saint. At 25th level, he is nearly an avatar of Pelor's divine will on Oerth. A core thread of the campaign has been his relationship with Pelor and his potential apotheosis (long story). The meta-story of the campaign concerns battles to free dread Tharizdun from his prison and the interaction of various forces of evil. In one story arc in pursuit of this goal, the players revived and freed an god thought long dead, who later in turn brought about an outsider war that was fought on the Prime, with celestials, abyssals and infernals waging open warfare...and creating a third force, the Judges, while becoming a new permanent major deity on the prime. Metaphysics and church procedure have played a major role in the game. The party paladin is a chosen servant of a goddess, while the druid is in constant turmoil between the goddess he worships and great powers he protects, such as the World Tree, the First Ash and Grove in the Land of Black Ice. Sometimes, these roles come into direct conflict.
2. Make it a relevant part of the setting. Highlight a holy festival as a backdrop to a visit to a town; have a lord unavailable while he is worshipping; have the players come into contact with petitioners and missionaries; show conflicts between sects, either as an adventure plot point, or backdrop for flavor; GIVE THE PLAYERS A REASON TO CARE ABOUT IT. Each group has a tolerance and comfort level for the inclusion of such material...talk to the group and discover what it is. They may not be involving themselves, simply because they see little benefit/reward to it. Have them feel the touch of the divine. Perhaps an avatar of a deity puts their feet on a path for his own reasons; perhaps several deities are fighting each other, but using the PCs and others as pawns in their game; perhaps a deity sends a non-worshipper PC a vision, imploring (or compelling) them to help in some endeavour.
You don't have to go Sepulchrave's route, but add just a little bit of flavor and you'd be suprised what happens.
I'm A Banana
Potassium-Rich
Aww, man, where to begin....
Let's just say my character's faiths define them perhaps more than mere race, class, or alignment....they provide the WHY for the WHAT, in one way or another. And with all the work I do on deities, with PrC's, feats, and the "magic items are replaced by inherent gifts from your chosen deity that are part of your character", it gets a bit hardcore....
Let's just say my character's faiths define them perhaps more than mere race, class, or alignment....they provide the WHY for the WHAT, in one way or another. And with all the work I do on deities, with PrC's, feats, and the "magic items are replaced by inherent gifts from your chosen deity that are part of your character", it gets a bit hardcore....
Aust Diamondew
First Post
Fairly important. People reguarly make sacrifices, say prayers and attend festivals devoted to the dieties, even if they aren't clerics. 99% of people believe in the Gods.
