Introducing fantasy RPGs to religious players

[WayneLigon]

Only twice have I ever encountered a strongly religious gamer - the others have all been either very relaxed about their faith, atheists, or agnostics.

For the first SF was the way to go. Now, to me, I never could understand that since most SF is also polytheistic or blatently atheistic but that was the way he could wrap his head around things and still be able to participate in a hobby he liked. It doesn't have the whole 'magic' angle and the differing religions that would arise is something that can be glossed over and ignored. Star Wars might be a little too mystical for him, so maybe try something along mecha?

For the second (who was much more hard-line than the first guy), it was superheroes. Again, it was a case of 'this is far anough removed from fantasy that I can wrap my head around it' since supers also features magic-using characters and such but religion as a topic virutally never comes up.

I think it's a really good sign that he wants to game and wants to learn so he's obviously not caught up in the 'all roleplaying in whatever form is evil' that I've encountered.

Two other things that come to mind are Westerns and Espionage genres. Maybe look into Spycraft?

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

If I was interested in getting them to try gaming, then yes. I would ask the other players if they have any interest in getting person X to try out gaming, and if so, to respect their needs for those sessions.

If you WANT to introduce someone to gaming, what harm is there in changing your game and game table to suit this introduction? Why not give it a try, see if it works, and at least give person X the chance to discover gaming?

Why coddle people? Like I said, tolerance is a two-way street. I don't think setting 'I won't make you eat this cheeseburger if you don't sit there and call me a murderer' as a middle ground (mmm...ground beef) is unreasonable.

In this situation, several people asked the OP to introduce them to gaming, and one might have a problem with religious elements. He didn't corner them in the office kitchen and stuff dice in their hands.

Honestly, though, I think we're skirting too close to the point where personal political and religious beliefs come into play. I'll stop here.

 

[Voadam]

The problem is, one of the players is a devout Muslim. He is the guy who is the most interested in gaming. However, he is also freaked out by the blatant polytheism in many fantasy worlds - when I suggested a D&D game set in the Forgotten Realms and explained the religious cosmology, he said that he "only wanted to watch in that case".

So for my WFRP adventure, I will simply hand-wave religion away in the beginning and make no references to temples and faiths. This isn't fully satisfactory, of course - the religions of the Warhammer World are an important part of the overall tapestry of the setting. After a few adventures, I will talk to that player again and I'll see if he is comfortable with introducing religious topics - or not. We'll see what happens after that.

Sounds like a fine approach. D&D can work just as well as WFRP IMO, simply use godless clerics instead of god following ones. Dungeons and cities don't really need gods.

 

[Odhanan]

However, in Warhammer, you could easily tweak the religion, in making it a monotheistic faith as in our real world, but keeping the numerous demon-gods who are not on par with God, and act (as it should) as supernatural enemies that must be fought.

The "Gods" could also be the Saints of a Monotheistic variant.

Or you could allow the guy to create a "Muslim wanderer" kind of character that could at will look at this/these religion(s) with utter mistrust.

Point is, there are two things for this player to realize: 1/ he can create whatever character types he wants with whatever faith he wants. You'll work it out as the GM. 2/ It's a fiction. There aren't any "real" religions in WFRPG.

Once this player understands both concepts, he'll be fine. Just be cool and comprehensive, and he'll relax after a while.

 

[S'mon]

I would avoid fantasy like the plague to start with, especially WFRP! The very basis of the Warhammer world is polytheistic, and filled with cults worshipping false gods, etc.

False gods - this is why I say it's apparently (on evidence given) far more suitable for this player than Greyhawk or Toril would be. Some Christians can't stand to read CS Lewis, but most find his morality tales of heroes battling against corrupting evil supernatural forces perfectly ok. From OP's description it's the "these gods are the real gods" bit of polytheist settings he doesn't like.

 

[jtone]

I had a similar problem with some of my players. It's largely because of their difficulties with gods, demons, and such that I used Arcana Unearthed/Evolved. Gods play such a minor part in that setting that it's easy to just ignore them completely. Now that the players have been gaming for a while, they'd probably be okay with a standard D&D setting. However, leaving religion out of the setting made a huge difference for overcoming that initial reluctance to play.

They were a little nervous about magic so, by their own choice, we started out with no PC magic users. That meant that I had to handwave healing and avoid certain encounter types, but it gave the players time to get comfortable with the game.

 

[Ibram]

The best thing to do is to sit down and talk with the guy. Tell him about the campaign world, encluding the gods. However I would strongly recomend that you flat out ask him if this will be a problem at first. Just let him hear about how you use divine magic in your campaigns.

The last thing you want to do is have it seem like you are making a big deal about the guys faith. If it seems like the idea of a polytheistic world troubles him, then you can talk about that specificly.

From my personal experience I've never had trouble with someone who was "devout" and interested in playing D&D. Those who would have a problem with the polytheism are usualy uninterested in playing the game in the first place.

 

[S'mon]

If someone was a rabid vegetarian and said 'Oh, I want to game, but the other players can't eat meat at the table', would you force the others to accomodate them? (This, by the way, actually happened to me once in college.)

No, 99% sure I'd tell him to find another group, but I wouldn't mock him for making the request.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Well, I had a DM (he's Jewish) who introduced two devout Christians to DnD. They didn't care too much about the deities in the game - one played a LG cleric, and one played a wizard to whom religion meant nothing.

Try Eberron. Tell him only the Silver Flame really exists. Ok, that doesn't work if you don't like Eberron, though.

Remind him that it's make believe.

 

[Vraille Darkfang]

(Try teaching people to game at a fundamentalist Bible college if you really want a challenge! )

Cedarville OH, perhaps? Where I grew up. Not the most gamer-friendly town in the world.

Some demoniations of Muslim, Judaism & Christianity that I've encountered would consider the very IDEA of pretending to be a cleric of another god a minor no-no. Catholics & confession is maybe a way to look at it.

He's got his beliefs, that's find. Don't try to accomadate him specifically if its to the expense of the other players. If you can fine, just don't drive everyone else off.

As for being against poly-theism. The Forgotten Realms is Mono-theistic. There's AO & there's all his lesser 'beings'.

Just tell him there is one god, the Overgod Ao, and all the other 'gods' are just very powerful beings who must abide by his rulings or their 'god' status will be revoked.

FR might be the easist world to fit a poly-theistic system under the umbrella of monotheisim.

As Ao is all powerful, grants no spells, and has only openly appeared once during the Time of Troubles. In fact all the other 'gods' of Fearun act more like Epic Level Characters than gods.

So go on, run FR. Let him decide if he can game, or to what extent, and still be confortable with himself.