Making Religion Matter in Fantasy RPGs

Religion is a powerful force in any culture and difficult to ignore when creating a gaming setting. Here's some things to consider when incorporating religions into your campaign.

Picture courtesy of Pixabay.​

The Question of Gods​

When we look at religion from a gaming perspective, the most interesting thing about it is that in many settings, the existence of deities is not in question. One of the most common arguments over religion is whether there even is a god of any form. But in many fantasy games especially, deities offer proof of their existence on a daily basis. Their power is channelled through clerics and priests and a fair few have actually been seen manifesting in the material realm. This makes it pretty hard to be an atheist in a D&D game.

While the adherents of any faith believe the existence of their deity is a given fact, having actual proof changes the way that religion is seen by outsiders. In many ancient cultures, people believed in not only their gods, but the gods of other cultures. So to win a war or conquer another culture was proof your gods were more powerful than theirs. While winning a war against another culture can make you pretty confident, winning one against another culture’s gods can make you arrogant. Add to that the fact you had warrior priests manifesting divine power on the battlefield, you are pretty soon going to start thinking that not only is winning inevitable, but that it is also a divine destiny. Again, these are all attitudes plenty of believers have had in ancient days, but in many fantasy worlds they might actually be right.

Magic vs. Prayer​

If a world has magic, it might be argued that this power is just another form of magic. Wizards might scoff at clerics, telling them they are just dabblers who haven’t learned true magic. But this gets trickier if there are things the clerics can do with their magic that the wizards can’t do with theirs. Some wizards might spend their lives trying to duplicate the effects of clerics, and what happens if one of them does?

The reverse is also interesting. Clerics might potentially manifest any form of magical power if it suits their deity. So if the priest of fire can not only heal but throw fireballs around, is it the wizards that need to get themselves some religion to become true practitioners of the art? Maybe the addition of faith is the only way to really gain the true power of magic?

Are the Gods Real?​

While divine power might be unarguably real, the source of it might still be in contention. A priest might be connecting to some more primal force than magicians, or tapping into some force of humanity. What priests think is a connection to the divine might actually just be another form of magic. As such, it could have some unexpected side effects.

Let’s say this divine power draws from the life force of sentient beings. As it does so in a very broad way, this effect is barely noticed in most populations. A tiny amount of life from the population as a whole powers each spell. But once the cleric goes somewhere remote they might find their magic starts draining the life from those nearby. In remote areas, clerics might be feared rather than revered, and the moment they try to prove they are right by manifesting the true power of their deity, they (and the townsfolk) are in for a very nasty surprise.

Can You Not Believe in Them?​

There are ways to still play an atheist character in a fantasy game. However, it does require more thought beyond "well I don’t believe in it." That's a sure way to make your character look foolish, especially after they have just been healed by a cleric.

What will also make things much tougher is having a character that refuses to benefit from the power of religion due to their beliefs. They might insist that if they don’t know what in this healing magic, they don’t want any part of it, especially if the priest can’t really explain it outside the terms of their faith. That this healing works will not be in doubt. So are they being principled or a fool? If the explanation for magical healing isn’t "this is just healing energy" but "it’s the power of my deity, entering your body and changing it for the better" the character might be more reticent about a few more hit points.

When it comes to deities manifesting on the material plane, it’s a little harder to ignore them. But this isn’t always evidence of the divine. A manifesting deity is undoubtedly a powerful being, one able to crush armies and level cities, but does that make them divine? While the power of a deity is not in dispute, the definition of what is actually divine in nature is a lot muddier. This is ironically harder in a fantasy world where lich-kings, dragons and powerful wizards can do all the same things many deities are supposed to do.

What Are Gods?​

So we come back to the question: Whether you are a cleric, adherent or atheist, of what actually is god? What quality of them demands or inspires worship beyond the fact they are powerful? Plenty of philosophers are still trying to figure that one out. While in a fantasy game their existence and power may not be in question, whether they are holy or even worthy of trust and faith might be much harder to divine.

