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.

 

[Voadam]

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

That's the why explanation that was missing. From your intro about your philosophy and religious studies background I thought your reasoning was going to tie into those in some explicit way.

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

... 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?

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 way the Greeks did with their practices? Tie rituals and sacrifices into Ares' different aspects to try to get him to do stuff or refrain from doing bad stuff and to maintain the existing relationship between mortals and Olympians.

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.

The distant gods not intervening would seem to work well with gods not actually caring about how things should be or the good life.

I would think that giving them a reason to be active in the world and care about mortal people beyond themselves would work against them being distant and non-interventionist. They would have more of a reason to try to be closer and directly intervene. Particularly if you are someone like Heironeous who can be seen as an exemplar of stepping in to right wrongs as a paladin.

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.

I would think it is more the distance rather than the philosophy aspect.

If the gods are up in Asgard fighting the Jotuns of Jotunheim, they are less likely to solve the mortal problem of the evil emperor in the east of Midgard.

 

[Cadence]

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.

I would have at least thought it included fretting about what the god they worked for wanted. At some tables requiring that steps on the players perogative to control what their character thinks and is ruled out in session 0 (see also Warlock pacts having any impact or requirements on character actions).

 

[Filthy Lucre]

The distant gods not intervening would seem to work well with gods not actually caring about how things should be or the good life.

I would think that giving them a reason to be active in the world and care about mortal people beyond themselves would work against them being distant and non-interventionist. They would have more of a reason to try to be closer and directly intervene. Particularly if you are someone like Heironeous who can be seen as an exemplar of stepping in to right wrongs as a paladin.

See my MAD bullet point.

"If Heironeous is going down there to do stuff, then so am I!"
"Well, if they're going down there to do stuff, then so am I!"
"Well if all of them are going down there to do stuff, then so am I!"

This system requires the gods to work in subtle, political, indirect ways - working through their worshipers to effect their vision rather than enforcing it themselves. Threading the needle of the gods being present but not TOO present.

 

[Bluebell]

There are lots of threads about reflecting racism, bigotry, slavery, colonialism, and sexism in the game - and the merits of leaving it out vs. portraying it as evil from the narrator (DMs) point of view vs just having it be there like the narrator (DM) thinks it historically was.

I think there are people on this board who were victims of genocide carried out in the name of religion (driven from their homes, relatives killed, and other tragedies). And there are certainly those whose ancestors were conquered, and stripped of possessions and loved ones in the name of religion if they didn't immediately convert. And denied humanitarian aid if they wouldn't go to a religious building on bended knee. And there are those in my lifetime turned away from educational opportunities at religiously run schools because of LGBTQ+ status, interracial relationships, or being of another religion; or where the public schools have wanted to foist religion on those attending.

Do the worst practices of religion deserve to be treated the same way as racism and slavery and sexism? Should this be a concern in our games? Why is a militant religious or atheistic proselytizer with the sword or mace particularly better or worse than one pushing slavery or sexism or bigotry?

I'm not saying don't portray religious oppression and domination in ones game. It would be nice if it got the same sensitivity as other issues. And that those upset by it didn't need to have their characters portrayed as insane simply for not bending knee in the right way to get treated with humanity.

I think that's exactly why it's important for both players and DM to beware of making this all a little too real in the game.

Because this cuts both ways: there are many people who are religious minorities who are the victims of bigotry as well. Just as it would be potentially an awful experience for a player with religious trauma to be forced to play out religious practices that are too similar to their own experiences, it would also be awful for a player who's experienced oppression for their religion to have another player's character berate them for their beliefs.

I personally think it's important to include religion in my settings and characters because religion is simply a facet of culture. But that definitely doesn't mean it shouldn't be dealt with sensitively.

 

[Umbran]

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.

For paladins, this really isn't true in 5e. Their Oaths can be religious in nature, but do not have to be.

 

[Hussar]

IRL, isn't the largest denomination under 1/6th of the world's population?Is every religious person on the planet spending all of their time telling the (at least) other 5/6th they're wrong and not using support services offered by them?

But, are those 5/6ths repeatedly insisting that that 1/6 do things for them? Flat out demanding that that 1/6th help them and then treating them badly if they don't?

That's the part that seems to be forgotten here. The atheist character WANTS SOMETHING from the religious character, not the other way around. But, despite calling the religious character's player for being a bad player for not helping him, the atheist character's player refuses to accept any cost for that help.

 

[Hussar]

So what? your character doesn't have to say what they think. You can respect other people's beliefs even if you think they are wrong.

But, again, you WANT something. You are demanding that the cleric heals you and blesses you. You are insisting that the cleric's player is a bad player if the cleric's player doesn't accede to your demands.

This is on you.

 

[Hussar]

If there are six gods controlling the sun, how does that work. How is it both Apollo on a chariot and Ra at the same time?

If it is multiple pantheons fighting over parts of nature, is it a lot more like fealty to mortal lord's fighting over land than devotion to a single undisputed eternal power controlling something?

You're presuming the the sun that rises is the same sun that rises everywhere.

And you're presuming that there is a single explanation for the sun in a fantasy setting where the gods are real. Expecting a rational logical explanation for things in that setting is simply not going to get you very far.

 

[Hussar]

Yeah... the swan thing... but we need the demi-gods don't we? And they must come from somewhere...

As for the second part.
You do not need to travel the planes to meet the gods. In 1ed the clerics meets their god everyday they pray for 5th level spells and up. There is no:" I do not know what my god want" at high level. It is more: "I know exactly what my god expects from me". And the clerics have the mean to back up their claim. The "miracle" aspect of the cleric class can come in handy. No casting, no dispelling.

And it's a thing in 5e as well.

A 10th level cleric can directly petition appearances from the deity and will be answered, on average, about once per ten days - a Faerunian week. Tends to make the whole "We never see the gods directly" thing a bit more problematic in settings where the gods are making an appearance every all the time.

 

[Hussar]

When it comes to clerics does anyone require that healing is only for followers of the same deity or pantheon? If, say the cleric is a dwarf and the person needing healing is an elf, they probably worship different gods. Does it matter that the elf doesn't revere Moradin? Isn't it enough that the dwarven cleric decides that the elf needs healing?

Ahh, but that's a bit different isn't it? If it's entirely up to the cleric (and the cleric's player) then the answer would be, sure, if the cleric decides to heal that elf, no problems.

But, that's not the issue is it? The issue is the elf is demanding that the dwarf heal the elf, to the point of claiming that the dwarf player is a bad player and disrupting the table, if the dwarf player doesn't.

Everyone seems to want to put this on the cleric player. But, if the elf player was openly mocking the dwarf's deity, had refused to even acknowledge that the dwarf's deity even existed, is it totally unreasonable for the dwarf cleric to refuse to heal the elf? Or, for that matter, for the dwarf cleric's deity to refuse to grant the spell?