Introducing fantasy RPGs to religious players

[I'm A Banana]

I see no reason why the same, or a similar, notion couldn't be applied to pretty much any existing setting.

I'm not knocking how you're doing it, it seems to work really well for you and you should keep it up.

However, for me it simply is a matter of Reality and Fantasy and the stark division between them. What I create in the game is completely unrelated to reality except as much as anyone's imagination is. In the same way I don't want a Christopher Columbus in my made up, imaginary game, I don't think, for me, that any real concept of God needs ot have any kind of bearing on it. Those are both real things that no game could really do justice to.

For me, the reason that it can't be applied to any setting is because that's real. And the settings are not. The settings are imagination. Religion is real.

 

[Dr. Harry]

Plenty of Christians (like, all Protestants) believe Saints are unnecessary/irrelevant/nonexistent, but their clearly subordinate status makes them different from polytheism AFAICS.

To be accurate, like many Protestants. Lutherans, Anglicans (& Episcopals &Methodists) along with other denominations venerate saints.

It is certainly not polytheism but use of the saints (obviously not appropriate for the case that started all this) allows for different domains available through different "connections". ("Sources" would be an inaccurate term.)

 

[Campbell]

To be accurate, like many Protestants. Lutherans, Anglicans (& Episcopals &Methodists) along with other denominations venerate saints.

It is certainly not polytheism but use of the saints (obviously not appropriate for the case that started all this) allows for different domains available through different "connections". ("Sources" would be an inaccurate term.)

To be fair, Anglicans, are not in the strictest sense Protestant. My understanding is that the Anglican Chruch's schism from Catholicism occurred prior to the Protestant Reformation and had very little to do with a move away from the dictates of a central church. I'm sorry if this response veers to far off topic.

 

[Arrgh! Mark!]

Play a D20 Modern or spycraft game. Even the Urban Arcana setting shouldn't be too bad. Try a murder mystery or even strange attacks because of secret government testing or some nonsense.

From there, see how it goes. Thats my advice. I wouldn't suggest fantasy if there even could be problems, simply because of it's polytheistic nature. Don't try a historical game unless you have the knowledge to actually do it.

Try something simple.

 

[Victim]

We have a seminarian (guy studying to be a Catholic priest) in our group who has no problems with made up religions.

 

[Baron Opal]

For what it's worth, the official position of the Episcopal church is that D&D and the like are merely games. As long as they don't become an obsession or addiction, they're fine.

My wife and I were attempting to rent the church's hall for a mini-convention and a couple of the parishioners had their feathers ruffled. Our priest mentioned the church's official stance and that his children played the game in their youth. The way smoothed considerably after that.

 

[S'mon]

To be accurate, like many Protestants. Lutherans, Anglicans (& Episcopals &Methodists) along with other denominations venerate saints.

Strange, I went to Anglican church every week for 2 years and I don't recall ever venerating a saint. Maybe Church of Ireland is different from other Anglican churches?

 

[S'mon]

To be fair, Anglicans, are not in the strictest sense Protestant. My understanding is that the Anglican Chruch's schism from Catholicism occurred prior to the Protestant Reformation and had very little to do with a move away from the dictates of a central church.

No, it happened in the 16th century (post Reformation) and was due to Henry VIII wanting to remarry.

 

[Shades of Green]

- I have considered a science fiction setting, but those tend to have a rather large learning curve until you have a grasp of the equipment, culture, and society. Fantasy, especially pseudo-historical fantasy like Warhammer, is much easier to get into.

Depends on the sci-fi game being played. IMHO Traveller could be a very good introduction to sci-fi gaming (and gaming in general) as most themes, technology and culture will be quite easy to understand to anyone who've read aa few 1960's/1970's sci-fi books and watched the classsics (e.g. Alien, Aliens, Dune and Star Wars). Just avoid the adventure called "Divine Intervention" as it has very superficial and incorrect implementation of religion. Classic Traveller is moderately easy to learn, but I'd recomment Traveller D20 (T20) for players with D20 experience.

 

[Aus_Snow]

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".

You know, this strikes me as weird. I always assumed that most 'hardcore' religious folk would (if they were going to have a problem with RPGs at all) say no at the point where the setting includes details that are too similar to parts of their own faith (but with irritating, blasphemous or stupid differences/mistakes etc.)

It would simply make more sense to me. But as I'm not, and have never been religious per se, I wouldn't know what it's like to have that perspective.

So, for those of you who have introduced deeply religious players to gaming: Did you have any similar problems? Did you have to make some adjustments to the fantasy world to avoid stepping on anyone's toes?

I've never "introduced deeply religious players to gaming". But, I've introduced one religious person to it - Christian as it so happens. No problems there. She's pretty cool with a whole range of stuff, from polytheism through celestials and fiends, to soulless reanimation and the power of the arcane challenging the gods themselves. For example.


My best advice, such as it is, would be to talk it through with the guy. Just ask, straight up, what's acceptable and what's not, and (in brief) why, in each case. If you can both work out acceptable and feasible boundaries to work within, well and good. If not, well... hm. That'd be difficult.

Good luck, and I hope he lets up a little. Really, I can't see any reason why a deeply religious person can't also be open-minded in the area of roleplaying. "It's only a game, dude!" ('n all that.)