 

[Filthy Lucre]

My training being in philosophy and religious studies I feel compelled to speak on this topic since it's been brought up. It's something I think about a lot outside, but also inside, of D&D. So, below I'll explicate how, and why, I do things the way I do in my own home game:

1.) A "god/goddess" is, at rock bottom, a very, very, very powerful entity who has a belief about how things should be and of what it means to "live a good life" - and those are the tenets of their faith/religion. This helps explain, or at least make more plausible, the existence of evil gods. For example, Pelor might think that serving the poor and being charitable is what makes "a good life". However, Erythnul thinks that doing whatever you want and taking whatever you want is what constitutes "a good life".

1a.) The gods are very distant. Despite having very clear ideas about how things should be, the gods - both good and evil - end up using a light touch. The reason for this is sort of like M.A.D., (Mutually Assured Destruction). If every god/goddess decided they were just going to force things to be the way they want, then every other god/goddess has that much more reason to do the same. They end up in a sort of arms race which could actually destroy the world - something that none of the gods want.

1b.) These means that there is a sort of 'divine politics' that answers the question "Why don't the gods just solve every problem?". Because if any one god started to try and unduly change the world, all the others would have reason to turn on them.

2.) Why does what they think/believe matter? Well, it matters because they're very powerful and are all, more or less, trying to shape the world into what they believe is ideal. Because, in a very broad sense, the 'good' gods agree on many things it's very easy for them to cooperate even while trying to stump for their own areas of interest. By their nature, the 'evil' gods typically struggle to cooperate for very long because their beliefs are more or less selfish rather than communal.

2a.) Another reason is that all gods help shepherd people onto the afterlife and ensure that no souls are lost along the way to the abyss/demons/devils who are anxious to bolster their own ranks and power. If you sign up for team Pelor, you kind of need to act the way he wants you to if you want him to help ensure your soul gets to the afterlife.

2b.) A consequence of this: gods don't actually know what happens when someone dies. They help you get there, but not even they actually cross all the way over. The abyss and the celestial realm are not 'afterlife' destinations. They're more like worlds unto themselves that have a very particular moral bent. Disgaea: Hour of Darkness touches on this. While rare, there are evil angels and also good demons. In a 'science fiction' context you could think of angels and demons as being good/bad aliens. They're very powerful and very knowledgeable... but they can't do anything and they don't know everything.

2c.) This also demonstrates why liches and vampires are evil: they are perverting the natural order, (going to whatever the afterlife is), and causing undue/unnecessary suffering. They won't be annihilated when they die but they still choose to harm people to preserve their mortal/earthly lives. (If complete and total annihilation is on the table I don't see how liches and vampires could be considered ultimately evil - they're just trying to survive. This model removes that excuse. They survive no matter what, but they also want to pick how they survive.)

3.) Not going to get into it here in any detail, but I would argue all of this does have a catch: Just because you have lots of gods doesn't mean you don't also have a God. However, contemplating "the one" or the fundamental source of all reality is mostly left to very rare mystics, scholars, and philosophers. Normal people ain't got time for that when they've got hard lives to lead and need to put food on the table.

Thank you for coming to my ted talk.

 

[Voadam]

My training being in philosophy and religious studies I feel compelled to speak on this topic since it's been brought up. It's something I think about a lot outside, but also inside, of D&D. So, below I'll explicate how, and why, I do things the way I do in my own home game:

1.) A "god/goddess" is, at rock bottom, a very, very, very powerful entity who has a belief about how things should be and of what it means to "live a good life" - and those are the tenets of their faith/religion. This helps explain, or at least make more plausible, the existence of evil gods. For example, Pelor might think that serving the poor and being charitable is what makes "a good life". However, Erythnul thinks that doing whatever you want and taking whatever you want is what constitutes "a good life".

That's an interesting take.

What is the motivation for tying the good life philosophic question into gods?

What would you do with Gods like say the Greek God of the East Wind Eurus, or the Roman God of Doorways, duality, beginnings, transitions, and endings Janus? It would seem tough to come up with a good life philosophy for their classic portrayals leaving options of either delving deep into research on them to come up with myths or associations that could be a possible life philosophy, making some up, or excluding these types of gods from your pantheon.

I think it is an interesting approach but not necessary to plausibly explain evil gods. Ares is partially a personification of an evil thing, the barbarity and cruelness of the horrors of war. While I can see him enjoying the excess of war, I don't see it as more explainable if he thinks of himself as leading the good life or that there is a should about it compared to simply selfishly enjoying it because he is a sadistic thrill seeking carnage-ophile by nature. Evil gods like Eris's family don't seem like they need much justification beyond gods are personified concepts in divine being form.

 

[Filthy Lucre]

What is the motivation for tying the good life philosophic question into gods?

Because it gives them a reason to be active in the world and care about things that are not themselves.

What would you do with Gods like say the Greek God of the East Wind Eurus, or the Roman God of Doorways, duality, beginnings, transitions, and endings Janus? It

Nothing. But, most of those things can easily be spun into ideas, life lessons, and philosophies on how to live a good life. However...

would seem tough to come up with a good life philosophy for their classic portrayals leaving options of either delving deep into research on them to come up with myths or associations that could be a possible life philosophy, making some up, or excluding these types of gods from your pantheon.

... I never said that my system would allow you to import any concept into it. I said "this is how I do things and why". If some real world myth you're partial to doesn't work in my system... oh well I guess?

I think it is an interesting approach but not necessary to plausibly explain evil gods. Ares is partially a personification of an evil thing, the barbarity and cruelness of the horrors of war. While I can see him enjoying the excess of war, I don't see it as more explainable if he thinks of himself as leading the good life or that there is a should about it compared to simply selfishly enjoying it because he is a sadistic thrill seeking carnage-ophile by nature. Evil gods like Eris's family don't seem like they need much justification beyond gods are personified concepts in divine being form.

Why does Ares do anything then? If the answer is "because he wants to", that's a pretty boring answer. How do I build a church around that?

The fact that I represent gods as being extremely distant seems to be the point you're missing. The gods almost never actually directly intervene in the world, and when they do it's subtle, rare, and possibly imperceptible. Instead, there's a great focus on how you ought to actually live your life: "Yondalla teaches that humble simplicity ultimately leads to the greatest happiness".

All of this is just a literary device so that you can have multiple, real gods, without having to constantly stumble over the question of why they don't solve every problem. Because their motives and their means are checked by other gods motive's and means.

 

[TheSword]

I think my preference is for religion to thoroughly not matter in my games.

 

[Filthy Lucre]

I think my preference is for religion to thoroughly not matter in my games.

So what do you do with clerics and paladins?

 

[cbwjm]

I think my preference is for religion to thoroughly not matter in my games.

Even when players run clerics and such, I think it often doesn't. You could have a single page write up of all the gods, what they represent and the Domains they offer and that would work just as well as a single page write up on each god. Players will often just say, which god do I follow that grants this domain I want to play and then that will be it.

 

[Umbran]

2. The player puts some emphasis on their religious character's daily rituals, calendrical observances, pilgrimage plans/goals, etc.

I think that emphasis on their actual religious philosophy or ideals, and how that impacts their choices in the meaningful moments of play, would be far more impactful.

 

[TheSword]

So what do you do with clerics and paladins?

Have them act like clerics and paladins. Not fret about atheism, whether gods exist, what gods are, whether divine magic and arcane magic are different etc etc etc.

I suspect most players really don’t care about this existential stuff. Unless you’re playing Planescape and the nature of gods becomes a matter of plot.

I’ve always thought avatars and meeting the gods on their home plane was a bit twee to be honest.

 

[Filthy Lucre]

I think that emphasis on their actual religious philosophy or ideals, and how that impacts their choices in the meaningful moments of play, would be far more impactful.

This is exactly what I'm trying to achieve with my method.

 

[Filthy Lucre]

Have them act like clerics and paladins. Not fret about atheism, whether gods exist, what gods are, whether divine magic and arcane magic are different etc etc etc.

I suspect most players really don’t care about this existential stuff. Unless you’re playing Planescape and the nature of gods becomes a matter of plot.

I’ve always thought avatars and meeting the gods on their home plane was a bit twee to be honest.

So do I - that's why I make them so distant. But, at my table, I have a hard time taking a cleric or paladin seriously if they don't engage with some sort of moral/religious/behavioral code.

This sentence "Have them act like clerics and paladins. Not fret about atheism, whether gods exist..." seems incoherent to me since caring about the gods is, IMO, required/assumed as part of cleric-ness or paladin-ness. "Acting like clerics and paladins" requires you to fret about the gods.